STEP FIVE – SOURCING THE DEAL
How do I find investors?
So now you’ve got your investment area, you’ve found a cracker of a deal and it’s all priced and packaged up ready to go. Now you need someone to sell it to. Just as any business, the key to a successful, ongoing business is finding quality individuals and investors to source to. You want to build up a database of quality investors that you can source deals to quickly and efficiently.
There are plenty of ‘armchair investors’ out there; people who prefer a hands-off approach to investing. The trick here is finding them, building credibility and spending the time to build genuine rapport.
You will also need to do a little of your own due diligence on them; as much as they are trying to get to know you, this is also your opportunity to get a feel for them. You want to know that you can work together and that they will hold up their end of the deal. You’ll have to ensure they have the funding they say they do, and are ready to go when the deal can proceed.
“When working with investors you want to follow one golden rule; under promise and over deliver. You want to WOW them with your work together so they come back for more. Keep your word, always deliver what you say you’ll deliver. Have pride in what you do” – Roger, SMP Co-founder
Current Network
First of all, tap into your current resources. If you already invest in property yourself, it’s like you have a network of people around you. Keep a source pack of a current or previous deal to hand at all times, and you’d be surprised by how many people request to see it once you start talking. Most people are fed up with the 0.5% – 1% they can earn in the bank and would love to have an income-generating property. They just may not have the inclination, time or knowledge to do so – you do.
Friends and Family
The same goes again for your friends and family. You make people money; be proud of that. Share your journey with the people around you, help them understand how your business works and the returns people are seeing, and they too will want to invest themselves.
Networking Events
Local business and property networking events are a great place to meet new investors; particularly those who may be cash rich, but time poor. A lot of individuals who would like to get into property attend these meetings, and again may not have the time or experience that you do. This is exactly when you can offer value. If you have great deals to offer, there will be someone at these networking events who wants to buy them. Websites such as Eventbrite and Meetup are a great place to find upcoming meetings.
Top tip:
Join property groups on Facebook to get directly to people interested in what you offer.
Online
For finding quality investors, online platforms including your website and social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn prove to be incredibly useful tools. It is crucial that you and your business has an online presence; in the modern digital era looking a company up online is often how we ascertain its credibility. Use Facebook and other digital platforms to showcase you, your brand and what you offer. Post before and after pictures of the deals you have worked on, ask current clients to provide you a testimonial and engage with the people who follow you. When you then post a great deal, you’ll have the investors coming to you.
Source My Property Investor Database
The importance of a quality investor database cannot be stressed enough. This is your income source; these are your clients. Over the years, working alongside some other quality sourcing agents, we’ve experienced how difficult this step can be. We recognised that for us all to be successful we needed to pull our resources. And that’s exactly what we did.
Source My Property is now a well-recognised brand and sourcing agents who we work with closely can become an accredited SMP sourcing partner. This gives them access to our nationwide SMP investor database. SMP work together as a team to answer any questions to ensure more deals are sold. We also share our deals amongst us so we can select the very best that are available.
At Source My Property Academy, we offer comprehensive training in how to get your sourcing business up and running. We’ve pulled together all of our experience, drawing on fantastic opportunities – and biggest mistakes – to help others who want to become sourcing agents learn how to do this the right way, from the very beginning. We emphasise the need for professionalism and integrity, but we also show our partners how they can make some serious money in this business, and enjoy every second of building it.
For more details on this process we run a Sourcing academy : https://www.sourcemyproperty.com/academy/
About the author
John Stokoe was born and bred in South Africa but his urge to expand and grow led him to the UK. Banking technology was hot during millennium and John worked himself into blue-chip Investment Banks where he steadily progressed into the Head Of Service Management and Business Continuity for major Japanese Banks. Detailed profile: Authors Profile