Yesterday was all about why I love working with tired landlords. Today was about where to find them. When I say tired landlords, I mean absentee owners, in-state or out of state, who own non-owner occupied properties and might be open to selling for one reason or another.
I walked through seven free ways to find them, then the paid ways, including the one I'd call the best option. Fair warning, that last one is a little self-serving, since it's what we built. Results vary, and nothing here is a guarantee.
Why this audience is worth the effort
Quick recap from yesterday. When you get a tired landlord in conversation by phone, text or email, there are three ways to win. They say yes to an offer on the property you're calling about. They say yes on another property they own. Or they say yes to adding to their portfolio, because "they have already demonstrated to the world that they like real estate."
They're also not nearly as emotionally attached to the property. "they think in black and white dollars and cents," and that's how I like to think about this business too.
Free way 1: Zillow for rent by owner
Zillow isn't just for for sale by owners. It's a great place to find for rent by owners too, and those are potentially tired landlords.
- Go to Zillow and pick your geographic area. I'm in a rural area, so I pull up my whole county. In a denser market, start with a city or even a single zip code.
- Switch from For Sale to For Rent.
- Under property type, choose houses and maybe townhouses. Skip apartments and condos.
- Open the listings one by one and look for the ones that are actually for rent by owner.
There isn't a great way to filter for rent by owner on Zillow, so you kind of have to click your way through. You could probably use some AI to help you narrow it down.
Free way 2: Facebook Marketplace
Go to facebook.com/marketplace, choose the Property Rentals category, then filter. I picked three plus bedrooms and house or townhouse as the rental type, then tightened the map to my area. From there you can send a DM right to the owner.
Free way 3: Craigslist
Yes, people still use Craigslist. The first paid training I ever offered agents was about how I was generating leads on Craigslist back in 2007 and 2008, right when I got licensed.
Pick your area, go to housing, choose apartments/housing, then filter to house for rent. That gives you the rental houses, and you can work out which ones are listed by the owner.
Free ways 4 to 7: public records and AI
You're a Google search away, or better yet a ChatGPT search away, from these:
- Rental registration records. Some municipalities and counties make landlords register rentals or get a rental license. That's public record. It might not be easy to find, but it's there.
- Code violations. An absentee owned property with a code violation is a really good lead. Repeat violations are even better.
- Eviction filings. Look for public eviction filings in your municipality or county.
- County tax assessor records and GIS. Your local GIS mapping system can help you spot non-owner occupied properties.
Here's the thing about how we reach out, though. Just like last month with aged expireds, we lead with a different conversation. "we're not going to point out the fact that they're going through an eviction or they got a crummy tenant." We simply ask if they'd be open to an offer on their property.
The free one you're already paying for: your MLS
Someone in the chat said it, and I agree a million percent. Your MLS is a great place to find them. All of October we talked about pulling aged expired listings out of MLS data you already pay for, and you can do the same here. Many MLSs include extra data tools too. In Bright MLS, we have access to Remine.
If you're a REALTOR, you also have RPR, at narrpr.com, where you can find absentee owned properties. I didn't even think of that one while I was prepping, so I'm going to record a separate tutorial on finding absentee owners with RPR and drop it on the channel and in the 1 Deal A Week In Real Estate Skool community.
The paid options
I've tried a lot of the paid data providers, like PropStream, BatchLeads, PropWire and ListSource. This is nothing against any of them. They have the data. But it's hard to take that data and actually get it to the point where you're in conversation with a tired landlord. That's one of the main reasons we built LeadDeck, using the same kind of data and built in skip tracing, so you can tap to call, tap to text and tap to email.
A few other paid ways to get in front of absentee owners:
- Direct mail. Pull a list from one of the data sources, or from RPR or your MLS, and mail them.
- Meta ads and Google pay-per-click. You can write ads that speak to absentee owners. I don't think it's the most effective or efficient way to get into conversations with them, but it's an option.
Stack motivating factors to find the best of the bunch
Then I pulled up live data for a few markets people dropped in the chat. A big list of absentee owners is a starting point. The best leads come from stacking two motivating factors on top of each other:
- Tired landlord plus an involuntary lien. That could mean they're behind on taxes, or there's an HOA lien or another lien on the property. It's another potential layer of motivation.
- Tired landlord plus vacant. A non-owner occupied property sitting empty.
- Out of state absentee owner plus tired.
Stacking shrinks the list, sometimes to a small one. That's fine. A short, focused list is something you can actually work in a time block. Our best practice is to block 45 to 60 minutes and have about 8 to 10 cards ready so you can go deep on each one.
And when you reach out, keep it simple. "Is there any chance you'd consider an offer on your property at 123 Maple Street?"
Don't skip the big companies
A question came up in the chat: if an out of state owner turns out to be a big company or fund, do you skip it? I don't. "I don't think there's any harm in reaching out." A member of our program reached out to what she thought was an aged expired, ended up talking to a representative of a larger investment group, and now that person is a pocket buyer in her phone looking for bigger multifamily deals. "There's no harm in trying."
Every conversation adds a card to your hand
This all ties back to the 1 Deal A Week blueprint. "We are playing an infinite game of real estate go fish." We keep a pocket buyer hand and a pocket seller hand, and the more cards we hold, the more likely the matches are. The game only ends when you quit, and the longer you play, the better you get at it.
If you want to work through this with other agents doing the same thing, join our free Skool community, 1 Deal A Week In Real Estate. That's also where the RPR tutorial is headed.
Key takeaways
- Tired landlords are in-state and out of state absentee owners, and every conversation gives you three ways to win.
- Free places to look: Zillow, Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist rentals by owner, rental registration records, code violations, eviction filings and county GIS.
- Your MLS and RPR are free sources you're likely already paying for.
- Paid data has the leads. The hard part is turning data into conversations.
- Stack motivating factors like an involuntary lien or a vacant property to find the best of the bunch.
- Lead with an offer, not with their problem.