When it comes to finding investors for your property sourcing business, where should you be looking? Well, there’s quite a few avenues to venture down – both online and offline. All are worth taking a look at until you find what works best for you – or maybe it’s a mix of both on and offline resources you’ll end up using?
Online resources to find investors
There are now quite a few property forums online where you can meet both landlords and investors. People interested in property investing come here and chat, give advice and generally catch up with what’s happening in their property niche. You’ll find similar groups on Facebook – these are mostly closed groups, which means it’s only people interested in property that get accepted to join, so like forums, they tend to be pretty specialised – but they do all welcome newbies and novice investors, as well as the more experienced landlord etc.
To a lesser extent, you’ll also find investors on Twitter (and will usually describe themselves as an investor). Once you’ve found one investor, it’s easy enough to build a list of investors to follow since they’re often following each other.
LinkedIn is another online area where investors are ripe. Again, there are dedicated groups and forums on the site for discussion. And, actually, as a professional sourcer it’s good to join in on these informative chats. That way, you can set yourself up as an expert, posting comments and even regular articles.
Just make sure to link these articles back to your blog so that prospective investors can read more about you, and what sort of deals you are interested in, on your website). For instance, if you’re interested in renovation properties, then definitely mention this. Alternatively, you may be more of a buy to let type, who enjoys managing. And on that subject, you may prefer to specialise in HMO properties only. Whatever your niche, it’s important to let investors know so nobody’s time is wasted.
Offline resources to find investors
You could, of course, go instantly to a venture capitalist, or angel investor. But the best deals are likely to be with a private investor. That’s because he or she won’t be as demanding as a venture capitalist or angel investors. In fact, this investor may even be a friend or family member. He or she is more likely to be someone you don’t know, but who knows property can prove to be an extremely good return for their money – certainly more than they’ll ever get from putting it in a bank or building society. In other words, they are motivated investors.
You’ll find them at property networking events and business networking nights in particular. Social events such as weddings, community fairs and charity events can often prove good for networking too. Your investor won’t appear overnight though; you’ll have to befriend them and build up trust first – this will probably take months. But it’ll be worth it in the end, because even it that individual doesn’t end up investing in your deal, he or she may have a contact in their own network who will.
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