How to get tons of great deals, and cherry pick the best ones

by Ryan Moeller on August 11, 2009

  

The current market conditions have resulted in incredible opportunities for investors.  In order to take advantage of the oversupply of opportunities, we investors must efficiently sift through the many available properties and separate the deals from the duds.  But first, you need deals coming into your pipeline that fit your criteria.  And not just a few, you need an abundance.  Finding great deals is the most important part of real estate investing. 

finding real estate deals

Here are some steps and ideas to get tons of profitable deals to cherry pick from:

1. Have agents do the work for you – Agents are starving and will work their tail off for peanuts these days.

2. Build an REO agents list – Use Craigslist, Foreclosure.com, web searches or even get agent info from Title companies.  Build an email list.

3. Give them your criteria and teach them your systems – Work with the agents to use your effective systems, it will save both of you a lot of time.

4. Use multiple agents to find deals – Agents usually specialize in certain areas and types of deals, multiple agents will bring more deals into your pipeline.

5. Find agents that can feed you properties before they are listed – Being able to snatch up deals with no competition is huge.  Prove that you can close on deals over and over and keep getting fed great deals.  Bail on a lot of deals without good cause and risk ruining the relationship, treat the bank/sellers with respect and do not waste their time.

6. Target a few areas or cities – Targeting multiple areas will increase the amount of deals you can cherry pick from, just do not overdue it or you may end up with some duds for deals a tough team building an effective team and spread to thin.

7. Court house steps, Auctions, Wholesale deals, Short Sales, etc – There are many other types of ways to find deals that are not listed.  Trustee sales on the court house steps, auctions, investors that wholesale deals, negotiating short sales even negotiating seller financing or lease options can bring in tremendous deals.

8. Marketing, Marketing, Marketing – There are so many foreclosures these days, but there are still distressed homeowners not in foreclosure.  People face financial hardships, divorce, probate, absentee owners, etc.  It is strongly recommended to have good targeted marketing campaigns to bring in more deals to your pipelines and the opportunity to negotiate straight with the seller.

Finding deals is often just a numbers game.  If you get 3 deals into your pipeline the odds are not in your favor.  If you get a lot of deals into your pipeline consistently and follow the steps above, you should have home run deals to cherry pick from for years to come.  Great deals are not going to just come to you, it is up to you to get to work!!

Related posts:

  1. Real Estate Investors: How to Find Great Cash Flow Deals
  2. BiggerPockets Success Story: Two Deals, Three Months, $50k in profits
  3. How to Raise Private Money for Real Estate Deals: 3 Basic Steps
  4. You Found A Great Rehab Deal. Now, How Do You Fund It?
  5. Looking for Some Deals? Scoop Up Over 350 Foreclosed Homes at Auction, Starting at Only $5000
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Ryan Moeller August 11, 2009 at 2:49 pm

Hey Troy,

Great question. I created an account on Foreclosure.com and created a list of all the REO listing agents and their contact info. I also look on Craigslist in my target market and search for ‘REO’ and create a list of all of those agents. You can even use the MLS and create lists of REO agents and contact info.

Not all agents will be a good fit, in fact few are good at working with investors. The good agents will weed out the duds and present you only good prospects. They will also include a CMA and will have a ballpark rehab estimate after they have done a walkthru and taken some video of the walkthru.
.-= Ryan Moeller´s last blog ..3514 W 58th, Cleveland, OH 44113 =-.

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2 Rob Bonahoom August 11, 2009 at 9:55 pm

It’s a great time to buy real estate based on sound fundamentals. The Minneapolis market is hot right now.

Rob Bonahoom
.-= Rob Bonahoom´s last blog ..Finding a Lender That Has Embraced Fannie’s 10 Financed Property Guidelines =-.

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3 Steve August 12, 2009 at 10:54 pm

I printed all the properties in my target markets and went through each listing. I tallied up the agents and sorted them by the number of listings. Three months later I have been in all of their offices, not good relationships with everyone (yet) but it sure helps that they know me when they get a pre-listing.
.-= Steve´s last blog ..Investing in a War Zones? =-.

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