Deal Sourcing

What it is

Deal sourcing is the funnel that puts properties in front of you before they hit Zillow. It is direct mail, driving for dollars, agent referrals, skip trace, cold outreach, wholesaler relationships, probate lists, tax-delinquent lists, code-enforcement lists. It is not “looking on the MLS.” If you are looking on the MLS you are not sourcing, you are shopping, and every other buyer is shopping with you.

Why it matters

The offense in this game is the buy price. Construction basically costs what it costs — the real money is made by buying the house for twenty thousand less than the next guy would have. That only happens when you see the deal before the next guy does. Deal sourcing is the mechanism for being first. Every source has a different cost and a different conversion rate. Direct mail is cheap per piece but low conversion. Driving for dollars is free but time-expensive. Skip trace on a list is fast and scalable once the system is built. The operators who win have more than one channel running at all times — one channel is a hobby, three channels is a business.

How it shows up

It shows up as a weekly motion, not a campaign. Send mail, work a list, return calls, drive a neighborhood, talk to wholesalers. It shows up on the ledger as cost per deal and cost per lead. It shows up in the calendar as recurring blocks. When sourcing is working, you have more deals than bandwidth to close them — that is the point.

Related

direct mail, driving for dollars, skip tracing, cold outreach, supply and demand, bird dog, off market, direct to seller, deal flow