Off-Market Deal Flow — Where's It Actually Coming From These Days?

Question

Feels like the pre-foreclosure and tax-delinquent lists everyone used to lean on are more picked-over than ever. Most of what I'm putting under contract lately comes through direct relationships — other agents, wholesalers, word of mouth — rather than any list or portal. Anyone else seeing the shift away from "traditional" lead sources toward relationship-driven deal flow?

G. Brian Davis · Answer

Good relationships tend to lead to opportunities that never make it to the broader market, and they often come with a lot more context about the deal. Over the years, I've found some of my best deals have come through people rather than lists.

Denise Supplee · Answer

Relationships are one of the most valuable parts of real estate. Some of the best opportunities I've seen over the years have come through the people I've met and the relationships I've built. It's one of the things I enjoy about our co-investing club too. Everyone brings different experiences to the conversation, and we all learn from one another.

Lucas Flowers · Answer

This tracks with what I've seen too: once a list is popular enough that 50 other investors are calling the same names, it stops mattering how 'motivated' the data says someone is. What's worked better is combining fresher, less-picked-over sources (direct county pulls, code violations, less common data cross-references) with consistent outbound instead of relying on any single list. Relationship-driven deal flow is great once it's built, but it usually takes volume of conversations early on to get there; the relationships come from being the person who called first and followed up right, not just networking passively.