New investor using the MLS in a hot market

[Luke Wolmer]

My goal is to find a house hack with a reasonable commute into Manhattan. I have been doing my homework and learning as much as possible the past 6 months via books, forums and podcasts. Now I am in the process of trying to find a deal. From what I learned thus far, it seems finding a "good" deal in a hot market like NYC requires creativity:

"One cannot simply work with a good agent and find a good deal on the MLS because the deals get snatched up too fast or never even reach the MLS. Therefore in a hot market, most listings on the MLS will be bad deals."

However as a new investor finding deals in a more creative way seems a bit daunting. So my question is simple, in the NYC metro area (Queens, Harlem, Bronx, Brooklyn, Jersey City, etc.) does the MLS still have potential? If anyone has found good deals via the MLS can you please share any tips or advice? 

[Russell Brazil]

Im speaking in generalities and not nessecarily specifics to your market.

Markets of high liquidity tends to have a lot less off markets trading as opposed to illiquid markets where it is much more common to have off markets. Here in the midatlantic we have 2 major cities that are very very different. DC is an incredibly liquid market, so most properties trade on the MLS. Baltimore is a lot less liquid, and thus has more off market properties. Over the last 10 years the liquidity of Baltimores market has increased and more traditionally off market properties have moved to the MLS with the change in liquidity.