Marketing to Buyers and Sellers

Here is an article I found on marketing by Ben Innes-Ker. I have been trying to look and think outside the box and came across this article. Hope it helps.

How did you get into real estate investing? Did you read a book on it? Was it a seminar? A meeting of some sort with speakers selling courses? Did you get really, really jazzed and pumped up by these simple ("not easy") concepts that were delivered to you in parable form from the stage by a charismatic speaker? Did you find yourself levitating to the back of the room, powerless but to slap down your plastic to buy the kits that were being sold there? Like...

"Yes Mr. Ker, we do take traveler's checks. Yes, cash is okay, too. HEY BARNEY, DO YOU HAVE CHANGE FOR A HUNDRED? There's your kit Mr. Ker. Good Luck!"

I found a website where you can buy blank bandit signs. As recommended by Matt Larson, you want to use yellow and hand write your message. These are perfect:

http://www.signoutfitters.com/CorrugatedPlasticYardSignBlanks-18x12.aspx

Right now in my area foreclosures are on the rise, Pre-forclosure listings on the web are higher than i've ever seen. Also everyone I talk to with good credit is having to jump through hoops to get a loan. And people I talk to with credit less than 600 say just hang it up. Looks like prime time to go with Lease-options. I'd like to know some key ways to advertise this to get sellers coming in. getting buyers is easy. Does anyone have some good tips that's done well in this technique

My neighborhood is kind of a lower class neighborhood consisting of miles n miles of rowhomes. There are plenty of bandit signs hanging all over the poles. Id say I can spot between 12-15 different ones, if not more stating "We Buy Houses". My questions are:

1) Are the people behind the signs "cash buyer-investors" or "wholesalers"? Should I call them and find out?

2) Should I put my sign up right next to there sign....you never know which phone # a motivated seller will call, correct?

3) Should I go around one night with a can of black spray paint and knock out all these bandit signs in one shot.........just kidding!

Thanks for reading this and for your time. I am drawing a blank here and usually I don't have problems with things like this but I can't seem to get it together in my head and have a plan to get it done.

So here is my question to all of you that have a great Realtor as part of your "power team".

I don't need the Realtor to buy from or to list for me. All I need is for them to ultimatly send me expired listings and to run a cash buyer report for me in the MLS so I can see all the properties purchased for cash in the last 90 days and get the info on who bought them. I need this info for 2 properties that I have right now that I am trying to wholesale out and I have had no interest from my current buyers list so its time to build the list again and "refresh" my options.

Well I am really new to all this and I've learned sooo much info from Dean's books and this site. But I guess my problem is, I'm jumping around too much and I haven't decided where I should start. I mean, I've placed ads on Craiglist looking for sellers, but I probably should have been looking for buyers 1st instead. Just all the info is kinda getting me a little confused I guess.

I have a buyer that I recently added to my buyers list. I learned from talking to him that he owns his own construction company locally and he is looking to invest his money where the profits are, and he said he knows that the time is right for buy and holds so I put him in touch with my partner to go over some properties he might be interested in. Next thing I know my partner is calling me to ask if I know who I happened to pick up. I said I knew he was a big time buyer because of how well his company had done last year, but my partner told me aside from owning his construction company, he is a hedgefund manager for the teachers pension funds. Needless to say he has a lot of money that needs to be invested. Imagine my suprise.

There is everything from $0 down "I'll get you into a home today" or "$0 down programs available for qualified buyers" ad(s), to $3k down oac ads. I don't know if you would consider it competition or what but how can you make yours stand out from the competition?

I'm not clear on how to find this buyers and investers?
Can any body help me out?

For those of you have seen my other posts you know the drill.

I want good and bad comments on this.