Free & Low-Cost Marketing Ideas for Your Real Estate Investing Business

When you first hit the ground running in real estate investing, you may not have a large amount of funds for things like marketing and advertising.

The key to my success in real estate investing has been utilizing direct mail and other forms of marketing to target motivated sellers, but this can get expensive. While marketing should be a part of your business expenses, because obviously it is a proven way to bring in new business, it can be done for little to no cost when you are first starting out.

Online Forums

With online forums like Craigslist, you can search for and follow up on ads. I have some great tips on how to find amazing deals on Craigslist to help you get an idea of what to look for.

When you are responding to ads online, you want your message to be simple. You can ask the seller if they have sold their home yet, and if they haven’t let them know that you are interested in talking with them. Leave your contact information, and there you go, you have just done some free marketing. I suggest keeping scripts for different scenarios in a word document, so they can be easily copied and pasted, saving you valuable time.

I had a student use this method of free marketing. She sent out 87 replies to craigslist ads. In the next few days, she got 15 phone calls, even one from Australia. She made appointments with seven of the callers. What were her marketing expenses for those leads? Zero.

When it comes to free advertising, you should never overlook the power of the internet. Anywhere you can find an email address or a for sale buyer alert, you should reach out.

Another online method of free marketing are websites like Zillow and Redfin where you can look for anyone with their home for sale. While these sites sometimes do not have the most accurate information about property specifics, you can sometimes find a phone number or email address to reach out to.

You can even just google For Sale by Owner (FSBO) homes in your area!

Other Methods

Aside from online research, you can also use the local newspaper to find motivated sellers. You can also do-good old-fashioned door knocking. Not only can this help you find motivated sellers, but it can also help you learn valuable information about the neighborhood.

You can also find expired listings, for sale by owner (FSBO) and pending foreclosures for little to no cost, depending on how much legwork you want to do yourself. You can do this by going to the local courthouse and pulling records or finding a realtor to get you lists from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). When you get a list, give the potential sellers a call and see if they could benefit from your services by finding out how much equity they have in the home and their motivations. If it seems like it may lead to a deal, set up an appointment.

Bandit Signs

Bandit signs are a low-cost way to market your business. The signs can be placed around town advertising that you buy houses for cash, or that you buy foreclosures. You can easily make them yourself with some foam board and a sharpie. It is important to know your local laws about bandit signs, but if they are allowed, they can be powerful advertising.

You can learn more about low cost and free marketing, as well as other methods to use later, in my Foreclosure Investing Mastery course. I want to help you get your business headed in the right direction and help lead you to a path of success in real estate investing.