I can't find that many

Greetings,

I understand that I need to go through a lot of properties until I find the few that I will submit an offer for. Until, finally, I close on one.

Here’s my “problem,” I can’t seem to find that many. I use craigslist, local newspaper, and internet search sights (trulia, century 21, remax.com, etc). These return quite a few properties. However, at best only 3 will really be what I’m looking for. For example, search for duplex in city XX, price range $YY-$WW. Search result = 30 properties. Maybe 10% of that will be in my target area.

Questions:

  1. Am I overthinking this whole “quality is in the quantity” thing?

  2. How am I supposed to find numerous properties to sort through so I can find “the good deal”?

  3. Is my search standard? or am I not digging enough? If not, how do I fix it.

Thanks.

Luis

The best deal is sometimes the one you don’t do. Don’t do a deal just to do a deal. If it won’t cash flow don’t do it. Just keep looking. You may want to expand your search to different sources. I would try to find an investment grate real estate agent that works with REOs and see if they can shake loose some deals. At your local real estate investment club you may find an investor that is motivated to get rid of some of his properties. I assume that you are approved for an investor loan. The mortgage broker that you are using no doubt is financing a lot of investment properties, he may know of someone that is motivated to sell what you are looking for. Use your contacts in the business.

Instead of searching the MLS, craigslist, etc. etc. so hard start marketing that you buy houses. Get some ads out there, newspaper, bandit signs, etc. My deals didn’t start coming in until I got my phone ringing. Get sellers contacting you instead of you contacting them. If they contact you then they are already ready to sell, most likely at a discount. Now isn’t that what you’re looking for?

Good luck

Luis,

You aren’t getting deals because you aren’t earning them. Sitting at home and searching Craigslist is simply not going to get the job done. I also strongly disagree with the idea that you must go through a lot of properties to find one that is suitable. I certainly do NOT do that!

My advice is to get out of the house and go look at properties in your area. Join your local REIA and make friends with the successful investors in your area. Tell everyone you know that you buy houses. John’s suggestion of a newspaper ad is a good one. If you want to be successful in real estate, you need a “hands on” approach!

Good Luck,

Mike

I agree with Mike. This business is not a “video game”. You cannot expect to be successful by setting behind a computer screen doing searches. You can use information from the internet as a tool, but you have to get out and beat the bushes. The only people making money by someone setting around searching for deals on the internet are those that you pay subscription/membership fees to.

Find your niche and work it hard. I am not a millionaire nor do I play one on TV. I make enough to satisfy my needs and that is all that matters.

Go Gettem!! :beer

The biggest problem for any business, be it Real Estate or a Restaurant, is finding the customers. Each business model has its way of getting people through the door and trying to sell them on their services.

What works for one, may not work for another, but in general there are some guidelines and proven methods to prospect and find customers. The challenge with listing or describing these methods is that people tend to tone them out because they require cash, hard work, or figuring out how to make it work.

It is much easier to call something “doesn’t work” and move on to the next challenge. What is difficult to deal with the most is that majority are in denial. Everytime I had this conversation with someone, they always argue that they do not fall within this category, yet none of them making it work.

Here are methods that work and work WELL for the successful investors. These same methods do not work for the unsuccessful investors.

Networking
Networking works, but it takes time to build up. You need to position yourself in a way to be the go to person for your type of business among those you work with. You will need to build up your knowledge level and get involved.
Why it doesn’t work for most? because people look at the tool and not the outcome. When I was starting to invest, I was told to pass out 20 business cards a day. Like any newbie, I was leaving them on tables, in the stores, etc. Thats not the correct way.
The correct idea is to MEET and interact with people and convince them of what you do by demonstrating your knowledge and positioning yourself as the goto person. Networking also means staying in touch and meeting as many people as you could.
I was referred a deal by another investor that made me $36k. I was not looking for it, but I do meet with investors, realtors, title reps at least monthly if not weekly.

Direct Marketing
The idea of direct marketing is to let people know that you are in certain type of business. You need to craft the right message to the right audiance and stay in touch with them till.
Successful investors follow two approaches:

One Step Marketing
Sending out targetted material to narrowed list of prospects that MAY contain motivated sellers. Such as Expired Listings, FSBO, FRBO…etc. Or to a smaller farm based on demographics. You send out the material to the same prospect at least 4 to 6 times over period of time.

Two Step Marketing
Two step marketing works by marketing to larger number of people with larger front end cost to get those who MAY be motivated to raise their hand then market to them. Advertising could be a good channel here.

Successful investors use one or both of these methods with the intention of positioning themselves as the solution to the motivated seller’s problem WHEN they first become motivated. Once they get motivated, they open their mailbox, email, newspaper, yellow pages and they find the investor.

The unsuccessful investor sends out random letters when they get around to it, never follow up. They do not understand how important the content of their letters or post cards are. They do not realize that one single word can impact their results. They do not understand why sending out X number of letters/postcards does not return Y numbers of deals. They assume if they send 100 letters, they SHOULD get 10 calls and CLOSE 1 deal. they tend to give up quickly and say it does not work

MLS
Successful investors knows what they are looking for, they secure pocket listings, be the first to snap a good listing as soon as it gets listed, or BEFORE the selling agent list it (pocket listing) by positioning themselves correctly.

Unsuccessful investors browse the MLS randomly, make low ball offer here and there.

The list goes on and on. Here is my core take on finding deals:

If one person could prove it could be done, then by god so can I. It is just a matter of figuring out how. I studied Michael Quarels and $Cash$'s systems at first, then ventured into the general direct marketing arena to figure out how to best do it and borrow from other industries.

I understood that getting random deals based on luck is not something I can build my business on and had to have solid foundation for lead generation. I had to figure out how to predict what I can get and close from each marketing method.

The investment business these days is about as clear as a bowling ball… Especially if your strategy is to buy and flip… A few years ago the key was making a presentation that caused seller to say yes to your approach over picking any one of the 10 people at their front door offering them a different solution.

Today you have to find the properties that allow you to purchase them at 50cents on the dollar or less. A little more difficult unless you have your lead generation, lead capture and lead fulfillment systems in place and running well.

All of us here have a little different approach for finding Motivated sellers… I like main stream marketing coupled with on purpose network marketing.

One allows you to have a business independent of your personal actions and the other greatly relies on your actions.
However in today’s market both are required.

If you’re scouring the MLS for deals good luck… Most MLSes allow a broker to hold a listing for 3 days prior to inputting it in the MLS and that agent typically knows they are going to sign a listing agreement a couple days before they do therefore the listing is at least 5 days old before it hits the MLS and if it was a great price 5 days is enough to get it sold.
Ask yourself these 10 questions.

  1. Does everyone I know, know that I am an investor looking to buy/sell/hold real estate
  2. Am I willing to meet people I don’t know on a regular basis and discuss real estate
  3. Do I have an Elevator speech
  4. Are my business cards appropriate to an Investment Business
  5. Am I confident that I can speak to a seller/buyer and get them to beg me to buy/sell their/my house
  6. Am I familiar with my market so I can come to a determination within an hour if I want to buy a house and at what price
  7. Do I have a strategy for reselling the houses I buy that will cause them to sell within 90 days of contract
  8. Is my infrastructure set in place for buying/selling/holding property
  9. Am I constantly learning techniques and strategies
  10. When someone asks me what I do for a living is the first thing out of my mouth “I am A Real Estate Investor?

I am a firm believer that you should not spend money on advertising until you can answer these 10 correctly… You may be wasting advertising dollars…

Michael Quarles

Wow! Thank you for the great responses.

I will put these into action. I plan to join some of the investment clubs listed on this website.

I am limited to the internet for right now due to my location (Iraq). I have emailed various professionals in my target market in order to establish relationships.

Thanks again.

Luis

I am looking to purchase a few properties over the next few years to get some cash flow and to have some houses to sell in 20 years to get cash to supplement my pension check. I work a full time job making ~$100,000/year and plan on retiring from this position in 15-20 years. Do I really have to get as involved as you all are talking about here (networking, marketing, asking myself the ten questions) or can I just dabble without trying to make my living doing it? I plan on working with a few realtors, joining a real estate investment club and trying to find a good deal per year and buying it. I think that I can do this. If I was trying to be a full time real estate investor, I would agree with every word of what you all are saying. Do you guys agree, or am I just dreaming? I am just assuming that people do what I am thinking of doing all the time.

You have a good plan for income through RE investing. You can certainly do it “on the side” and not make RE investing your full time gig. I suggest you seek out a good agent. Someone with lots of experience (at least 10 years in the biz). Preferrably an agent that is also an investor. Interview many until you find one you like. Make sure they represent you only (I don’t like dual-agency). Sit down together and do the numbers (how much you have to put down, and how much you want to make, need to make to cover payments). Get a regular “real estate hunting” time - like every other Saturday and try to look at 3-5 properties each time.

Don’t fall in love with anything and consider each prospective property in relation to your plan/goal and numbers. Have fun looking and take your time.

Warning: Once you find that great deal and start making money - RE investing gets pretty addicting.

THAT’S NO :bs