We recently spoke with Oscar Covarrubias on the DealMachine REI Podcast, and his story stopped us in our tracks. He was earning $30,000 a year before he closed his first profitable wholesale real estate deal in Fresno, California, one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country. That deal alone made him $40,000. Today, he closes 15 deals a month.
What made the difference? His real estate marketing strategies. Not luck. Not a perfect market. Just consistent action, the right systems, and a clear plan for reaching motivated sellers before anyone else did.
If you have been wondering how to make wholesaling work in a tough market, Oscar's story is worth paying attention to.
Many newer investors focus on contracts, numbers, and exit strategies. Those things matter, but they do not matter at all if you cannot find deals in the first place. Finding deals is a marketing problem.
Oscar understood this early on. Before he had a big team or a defined process, he was focused on one thing: getting in front of sellers who needed help. That meant building visibility in his local market and reaching out to people before any other investor did.
The most effective wholesalers treat their business like a marketing business that happens to deal in real estate. Every lead, every contract, and every paycheck starts with a marketing effort that worked.
Not all marketing is created equal. Some tactics bring in a flood of bad leads. Others bring in a slow, steady stream of sellers who are genuinely ready to talk.
The strategies that tend to work best share a few things in common:
Oscar built his business around these principles. He did not just blast out random mail or make cold calls with no follow-up plan. He built a system.
One of the most effective and affordable ways to find off-market deals is driving for dollars. This means physically driving through neighborhoods and identifying properties that show signs of distress: overgrown lawns, boarded windows, peeling paint, piled-up mail.
Oscar used this approach early in his career to find properties that were not listed anywhere online. These are owners who have not put their home on the market but may be very open to selling if someone reaches out.
Tools like DealMachine make this process much faster. You can tag a property from your phone while driving, instantly pull the owner's contact information, and add the lead directly to a marketing campaign without ever going back to a desk. What used to take hours can now be done in minutes.
Direct mail is one of the most proven real estate marketing strategies in the wholesaling world. It reaches sellers directly at their home, and when done right, it feels personal rather than promotional.
The key is consistency. One postcard rarely gets a response. But a seller who receives three, four, or five pieces of mail from the same investor over several months starts to recognize that name. When they are finally ready to sell, they already know who to call.
Oscar's team sends direct mail as part of an automated follow-up sequence. DealMachine's marketing automation tools let investors schedule campaigns in advance, so the follow-up happens even when you are focused on closing other deals.
Some of Oscar's best deals have come from people he already knew: other investors, real estate agents, property managers, and even past sellers who knew someone else looking to move.
Referral-based marketing does not cost much, but it requires intentional relationship building. Showing up at local real estate meetups, staying in touch with past contacts, and consistently delivering on your promises are what keep referrals coming in.
When you solve a seller's problem the right way, they remember you. Oscar has closed deals with sellers who called him back years after their first conversation simply because they trusted him.
Getting your first few deals is one challenge. Scaling to double digits per month is a completely different one. Oscar made that jump by doing two things: building a team and systematizing his marketing.
At his peak, Oscar's team included acquisition representatives, a disposition agent, virtual assistants, and a social media specialist. Each person had a role in keeping deals moving through the pipeline.
The acquisition side focused on finding and converting leads. The disposition side focused on selling contracts to buyers. The virtual assistants handled follow-up calls and lead management. The social media specialist built online visibility.
Most investors try to do all of this themselves for too long. Oscar's advice is to hire help sooner than feels comfortable. The time you spend on tasks you can delegate is time you are not spending on the activities that actually close deals.
Marketing only works if it keeps going, even when you are busy or tired. Oscar built systems that kept leads coming in without requiring him to manage every step manually.
DealMachine supports this kind of setup. From list building and lead tracking to automated direct mail campaigns and owner contact lookup, the platform is built to keep your pipeline moving without extra manual work. When your marketing runs in the background, you can stay focused on conversations and closings.
Oscar's market in California's Central Valley is not cheap. Property values are high, which means the common objection that wholesaling does not work in expensive markets often comes up. His answer to that is simple: it does work, and the numbers actually support larger assignment fees.
The challenge in high-priced markets is not that deals do not exist. It is that the competition for those deals is intense. That makes your marketing approach even more important.
In expensive markets, sellers have options. They can list on the MLS, work with an agent, or wait for prices to go higher. For a wholesaler to win the deal, they need to offer something more than just money. They need to offer speed, convenience, and trust.
Oscar became known in his market as someone who closes what he commits to. His first wholesale deal brought him zero profit, but he kept his word to the seller and that reputation paid off in every deal that followed.
Your marketing messages should reflect this. Instead of leading with price, lead with ease. Show sellers what a smooth, simple transaction looks like. That is what separates you from the crowd.
Not every property in an expensive market is a good wholesale target. Oscar focused on finding distressed properties and motivated sellers, people who needed to sell fast because of financial stress, divorce, probate, or other life circumstances.
List-building tools like DealMachine's List Builder let you filter by specific criteria, including vacant properties, tax-delinquent owners, absentee landlords, high-equity homes, and more. The more targeted your list, the more efficient your marketing spend becomes.
When your message lands in front of the right person at the right time, the conversion rate increases and the cost per deal decreases.
Oscar's story is not just about marketing tactics. It is about consistency and follow-through. He did not wait until everything was perfect before he started. He took action with the information and tools he had, learned from each deal, and kept going.
The investors who see results are not always the ones with the biggest budget or the most experience. They are the ones who show up every day, keep their pipeline active, and treat their marketing like the lifeblood of their business.
If you are ready to build a pipeline with real momentum, start with the tools that make it easier to find leads, reach sellers, and stay consistent. DealMachine was built for exactly that.