Finding Off-Market Properties

Having sourced and closed hundreds of millions in off-market deals, I got asked how I would approach deal sourcing today as a funded or self-funded searcher with a limited budget. This question got me thinking about the fundamental steps I'd take to maximize the chances of closing a deal, especially given the budget constraints and experience levels many searchers face. H͟͟e͟͟r͟͟e͟͟’͟͟s͟͟ ͟͟m͟͟y͟͟ ͟͟a͟͟p͟͟p͟͟r͟͟o͟͟a͟͟c͟͟h͟͟:͟͟ 1. 𝙎𝙚𝙩 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝘽𝙪𝙙𝙜𝙚𝙩 Your budget dictates your strategy. Clearly defining your budget helps you plan your approach effectively. 2. 𝘿𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙄𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝘾𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙖 Understanding what you’re looking for is crucial. Successful searches often have a targeted, rifle approach rather than a broad, shotgun one. While you can be a generalist, focusing on specific industries tends to yield better results in outreach based campaigns. 3. 𝘿𝙖𝙩𝙖 𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙮 Whether your search is niche or opportunistic, knowing what data you need and how to acquire it is key. Utilize free resources like ReferenceUSA (accessible with a library card), affordable options like Google scraping, or data subscriptions such as SourceScrub. If you can afford one data source, I highly recommend Inven for its cost-effectiveness, data quality, and user-friendly features. Niilo P. is also the man and is building something special. 4. 𝘾𝙧𝙖𝙛𝙩 𝙖 𝙉𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 People buy into people and stories. Create a compelling narrative that showcases why your skills and knowledge make you an ideal steward for their business. Put yourself in the business owner’s shoes and address the questions they might have. 5. 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜 Stand out in a crowded market. Research best practices for email copy and outreach. Personalize your messages by demonstrating insights about their business and industry. Choose a reliable outreach partner; we use Smartlead and Instantly.ai, but there are many excellent options available. 6. 𝙁𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬 𝙐𝙥 Persistence is key. It often takes 10-20+ follow-ups to keep business owners engaged and moving forward. Find the balance between being persistent and overly persistent. 7. 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙚𝙨𝙩 Continuously seek ways to improve your results, whether it’s your positive response rate to outreach or how you progress first calls. Regularly track and test your strategies. 8. 𝘼𝙪𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚 Once you have a dialed-in process that produces results, look for ways to automate the repetitive, low-value tasks. This could involve third-party software, virtual assistants, or custom Python scripts. We are big fans of Clay; when you get into more complex automation, it has its limits, and it is not an easy tool to pick up, but it is an extremely cost-effective way to get started with research and outreach automation. If you have any questions about sourcing and closing off-market deals, feel free to ask in the comments.

The best deals are rarely advertised. If you're still chasing businesses listed on broker sites, you're probably too late. After years in search and acquisitions, I’ve found that the most valuable opportunities came through word of mouth, personal referrals, or being known as a good fit. Not from a public listing. Off-market deals (the ones that never make it online) offer less competition, better pricing, and more room to negotiate. But they take a different kind of effort. Here’s what works: 1) Don’t just “look for a good business.” Get specific. The clearer your target, the easier it is to get introduced early before others even hear about it. 2) Go where the owners go (industry events, niche groups, even small business clubs). Those are the rooms where deals quietly start. 3) I’ve sourced deals via cold outreach. When it’s personalized and relevant, people respond. 4) Outreach takes time. Consider hiring a VA or deal-sourcing team to keep the top of your funnel full while you focus on closing. 5) Relationships compound. Stay in touch. Even if someone’s not selling, they might refer you to a friend who is. Some of the best intros come from people you least expect. It’s simple in theory, but it takes patience, consistency, and showing up long before anyone’s ready to sell.

Want to build a proprietary deal target list? Here’s how we do it (no shortcuts): 🧭 Step 1: Get the criteria right - clarify must-haves vs. nice-to-haves. - translate that into search logic across multiple platforms. 🔎 Step 2: Run targeted searches - use tools like Grata, Sourcescrub, and Apollo to build the base universe. - also use: Perplexity in Deep Research mode OpenAI's ChatGPT (with browsing enabled) for adjacent discovery paths. (GPT-4o gives us the most consistent and reliable outputs for structured research). (The aim here is to surface companies not found in databases, but still squarely in scope.) 🔁 Step 3: Run lookalike searches - use databases to identify adjacent companies based on confirmed fits (Clay is good here). Top Tip: only run lookalikes one company at a time. If you feed in too many at once, the matching logic breaks and it tries to match all elements and returns far fewer results. 🧠 Step 4: First-pass AI filtering We use a few methods here, including Clay, ChatGPT-4o, and custom scoring logic, depending on the criteria. But we don’t go straight to full-scale runs. We start by testing 30 companies, then do a manual pass in parallel. Where the AI disagrees, we refine the prompt. Clarify the brief. Add better filters. Tighten exclusions. Once the results match our logic, then we run the model on the full list. 👀 Step 5: Human QA Every “yes” and “maybe” is reviewed by our team: ✅ Are they really in scope? ✅ Are they active and relevant? ✅ Would this pass a principal’s filter? This is where precision and nuance comes in, and where AI stops. 📞 Step 6: Find & clean contact data We pull contact info from Apollo, ZoomInfo, and LinkedIn, (or through a data aggregator like Clay) then validate and clean for CRM use. 🗂 Step 7: Deliver into CRM Final lists are uploaded into Salesforce - tagged, segmented, contact-ready. The result? 📌 qualified, thesis-aligned targets delivered straight into your CRM (with contact data and logic built in) The takeaway?  If your in-house team is building lists using databases alone then you are wasting expensive people’s time on doing little more than falling behind. Because even when you use AI to do the heavy lifting, building a decent list takes time, and a good deal of manual input. (Hence why i’m happy to stick this workflow on LinkedIn!). 👋 Follow me here for more battle-tested workflows in the Building Leverage series 🔁 Or repost/share if this was useful to your team

A lot of people think M&A starts with valuation models. DCF. Comps. Deal multiples. But in a real sell-side process, the first serious step is much simpler: Building a Buyer Universe Screening Table. This is where you map out potential acquirers and understand who actually makes sense for the deal. A clean table usually includes: • Buyer name • Buyer type (Strategic or Sponsor) • Revenue and EBITDA • Strategic rationale • Deal fit score (1–5) • Estimated valuation capacity • Current outreach status Why this matters: Not every buyer can afford the deal. Not every buyer has strategic reasons to buy the company. The fit score helps prioritize outreach. For example: A strategic buyer with strong synergies might score 5. A financial sponsor with limited sector exposure might be 3. Once the table is built, filters make the process easier. You can quickly sort by: • Highest fit score • Strategic vs sponsor buyers • Outreach status during the process It turns a messy buyer list into a structured deal pipeline. Simple framework. But it’s one of the things that keeps a sell-side process organized. #MergersAndAcquisitions #InvestmentBanking #SellSide #PrivateEquity #FinancialModeling #DealExecution #CorporateFinance #BusinessStrategy #FinanceProfessionals #ValuationAnalysis #DealFlow #CapitalMarkets #FinancialStrategy #LinkedInLearning #ProfessionalGrowth

Most distributors waste time chasing random buyers. The smarter ones build a buyer list before they pitch. Here are 7 ways to use LinkedIn filters to build a 1000-buyer list in 7 days. This matters because your next 100 sales depend on who sits inside your list. Not how many cold emails you blast. 1. Start with the right keywords Buyers do not always use the word “buyer” on their profile. Search for job titles around import, purchase, sourcing, procurement. Add keywords for your product category. This gives you a clean pool of warm prospects. 2. Use Geography + Industry together This is where most people lose the game. If you sell electronics. look for “Consumer Electronics” or “Industrial Machinery”. If you export spices. search “Food Production” or “Wholesale”. LinkedIn growth works when your list is filtered by country + industry. Not by guesswork. 3. Filter by Company Headcount A small importer buys small. A mid-size distributor buys in bulk. A large enterprise buys with process. Pick buyers who match your supply power. This stops you from pitching people who can never buy from you. 4. Use Connection Level to qualify 2nd degree connections respond faster than 3rd degree strangers. Start with 2nd degree for speed. Move to 3rd degree for volume. 5. Save the Search Most distributors search once and forget. Save the search. LinkedIn will show new buyers every week. This becomes your free auto-refresh list. No tool needed. 6. Use “Talks About” filter Buyers who talk about sourcing, inventory, supply chain are already in buying mode. These people message back faster because they live in the problem. This is where your high-ticket buyers sit. 7. Build the list before sending one message You need 1000 people on your list. Then connect with 20–30 each day. Then message the ones who check your profile. This is how real B2B outreach works. Not the spam way. The predictable way. Your next big buyer is not hiding. They are sitting inside the filters you never used. If you want me to share the exact template I use to qualify buyers before sending a message. comment “template”. PS What product category do you sell today?

18 months ago, a client based in Singapore came to us with a real problem. Strong brand. Great positioning. But pipeline? Unpredictable. Brokers were eating into margins. The internal team were closers, not prospectors. And their own outbound attempts? 2 face-to-face meetings per quarter. They didn't need another hire. They needed a system. So we built one. Here's what we ran: → Built a list of decision-makers with private office buying intent using Clay and AI Ark. Not just "companies in Singapore." → Stacked buying signals with Trigify.io and RB2B. Hiring ops roles, opening a SG presence, just raised funding. We only reached out when timing made sense. → Enriched every contact through a waterfall across Icypeas, LeadMagic, and BetterContact. Verified emails and phone numbers before a single message went out. → Multi-channel sequences across cold email (Smartlead + Zapmail) and LinkedIn (HeyReach) . Premium positioning from the first message. No discount language. → Pre-qualified every lead before it hit the sales team. Tours are expensive. Only serious buyers got in the door. The results? Drop-off rate went from ~50% to ~30%. Meetings went from 2 per quarter to 4 per month. And roughly 9 months in, a single deal closed at $250K contract value. That one deal alone covered the full collaboration. Zero extra headcount. Zero broker fees. Just a system running in the background. Outbound works when you build it properly. But it takes time, testing, and a lot of iteration 😅 Full case study & client testimonial in the comment below.

This is what a buyer actually asks for. Not the polite first email — the real list, once heads are signed. Financial Three years' statutory accounts. Monthly management accounts, 36 months. Aged debtors and creditors. Bank statements, 12 months. VAT returns. Corporation tax computations. Stock valuation methodology. Capex history. Commercial Top 20 customers by revenue, three years. Contract copies. Terms of business. Pipeline. Churn analysis. Supplier list and terms. Any customer who left and why. People Full employee list — role, salary, start date, notice period. Contracts for anyone senior. Any live or historic dispute. Pension arrangements and any deficit. Legal and property Lease or title. Licences and consents. Insurance history and claims. Litigation, live or threatened. IP ownership. Any HMRC correspondence. Operational Key supplier dependencies. IT systems and who owns the licences. H&S records. Any regulatory inspection. That's the short version. The full request list on a mid-market deal runs past two hundred items. Here's the thing worth knowing: you can assemble most of that now, at your own pace, while nothing is at stake. Or you can assemble it in three weeks while a buyer's accountant asks why it's taking so long. One of those costs you money.

When you're new to a market, you can’t rely on inbound deals or warm intros, you have to hustle for relationships. Here's how I build a broker list from the ground up: 𝘋𝘪𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 Start with Crexi, LoopNet, Redfin, and even Zillow. Filter by asset class (in this case multifamily.) Every listing has a broker, add them to your list. 𝘗𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘴 Use county records or platforms like Reonomy, ProspectNow, or CoStar (if you have access). Identify brokers who closed deals in the last 6–12 months. 𝘊𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘓𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 Look up the top investment sales shops in that city, boutique firms especially. Visit their websites, filter by brokers focused on multifamily, and start reaching out. 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘥𝘐𝘯 𝘚𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 + 𝘍𝘪𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 Search “multifamily broker” + city name. Check mutual connections and engagement. Send a message that shows you’ve done your homework. 𝘋𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 If you’re local, drive neighborhoods you're targeting. When you see a listing sign, take a picture, add that broker to your CRM. From there, I pick up the phone. No long email chains. I lead with: “Hey [Broker Name], I’m actively buying multifamily in [Market], and I wanted to get on your radar. Can we hop on a quick call this week?” Relationships win deals. But it starts with building the list. If you're entering a new market and want help structuring your outreach, drop a comment or DM me. I’ll share the exact CRM setup I use. #RealEstate #Acquisitions #Multifamily #BrokerRelations #DealFlow

Off-market beats listings every time. Here's why: The best deals trade between a broker who knows both the buyer and the seller. No Crexi listing. No LoopNet blast. No 90-day marketing period. Just: "Hey, I have a property. You interested?" Done. How do you get there? Build your buyer's list. This is the long game most brokers skip. They cold call asking, "Will you list with me?" And they get rejected. Here's what works better: Lead with: "Do you want to join the buyer's list?" Completely different response. "I see you own industrial in Lansing. Interested in buying more? Let me add you to our buyer's list." Now you're having a conversation. They say yes. You add them to your CRM. They get your listings for three months. What happens? When they're ready to sell, who do they think of? You. Here's the truth: Most of your activity will be adding buyers, not getting listings. That's okay. Because once you have 4,000 buyers in your list, every listing you get moves fast. You're not hoping Crexi generates interest. You're calling your buyer list and matching them directly. Off-market transactions happen because you built relationships on both sides. How are you building your buyer's list?