@Jonah Lamour our most recent deal we purchased I got from making a facebook post. I basically said we are looking to buy homes in any condition and if they (any of my friends on facebook) provide a lead that results in us buying a property we will give them a $1000.00. I received 6 leads within 2 hours and ended up getting one of the properties under contract that week and closed shortly after. The lead provider got a $1000.00 and I saved hours upon hours of cold calling and or driving for $$. I also still get messages from friends sending me potential deals.
Partner with others. For example, I am looking for the opposite. I'm finding places in my neighbourhood that look like great potential flips, but I don't have the cash or experience to do it, so I would need to find someone looking to flip, and partner with them. If you can connect with people who live near where you're looking to buy, that can be on the lookout for you, that could work well, and help someone to get their start.
Partner with others. For example, I am looking for the opposite. I'm finding places in my neighbourhood that look like great potential flips, but I don't have the cash or experience to do it, so I would need to find someone looking to flip, and partner with them. If you can connect with people who live near where you're looking to buy, that can be on the lookout for you, that could work well, and help someone to get their start.
@Jonah Lamour my favorite way is through networking. You can still join virtual meetup groups to get to know the big players in the area. Best of luck!
@Jonah Lamour my favorite way is through networking. You can still join virtual meetup groups to get to know the big players in the area. Best of luck!
I work at a hotel as a front desk agent and something that has been working for me is letting some of the guest know that I am interested in investing in real estate and that has been helping me a lot.
@Jonah Lamour our most recent deal we purchased I got from making a facebook post. I basically said we are looking to buy homes in any condition and if they (any of my friends on facebook) provide a lead that results in us buying a property we will give them a $1000.00. I received 6 leads within 2 hours and ended up getting one of the properties under contract that week and closed shortly after. The lead provider got a $1000.00 and I saved hours upon hours of cold calling and or driving for $$. I also still get messages from friends sending me potential deals.
@Jonah Lamour our most recent deal we purchased I got from making a facebook post. I basically said we are looking to buy homes in any condition and if they (any of my friends on facebook) provide a lead that results in us buying a property we will give them a $1000.00. I received 6 leads within 2 hours and ended up getting one of the properties under contract that week and closed shortly after. The lead provider got a $1000.00 and I saved hours upon hours of cold calling and or driving for $$. I also still get messages from friends sending me potential deals.
I have heard of this strategy, but now that I am hearing it again theres no reason I should not be implementing this into my system. I will be making a facebook post about this shortly! thank you so much.
I go to zillow, enter state, then maximum price (for example $1000 minimum $25,000 maximum in NY State), sort cheapest first, and get 100 deals with a +$125,000 ARV each. I haven't had to resort any further. No one seems to understand my method yet. They all say, how did you find this deal I can't find any. Shrugging shoulders.
For me... Too many deals right now... Not enough money. Forcing me to look for other means of capital than I have used before.
With that said, I would find the big players in your market, take em to lunch and ask em... "If you were in my shoes, what would you do?"
Then... DO EXACTLY WHAT THEY SAY! (Most people skip this step)
Are you considering house hacking? What types of deals are you looking for? What are your goals? Why realestate?
This is a great problem to have, thank you for the advise! I am a front desk agent and I check in a lot of people that have found success through real estate so I will just continuing doing that and won't hold back when it comes to asking them how they did it and other juicy questions that could help me in my journey.
Partner with others. For example, I am looking for the opposite. I'm finding places in my neighbourhood that look like great potential flips, but I don't have the cash or experience to do it, so I would need to find someone looking to flip, and partner with them. If you can connect with people who live near where you're looking to buy, that can be on the lookout for you, that could work well, and help someone to get their start.
Well planned. Team up with others to help limit the rookie mistakes. Good luck to you & your future success!
@Jonah Lamour our most recent deal we purchased I got from making a facebook post. I basically said we are looking to buy homes in any condition and if they (any of my friends on facebook) provide a lead that results in us buying a property we will give them a $1000.00. I received 6 leads within 2 hours and ended up getting one of the properties under contract that week and closed shortly after. The lead provider got a $1000.00 and I saved hours upon hours of cold calling and or driving for $$. I also still get messages from friends sending me potential deals.
Genius! How much do I own you man? Haha. I will be giving this a try, thanks!
I go to zillow, enter state, then maximum price (for example $1000 minimum $25,000 maximum in NY State), sort cheapest first, and get 100 deals with a +$125,000 ARV each. I haven't had to resort any further. No one seems to understand my method yet. They all say, how did you find this deal I can't find any. Shrugging shoulders.
Nice man. Have you had any success flips with this method?
Thank you for sharing your method! I'm not sure what's confusing for people, it's actually really straightforward. My only frustration on Zillow is being unable to filter out Auctions and Foreclosures.
I entered your exact parameters for New York -- I got to find out all about the Greater Syracuse Land Bank! Quite a learning experience.
For anyone reading this, the Greater Syracuse Land Bank is a non-profit organization in Syracuse that buys up distressed and abandoned properties. They "caretake" the properties to keep them from getting worse, with the ultimate goal of rehabbing the property. If you do a search of cheap properties, you will get a lot Land Bank properties in the 1k - 6k range. The catch is that the Land Bank has done an assessment of each property with their own rehab estimate. And they won't sell you the property unless you can show proof of funds covering the sail price AND the rehab estimate.
Looking through their listings, the rehab estimates seem pretty high. On one house that was listed for 1k, the rehab estimate was 65k. In many areas, that could be a decent flip--but not in this neighborhood. The top recent sale in the neighborhood was for 85k, all other sales were for 40k or less.
This is a situation where A non-profit trying to help a neighborhood is (from what I can see) actually hurting it. Prices in the neighborhood won't go up until more of these derelicts are rehabbed. But no one is rehabbing them because fix&flippers can't make a profit off of these Land Bank homes. And the Land Bank has A LOT of homes. The stringent standards they require prevent a good flipper from using creativity and resourcefulness to bring rehab costs down. Maybe they are hoping for home buyers who want to fix up a home for themselves, but most home buyers are looking for move-in ready.
Anyways, that was very educational, and interesting example of barriers real estate investors can run up against.
You could always try cold calling or other marketing methods like direct mail! Definitely requires a time commitment, but we've found some very solid deals through cold calling and DM. You'll most likely need to pull lists from somewhere though or invest in software like Reonomy.
@Jonah Lamour One other method that could work in two ways would be to collaborate with TK providers in your area. I did not see where you are located, so can't tell if it's a region with lots of them like Memphis and other larger cities or not that many.
Here are the two ways it could work for you (assuming you have TK providers):
1. You connect with them, look at their pipeline of properties and offer them to renovate one or more in a given time period (i.e. 1 year). You would basically be a sub-contractor and you would know you would get paid a predetermined price. On the flip side, you would probably have some flexibility on the scope of work but if you do a lot of the or yourself while they typically pay a contractor, you could make that 20% difference plus possibly a share of the sales proceeds.
2. You could look at the TK providers and ask them where they reno properties. Then find similar properties in the same locations, ask if they mind sharing their typical scope, and maybe even offer a collaboration where you do the reno and then sell wholesale to them. When doing it that way you know what properties they use and where they find them and then do what they do and retain the option to sell to them or sell on your own.
On option 2, after you have done a few deals like that you could even decide to hold a few of the properties, and have the TK provider you work with manage them, put tenants in etc.
you would help them have a little more inventory (if you go with option 1) or have an additional resource for reno and pipeline (if you go what option 2)
If your using a realtor then your wasting your time all you’ll get is overpriced on market deals with no meat on the bone and lots of competition . Buy off market for 40 -60 cents on the dollar -Direct mail , post cards , bandit signs , social media ads
1. Network - build relationships and reinforce them so that people a) know what you're looking for, and b) bring deals to you when they have them
2. Direct Mail/Set up a pipeline - Buy or build a list and send out letters/make phone calls, tracking your progress/success rate over time so you can tweak it as needed.
A couple of links on direct mail (there are tons more out there than this but these two came to mind):
- Mark Ferguson's YouTube video called "How to Buy Off-Market Properties Using Direct Mail"
Joshua D. Thank you for response. Yes, I am in a similar situation. The constraint is not finding deals, but having capital for the amount of deals I find. To answer your query just BURRR here. Devon Hume thank you for the info on NY Land Bank. I have not had to resort to them, but was interested in further research there myself.
For those of you who find/buy off market deals - any tips on what does/doesn't work when you contact the owner asking them to sell? I typically send letters but wondering what has been successful for others. Thanks!
Spend marketing money as much as you can on: direct mail, networking with wholesalers and agents, expired listings, fsbo, driving 4 $, SEO, PPC, targeted lists; probate, divorce, high equity, pre foreclosure, tax liens etc.
Once you establish a track record and reputation, you may have deals "coming to you". However, that will probably require you to actively go out and get them for a while! Also, network with agents and wholesales and let them know what you're doing and make them believe if they bring a deal to you, it's going to close.
You could also do some marketing to source your own deals i.e. cold calling (you can actually hire someone to do this if you don't want to), direct mail, hand written letters, etc..
@Jonah Lamour 90% of the best margins you'll ever see is from off-market. Find a strategy that works best for you, research the market you want to be in, and build a great team, including a wholesaler(s) that you trust. That would be a great place to start.
Network with other local investors!!!! I am part of a group of 6 buy and hold investors in Danville, VA who each have their own portfolios but act and keep everyone else involved like it was a partnership! We all became best friends and share ideas and leads with each other. No way can we buy everything available so we pass deals on to each other and grow everyone else's portfolios. We work for ourselves and each other, makes for a competitive yet encouraging atmosphere where we celebrate the other's accomplishments. We have over 150 units between us, far far more deals than doing everything alone.
Network with other local investors!!!! I am part of a group of 6 buy and hold investors in Danville, VA who each have their own portfolios but act and keep everyone else involved like it was a partnership! We all became best friends and share ideas and leads with each other. No way can we buy everything available so we pass deals on to each other and grow everyone else's portfolios. We work for ourselves and each other, makes for a competitive yet encouraging atmosphere where we celebrate the other's accomplishments. We have over 150 units between us, far far more deals than doing everything alone.
This system is inspiring. I will keep this in mind!