What are the best ways to find off market deals?

Question

First time investor looking for a duplex or a SFH as my first project. What are the best ways to find off market deals in a competitive market?

David Ramirez · Answer

Depends on your budget but if you are just looking for one property you could:

1) Driving for dollars, skip trace and call.

2) Network with investors and JV on a deal if they find it.

3) Get in contact with wholesalers and agents in your area.

Dan H. · Answer

wholesalers in So Cal are a dime a dozen but 1) in general off market either are in poor shape or have risk items 2) Most wholesale deals are not that great of an offering. 3) Most are cash only.Networth realty is one of the bigger off market providers.  Occasionally they have good deals, but they have a big buyers list so the deals are slim with the exception if you can get contacted on a deals that falls out late.  Somehow I have fallen off their mailing list.  I suspect it is due to agent turnover there as they seem to always be losing agents.  There are dozens of other wholesalers, too many to list.

You are better off sourcing your own off market deals by networking.

Good luck

Eliott Elias · Answer

Wholesalers and realtors who have pocket listings.

Mike Klarman · Answer

So, this was my issue when I first started out as a broker, calling a list my boss gave me.  After dialing 50 numbers and either no one picking up, getting a polite no, getting hung up on or screamed at, every once in a while I'd get someone interested and they'd love the loan programs and they'd like me (of course!) but they don't have a project and they tell me it's hard to find a good project but they'd reach out when they did.

So, after a while of getting that same exact response from a bunch of people I decided to start finding projects myself and I also was determined to develop a relationship with a mid level contractor who can do major overhauls on houses in a short amount of time.  So I spent time interviewing agents and contractors until I found a good team who:

1) Is responsive

2) Sees the vision of offering an investor a complete package

3) Is willing to work hard for investors who invest with us

The agent I have finds off market deals all the time, and all I have to do is text the GP of the contracting firm and he sends someone out to walk any property I ask.  All our goals are aligned and we are all on the same page.  We don't get investors into deals unless they have a 6 figure spread.  When an investor makes 60k over a six month project I apologize and promise to do better on the next.

Bottom line is, you will find people in this industry willing to work with you.  May not be the first people you meet, I went through three agents before finding a rock star who is hungry.  We're closing a deal next week and we just had an offer accepted today and will be closing another in like three weeks.

Alex U. · Answer

Would agree with this. Most wholesalers, are passing on deals that they can't flip the property themselves as their cost is less that 30% arv. So they markup to near retail rates and try to offload them under the guise of it being "wholesale" pricing.

Nicholas L. · Answer

@Brian Kim

OK - those are all very different strategies.  with 200k, you could likely house hack AND get another project going at the same time.  for house hacking i'd look on market.  off market - there are tons of posts on BP and tons of podcasts / youtube videos etc.  check out wholesale hotline for example for lots of info.  basically you an either buy from a wholesaler OR surface your own deal.

Brian Kim · Answer

@Nicholas L.I'm open to BRRR, house hacking, or flipping. Starting with about 200k in capital and looking at a DSCR loan or hard money lending.

Nicholas L. · Answer

@Brian Kim

is this for you to live in?  or flip?  or what

not enough info

Brian Kaufman · Answer

Very much appreciated.

Thank you!

Dan H. · Answer

Meetups can work.  Look at the RSVP list to be sure it has a good expected turnout.  Also Meetups that indicate a primary social nature (have items like social, brew, network, etc in their name) will have a higher percentage of newbies than meetups with agenda or that are run by larger RE operations.

SDCIA, NSDREI, SDREI, STRA (new and specializes in STRs) are larger RE operations.

Meetups with agendas will have been mix.  My friend's Janice meetup Private Lending Masters is today (Thursday) and can be found on Meetup.com. I have gone to maybe a dozen of her meetups and in general she has a good agenda with appropriate presenter and attendees with a good mix of experience with typically between 20 and 30 attendees.  It can be found on Meetup.com.  Today's agenda is a developer, so it may not be the most appropriate topic for many RE investors and this is reflected in the RSVP count (currently 11).

I attended a handful of SDCIA MF meetups.  They were well attended (my guess is ~25 attendees which was near capacity for the room used). It was good, but for some reason those classes stopped suddenly.

Meetup.com has local RE meetups most days of the week.  Find the ones that you like.

Good luck

What are the best ways to find off market deals?

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