Maximizing Your MLS Access as a Real Estate Investor

Recently one of my real estate coaching clients called up very excited that they had passed their real estate licensing exam and now had access to the MLS.  He wanted to know how to maximize his MLS access. 

I explained to him that the best way to find good deals is to market directly to people who have a real estate issue and problem to solve that makes them NEED to sell.  I also told him that less than 10% of the houses I've ever purchased came from the mls. 

With that being said, as a former managing broker, I do believe that the mls can provide a great environment for finding good deals, IF you look where everyone else isn't looking. 

Here is what I told him to do:

1) pull expired listings from 6+ months ago and market to them with a cheap, direct response postcard

2) look for HUD owned, short sales, and bank owned properties (however, if you're in a competitive market you'll probably get into a bidding war on these)

3) look for properties with keywords, such as: needs work, needs TLC, fixer-upper, must sell, motivated, as-is

4) Find out what the average DOM (days on market) is in your area. Then, pull any listings that are over that by about another 30 days. Those people are starting to get anxious and nervous and are usually willing to negotiate on price and/or terms. 

5) Lastly, in many MLS systems you can search by the financing. This is a great way to find cash buyers and then cross reference that with county records and mail to them at their address, not the property address, to get them on your cash buyer list so you have someone to sell deals to.

Yes, the MLS can be a great resource if you know how to use it, but it's just one of many ways of finding good real estate deals for most real estate investors.