How to Find Real Estate Investment Properties

So now you know where you want to look, let’s see how to find the great deals.  This is where the real fun begins, the hunt!  I will break this section up into the four main ways to find investment properties.

MLS & Misc Real Estate Listings
It helps a great deal to have access to your local MLS system, most have notification settings bases on a predefined criteria.  This allows you to do a re-occurring search based on several factors such as: zip codes, beds, baths, square footage, price, price/sq ft etc…. This way you will be alerted as soon as a potential property hits the MLS.  There are many MLS linked websites that allow you to do something quite similar though usually they are not quite as extensive.

Drive By & FSBO
Driving through your chosen area is the best way to find investment properties,  write down all For Sale By Owner properties and track the asking prices.  Take note of any properties in ill repair, this can be a great way to find great buys on real estate, it may take some research to find the owner but many times this method results in the best deals.  Sometimes these properties are in probate due to a death, out of state owners (absentee owners) or sometimes you are discovering a property just prior to foreclosure.

Foreclosures and Lis Pendens
 There are a few ways to approach these properties, you can sign up with a realtor that specializes in foreclosure and wholesale properties or you can do the work yourself.  The do-it-yourself approach can be daunting, all filings of lis pendens and foreclosure are public record and everyone has reasonable access to these.  These lists can be obtained from your local clerk of the court, the problem is you have to do your own narrowing of this data, the clerk won’t give you a pretty list just for the area you are looking for so you need to massage the data for your needs, this takes some expertise and quite a bit of time depending on how often you obtain these lists.

Wholesale Real Estate Brokers
Which brings us to the final method of obtaining investment properties. Wholesale real estate brokers specialize in obtaining investment real estate deals.  They do the research and analysis for a fee added at close.  Many time they can get a contract on a foreclosure, or real estate deal well before you even know it’s available. Sometimes they will have an agent assigned specifically to the area you are interested in.  Even with the added fee, these brokers can save you a lot of time and money when hunting for investment real estate.

In our next article, we will look at evaluating costs involved in obtaining a property.