BiggerPockets

Originally posted by Pete Krzak

I am looking to buy Single Family or Deplexes around my area(Erie,Pa) without going through MLS. Anyone have any ideas on great places to locate these. I would like to only use 10% down on them. The bad part is that we do not have real estate conferences or meeting around here. I want these properties for long term cash growth. Any ideas?

I would say Craigslist isn't optimal, but you may stumble across a FSBO or find a contact whom has a portfolio from which they sell. Most of the listing of FSBO are overpriced IMHO - people who think what they've got is gold, when a realtor wouldn't list it anywhere in that ballpark.
Hopefully you live close to your target market, because there is nothing better than driving around the hood and looking for those FSBO signs out front. Of course, these are usually above market as well, but you can at least talk to the person and get a sense of how motivated they are to sell.

Finally, Good luck doing 10% down on an investment property, in these times lending institutions want 20% down or more. If you do find a lender at 10% down, let me know where!

Word of mouth also works really well. Make sure you have business cards and hand them out to business owners / clients in the area. There is always someone getting ready to sell, and they'll call you first if someone passes along your card.

again, happy hunting!

Originally posted by Pete Krzak

20% down.... could I do 10% of my own then use hard money the rest?

not likely - what you CAN do however is receive a "gift"

the bank is going to look to see that you have
20% down plus reserves for 6 months (P&I)
- you're going to have to show that you've had this amount in your account, and that there have been no large deposits.
If there have been, you're going to need to show where the money came from. You can use your IRA.
There is a maximum gift amount, but I'm not sure what it is. I've used 8,500 as a gift. You don't actually need to use the gift money, but you need to fill out the paperwork and get the certified check with the donor as the remitter. You're mortg. broker should be able to walk you through it.

The situation I have is there is a duplex for $115,00. I want to rent out both sides and use one to pay the mortage while I bank the other side. Does this sound like a good idea or should I just use both. I will not be living there so I can just put both sides for rent. Let me know thanks!

Now as for the duplex situation being mentioned, you will need to provide more details - like the expected rents - and I'm sure that Jon will do his usual top-notch analysis on the situation to determine whether you should proceed.

I am looking to buy Single Family or Deplexes around my area(Erie,Pa) without going through MLS. Anyone have any ideas on great places to locate these.

Have you tried the courthouse? I'm not from PA and I've never been there (im in California so it's much easier), but this is a good way to acquire properties that are a financial burden to the owners...The county records always help!