5 Ways on How to Find Real Estate Property Investors Online
This article will show you how to find real estate investors online or offline.
We will go over different possible situations you may need an investor for. I will suggest appropriate ways to find the right type of investors for each of them.
Let’s start with the most frequent case.
How to Find Real Estate Investors for Wholesaling Properties Under Contract
How to find real estate investors in your area for wholesaling? Below are three methods, all of which are free (at the time of writing this article). Let’s start with the most effective one.
#1 HouseCashin Investment Property Marketplace
HouseCashin Investment Property Marketplace is a platform that connects wholesalers with real estate cash buyers looking for wholesale deals.
For home flippers, landlords, and other residential real estate investors, the platform serves as an off-market investment property search engine. Real estate wholesalers, on the other hand, use it as a disposition tool to market their wholesale deals.
To make your property available to an extensive number of potential cash buyers, list it on the marketplace. It’s free. You have, however, an option to make your listing more prominent by advertising it for a fee.
Make sure to create a detailed and informative listing. Add photos and a description. Fill out the fields asking for data important for investors to evaluate the deal: projected ROI, repair costs, etc.
HouseCashin Investment Property Marketplace is a relatively new platform. However, it’s rapidly growing in popularity among investors and wholesalers.
This is thanks to its uniqueness and thought-through functionality. The system offers a set of tools helping investors refine their search on the highest level to find exactly what they want.
Make sure to benefit from this platform now, while it’s still free to use. HouseCashin plans to start charging property listing fees once its user base reaches a certain level.
#2 Google Search
As an additional method to find real estate investor leads, try a simple online search via Google, Bing, or another search engine.
Write one of these key phrases:
- real estate investors in [your area]
- we buy houses in [your area]
- sell my house fast in [your area]
- sell house for cash in [your area]
Replace [your area] with your target location. For example: “real estate investors in Houston TX”.
The search engine will show you many websites of real estate investing companies. Keep in mind that some of them will be wholesalers, just like you.
However, some of them will be actual cash buyers. When reaching out, ask them if they are a cash buyer or wholesaling company.
Try all of these key phrases one by one. Search results will likely vary for each of them. Some companies that don’t show for one phrase may show for another. You don’t want to miss any.
If this sounds like a lot of work to filter out wholesalers from investors, below is another suggestion on how to find cash investors for real estate under contract.
#3 Social Media
Where else to find real estate investors for free? On social media.
Websites like LinkedIn and Facebook have groups for people connected by the same professional interests or hobbies. On both websites, there are groups for investors.
Here is how to find real estate investors on Facebook or LinkedIn:
Type the following keywords in the box for search throughout the website:
- real estate investing in [your area]
- real estate investors in [your area]
- real estate cash buyers in [your area]
- real estate wholesaling in [your area]
- wholesale real estate in [your area]
- wholesale properties in [your area]
In the dashboard suggesting what kind of results to show you (groups, pages, people, etc.) choose “groups”.
If this doesn’t work, try broader keywords like “real estate [your area]”.
Before posting your message in groups, read their rules. Some of them may not allow advertising or have restrictions regarding it. Do your best to comply with these rules to avoid getting banned.
If a group allows posting wholesale deals (or is even created for this purpose), it’s ideal for you.
Post your contracted property with a detailed description and photos. Specify that it’s a wholesale deal. Hopefully, an interested investor responds to it.
Another way is reaching out to the group’s members via private messages. When doing so, make sure the person is (or at least may be) a cash house buyer by going over their personal profile.
Make sure to clearly state in your social media profiles that you are a real estate wholesaler. Indicate what area you serve.
For many investors, the best answer to “how to find a house to flip?” is working with a wholesaler. So they may be already looking for you on social media. Make their search easier.
For more insight into effective disposition of wholesale properties, read the guide on how to market wholesale real estate deals.
You may also want to learn about other strategies from top coaches at the best wholesaling real estate training courses.
How to Find Private Investors for Real Estate Projects
A “real estate project” may mean different things. You may be thinking about how to find real estate investors to partner with for flipping your first investment property.
Or, your goal may be finding investors for real estate development or acquisition of a multimillion commercial property.
Below, I address various scenarios.
Raising Money from Passive Investors
#1 Real Estate Crowdfunding Platforms
A popular way of how to find investors for real estate development or large acquisition is to use one of the best real estate crowdfunding platforms. These websites connect syndicators, also known as sponsors, with passive investors.
Sign up with a crowdfunding platform and pass the necessary verification. Submit your project to the platform and, if approved, it will be available to investors.
This way, you will be able to get investors for property development or acquisition without leaving your home and meeting them in person. They will fund your deal online.
Below are links to the most popular real estate crowdfunding platforms.
Most of these websites’ homepages appeal directly to passive investors and not syndicators. To save you time, I provide links directly to the web pages explaining how to submit your project for getting it funded.
If one of these web pages is unavailable, then its web address may have changed.
In this case, try to find a web page speaking to syndicators by looking at the website’s header or footer menu. Or, check their FAQs.
#2 Real Estate Bees Directory
Our Real Estate Vendor Directory is a resource for real estate professionals, including investors. It helps users find strategic partners, clients, or service providers.
Browse the residential and commercial real estate investors category. It lists local property investing firms and entrepreneurs throughout the United States.
Some of them may invest in private equity projects. Contact them to see if they are interested in yours.
Hard Money Lenders
When thinking of how to find angel investors for real estate, you may want to consider getting a portion or the entire project financed by a real estate lender.
It doesn’t have to be a conventional mortgage lender, especially if your project is deemed risky.
Hard money lenders provide financing to house flippers, real estate developers, and other investors needing quick capital.
The main difference between traditional and hard money lenders is that conventional lenders look at the personal info of the borrower while hard money lenders tend to concentrate on the asset they are lending on.
Hard money loan underwriting usually takes just a couple of days. Once you prove the viability of the project, you can get it financed even with your low credit score.
Considering the higher risk for the lender and less time involved in underwriting procedures, hard money loan rates are typically higher than the rates of traditional financing options.
Find the best local hard money lenders in our directory. It lists reputable hard money lending firms throughout the United States.
Additionally, learn more about how to get a hard money loan from the article written by reputable hard money lenders themselves.
Now you know how to get investors for real estate projects. Read on to learn how to find them for other goals.
How to Find a Real Estate Investor to Buy My House?
To get a list of companies that buy houses, it’s enough to google “sell my house fast in [location]”. However, there are pitfalls to avoid.
There’s no way of knowing if the company is ethical. Some investors take advantage of homeowners in a difficult situation.
Do your research on each potential cash house buyer whom you want to contact.
It’s important to reach out to multiple investors at once and compare their offers. The amount offered by two or more investors may be significantly different.
Besides the offer, consider the arrangements they are willing to make for you to help with the sale and moving out.
For example, the investor may agree to pay the home seller’s closing costs so that you won’t have to come to closing with your own cash.
Or, they can have relationships with a moving company that could provide you quick and free complimentary service if you are in a hurry.
The quickest way to get multiple cash offers at once is through the HouseCashin platform. Fill out their cash offer form, and they will match you with a few reputable local real estate investors.
By doing so, you can receive up to five cash offers at once to compare.
This option is also a more secure way of getting multiple offers without submitting your personal information to a number of different websites.
To stay away from scam artists, learn all the Dos and Don’ts explained in this comprehensive guide on selling your house to an investor the right way.
Below is information about three types of real estate investors providing cash house buying services. They are all referred to as ‘cash buyers’ (while, technically, not all of them are).
Real Estate Wholesalers
Some of the companies that provide cash house buying services aren’t cash house buyers. They are real estate wholesalers.
Wholesalers look for properties that are likely to be sold for under market value. They negotiate the sale price of a property and sign a purchase contract with the seller.
Instead of buying the house, however, they find an end buyer (usually flipper or landlord) to whom they will resell the signed contract for a fee.
In other words, that end buyer, whom the wholesaler found, would be the one who will actually be purchasing the property.
Theoretically, if you sold the house directly to an investor without involving the middleman (wholesaler), you could keep the amount of the assignment fee for yourself.
That said, wholesalers aren’t useless for homeowners needing an urgent sale. Wholesalers normally have a network of cash house buyers lined up for their deals.
This allows wholesalers to help homeowners sell the property much quicker than if they were looking for real estate investors themselves.
If you are in a hurry and need as many options to explore as possible, you can find local real estate wholesalers in our directory.
Flippers and Landlords
Most often, actual cash house buyers are fix-and-flip investors or landlords. In addition, there are also large hedge funds that buy residential properties for cash.
All those are the ones who actually buy your property, unlike wholesalers.
Be advised, however, that even though they are generally referred to as “cash buyers”, an investor may not use cash to purchase your property.
Instead, they will use a hard money loan. It’s a form of financing designed specifically for investors. The underwriting process normally takes only a couple of days.
Therefore, don’t be surprised if you see in your purchase contract it says that the purchase is financed instead of cash. What matters is that you will get your money in the bank on time.
Find a list of your local real estate cash buyers on HouseCashin’s directory.
iBuyers
iBuyers are another type of cash house buyers. These are companies that automate the home buying procedure on the highest level, for the quickest possible process.
An iBuyer company will have a website where you can submit your home’s information to get a cash offer.
The iBuyer checks your home’s value based on their records about your neighborhood’s real estate market data and the information about your house’s condition that you submit.
You may be sent an offer and a purchase contract electronically, online.
However, these companies are known to be very picky and precise in what they buy. A vast majority of the properties will not qualify for their cash offer program.
Even if your property qualifies, oftentimes after a physical inspection of the property they will attempt to negotiate the price. This may lead to the deal falling through or the offer amount being reduced.
Finally, apart from this pitfall, iBuyers charge fees comparable to a real estate agent’s commission (6-7%).
If you want to try this option, here is a list of iBuyer companies in your area.
How to Find a Real Estate Investor Mentor
Once you’ve decided to become a house flipper, real estate wholesaler or landlord, finding a real estate investor mentor may be as easy as doing an online search. However, finding a good one may not.
Use our directory of top-rated real estate coaches to find a good mentor. This resource is made to list the best professionals in the industry. Note that this directory is not only for real estate investing coaches.
Some of the professionals listed there only specialize in training real estate agents. Check the mentor’s expertise before contacting them.
An alternative way is reaching out to successful investors in the space and offering them to train you in exchange for a fee or percentage of your successful deals.
Meet experienced professionals in one of your local real estate investment clubs, groups, or associations.
How to Find Investors for Commercial Real Estate
The question “how to find commercial real estate investors?” is basically answered in the previous section — “Raising Money from Passive Investors”. Syndication deals are normally commercial real estate projects.
Below is an additional option.
Commercial Hard Money Lenders
While hard money lenders mostly serve home flippers and landlords, some of them also fund commercial real estate projects.
They provide commercial rehab and construction loans, as well as offer bridge financing options.
The PropertyCashin directory of the best local commercial hard money lenders is a resource similar to our directory described above.
How to Find Real Estate Note Buyers
If your mortgage notes aren’t performing as expected, or you just need to cash out on performing ones, there is an appropriate type of investor who can help you.
Reach out to your local real estate note buyers listed in the HouseCashin directory. These investors specialize in purchasing promissory notes.
A real estate note buyer will purchase your note at a discounted price, thereby becoming the new lender to the borrower. This frees you from all further headaches.
Some of them buy performing notes to have them serviced by note servicing companies and receive regular payments as a long-term cash flow.
Others buy non-performing notes. They either restructure a loan to make paying it off easier for the borrower, or just foreclose on the property.
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About the Author
Kristina Morales is a REALTOR® with over 20 years of professional experience. She actively practices real estate in Ohio but also has practiced real estate in California and Texas. Conducting her real estate business in three states has allowed her to gain unique experiences that make her a well-rounded realtor. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Business Management and her MBA with a concentration in Banking and Finance. Prior to real estate, Kristina had an extensive corporate career in banking and treasury. She ended her finance career as an Assistant Treasurer at a publicly traded oil & gas company in Houston, TX.