BiggerPockets

Where To Buy Houses For Real Estate Investing

It is mandatory to have a continuous flow of good deals in order to remain profitable in real estate investing. This means that regardless of your business model, you must buy your houses low.

So where do you find these houses at below the market prices?

1) Motivated sellers
This is my most preferred method of getting great deals. It is still the most favorite method of getting deals that never find their way into the open market, way below market value.

A motivated seller is someone who badly needs to get rid of their house. Usually, they could be behind on their mortgage, facing foreclosure, divorced, burned by bad tenants, have inherited property, and so on. These people can do anything to get rid of the properties which have become a thorn in the flesh and move on with their lives.

So how do you find motivated sellers?

You simply need to market to home owners who are in legal trouble. In my market, I am able to get a listing of all county court filings every day. If they own real estate, they get into my mailing list.

These people are usually very motivated and ready to do business today.

2) Wholesalers
Other real estate investors that sell houses at wholesale prices form an alternative source of cheap houses.

I get lots of good deals most of which I cannot pursue. For this reason, I wholesale them to other real estate investors who will probably fix them up and put them back on the market either as rentals or resale.

When you buy a wholesale deal, you can buy the house in a simultaneous closing or take over the contract to buy the house. Check our other articles for details of these transactions.

3) Local REI meetings
It is most likely there is a local meeting of real estate investors near where you live. These are like minded people that buy and sell houses in your local market.

This means you can find great deals from these groups.

4) REOs and the MLS
I have to say that these will not be the best deals you can find. The asking price is usually too high for most real estate investors even though thousands of properties are sitting out there with no buyers.

Do not forget this is the most over-shopped source of real estate deals and the price breaks may not be that high.

These are the deals I recommend the least for investment purposes.

5) Courthouse auctions
A lot of home work is needed in order to get good deals from court house auctions. I do not recommend this method unless you know what you are doing.

6) Craigslist and other online sources
This is another source that is too over-shopped, and most Realtors and FSBO owners market here. Getting a good deal from Craigslist is therefore not easy.

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