Building a business in Newark takes a lot of grit and determination. My friends thought I was crazy to move here and go into business for myself for the first time, but I fell in love with the city and its people and knew this place was full of opportunities. And I was right—Newark has many hidden gems in the real estate market, giving investors like myself the opportunity to make fantastic deals and revitalize local neighborhoods at the same time.

To find these hidden gems, though, you can’t just look at the MLS. The best real estate investment deals happen off-market, without the home ever being listed with a real estate agent. Here are some tips for finding off-market real estate leads in Newark, NJ.

How to Get NJ Real Estate Leads in Newark

Seasoned real estate investors are able to rely upon their instincts and their large professional network to track down the best leads. If you’re just starting out, or you only have a few flips under your belt, you’ll need to use other resources to find real estate leads on your own.

Social Media

You can utilize social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram in multiple ways to try to generate leads. For instance, you could purchase an ad or promoted post and geo-target that post for Newark zip codes, or join local groups for people buying and selling off-market real estate. Another effective strategy is to share informative content that draws followers who may be interested in selling their home.

One downside of social media is that you’ll be facing an immense amount of competition. Listings on Facebook groups for off-market deals will frequently have dozens of comments within a couple hours of posting, so unless you’re very fast, very lucky, or very persuasive, you’re unlikely to make many deals that way. You’ll also probably find that most of the people who follow your social media presence are other real estate professionals who are interested in your informative content, not regular homeowners who might want to sell. So, social media is great for building your professional network, but you’ll probably struggle to generate leads that way.

Networking Groups

Speaking of your professional network, another way to find NJ real estate leads in Newark is through real estate investing networking groups. In addition to real estate investment associations (REIAs), there are less-formal meetup groups and social events where you can meet and mingle with other investors as well as contractors, real estate agents, and other industry professionals. These kinds of contacts are crucial for new real estate investors to help generate leads and to help streamline the process of buying, renovating, and selling properties.

Unfortunately, most of the people who show up to these networking meetings and events are also new to the field. More experienced professionals usually already have an established network, so they don’t tend to spend much time attending meetings and paying dues. So, while these networking groups are great for building contacts that could come in handy sometime in the future, they’re not great for finding deals in the short term.

Lead Lists

Lead lists are a common tool in the real estate investment field. They allow you to look for homeowners who may want to sell soon, whether because of tax issues, a pending foreclosure, or other financial and life circumstances. You can use this information to directly market to these homeowners and, hopefully, find great deals before they hit the market.

The problem with lead lists is that everyone uses them. There are a lot of other real estate investors in Newark, so it’s very likely that all of the best leads have been contacted already. The information on your lead list could also be out of date, which means you could waste a lot of time calling people who are no longer motivated to sell.

Get Out and Explore

With the popularity of social media and online listings, many new real estate investors neglect one of the most tried-and-true ways to generate leads—driving around and looking at houses. Simply exploring the up-and-coming neighborhoods of the city, while keeping an eye out for older, rundown houses in need of some TLC, can be a great way to find deals on real estate. As an added benefit, getting to know Newark’s neighborhoods and keeping track of which houses are coming on and off the market, can make you a better real estate investor in general.

Driving around in search of leads can be very time-consuming, though. If you’re lucky, you can knock on the front door and immediately talk to the homeowner, but often the properties you find will be vacant or tenant occupied. Even if the homeowner answers the door, they may not be willing to sell, and they may even resent you knocking on their door uninvited.

Have NJ Real Estate Leads Come to You

I’ve used all of these lead-generation strategies myself with varying levels of success, but I had to put a lot of valuable time and effort into the process. Finding leads got so much easier once I joined the HomeVestors® network of independently owned and operated franchises. With the assistance of the nationally-known We Buy Ugly Houses® marketing campaign, my inbox became flooded with NJ real estate leads in Newark.

In addition, HomeVestors® provides one-on-one real estate investment mentoring, a proprietary lending portal to help with financing, and a streamlined lead generation portal, along with many other marketing and support tools. With HomeVestors®, you can find the best real estate deals in Newark and grow your business.

Do you want to find the best NJ motivated seller leads in Newark? Request information about becoming a HomeVestors® independently owned and operated franchise. 

Each franchise office is independently owned and operated.