Real Estate Investing: Where do I get my leads?

The most important part of real estate always comes back to finding leads. If you have no leads you have no deals and without deals you will make absolutely nothing. I know when I first started in real estate investing; I gave up real quickly because I could not get any leads. After putting up bandit signs and taking them down each and every weekend, I was not only exhausted, but I did not get any leads. Sure I had a few calls, but it was nowhere near the amount of calls that I had wanted. Now, that is not to say that bandit signs do not work because they absolutely do!

So, back to the topic: Where do I get my leads?

Bandit Signs Bandit Signs do work. The success you will receive using bandit signs depends on a few things, mainly location, size, reach, and what the sign reads.

Location: Your signs need to be where people driving will actually have a chance to read the sign not just be able to see the sign. I have paid people to put up signs for me and I have never been as mad as I was when I was driving and saw one of my signs on the side of a 55mph road. There was no stop sign, no stop light, there was no reason why anyone driving on that road should ever see that sign. Clearly the best spots for signs are at 4 way stops that have a lot of traffic. Whether traffic stops for a stop light or a stop sign does not matter that much, but it does make a difference. Think about it! At a stop light everyone stops, the traffic backs up, and then everyone goes at the same time. Well, at least they are all hopefully moving slow at this point. But, if you can find a high congestion four way stop with a stop sign, everyone will see the sign. Every person must stop, then go, then stop, then go; until they actually reach the stop sign, they have plenty opportunity to read your sign and write down the number. So the keys to sign location are high congestion areas where traffic is forced to stop!

Size: Size is important. If your sign is too small to read from a distance, then the person reading the sign may not have time to get the number, which does you no good. One thing you could also do that may help in this situation is to have a website. Every real estate investor should have a website, but that is a whole different article. Make your website with a catchy name. It is much easier to remember a catchy name than a phone number. That is of course unless your phone number actually does spell something catchy. The point is, your sign needs to be big enough so that those driving by will take a few steps; first notice your sign, then read your sign, and then actually write down the number!

Reach: By reach I mean your signs need to be everywhere. The point is they may see the sign and be thinking about it. But when they see your signs all over town, it gets put into their heads. Not to mention if they missed the number, well they will see your sign again 200 yards down the road and have another opportunity to read the number. Believe me, when you start looking for bandit signs, you will notice a lot more than you thought.

What the sign reads: Now this is important and encompasses not only what the sign reads but how it is presented. If you are a foreclosure investor, get signs that say