As mentioned previously, the ways to bird dog for real estate and to locate investment properties are endless.  One method is to use the newspapers (hard copy and online).

The newspaper used to be the fastest and cheapest way of getting started on your property search. While it can be very time consuming to scour over all the ads, it’s a great way to find flexible sellers! Every Sunday, in just about every newspaper, the classified section is crammed with ads for real estate for sale. Buy a local newspaper for the area where you would like to find property (weekend papers are typically the best for this).

Go through the “Homes for Sale” section and circle any ad that says “For Sale by Owner” (FSBO), “Owner Financing Available,” or anything close to either one of these.  Look for motivation clues in the ad.  Now, go through the same paper looking at the rental section and circle any ad that lists a phone number that is in a different area code than the property. The reason for this one is that often a landlord who does not live near their property can become a motivated seller very quickly.

If you make a goal to buy a paper every week, and then make 15 calls from each paper, you may find that you come across a property to work with by the end of the month. While doing this, you are learning how to talk to sellers, which are the best questions to ask, how to ask the hard questions, and you’re practicing your buying and house hunting techniques.

The most important question to ask when you make calls is to find out WHY the property is for sale. Be sure to ask this question before hammering out all of the other questions like the number of bedrooms or bathrooms, or what the square footage is. While these are important questions that you should be asking, they are not going to be able o indicate how motivated a seller might be. Approach your calls in a conversational manner, having genuine interest, and you will be surprised what type of information and results you can get.

When looking through the papers, take several looks over all the pages. Look for the ads that jump out to you as motivated sellers. These ads might contain words like “motivated”, “desperate”, “relocating”, “divorce”, “must sell”, etc. Make sure nothing has been missed.

Then check the “for rent” ads. You may luck out and find a landlord who is tired of their additional property and wants to sell.

And finally, when looking through that paper, don’t forget to look in other sections besides real estate rentals and sales! A good indication of properties that might be up for sale soon can be found in the auction, legal notices, and obituary sections.

As mentioned in previous articles, the ways for “real estate bird dogs” to find properties are endless.  One other method you can use is the multiple listing service, which (unfortunately) is accessible by real estate agents and realtors.

MLS stands for the Multiple Listing Service. It is a huge database of properties and property information that Realtors use to find properties, check comparable properties, list properties and do general research. The MLS can be a great resource for finding deals, which means that real estate agents can be a great resource too, despite what some other investors may tell you. Read the rest of this entry

Partnering with Realtors to Locate Properties

Real Estate Birddogging – Lesson 32

Realtor Rally—Realtor Action Center (Flickr.com)

As mentioned previously, the ways for “real estate bird dogs” to find properties are endless.  One method is to work with real estate agents and realtors.

A nice perk to working with real estate agents and Realtors© (the difference between a real estate agent and a Realtor is that Realtors belong to the National Association of Realtors) is that they are very tuned in to changes and emerging trends in different areas and neighborhoods, and can give you a heads up about these trends before any one else, such as your competitors, are aware of them. Once you develop a good relationship with a realtor, you may also see that they will start providing you with their “pocket” listings, listings that haven’t been posted on the MLS yet, but can still be great deals.

Remember, however, that most real estate agents are going to try to sell you something! When you approach them be very specific with them and tell them to call only if they have an absolute steal. Ask agents to give you expired listings that they couldn’t sell.  Most realtors do not understand investors and do not know how to work with investors.  It is a good idea to have a well thought out plan before you approach realtors, and to also understand everything about how they work. Read the rest of this entry

Finding Properties

Real Estate Birddogging  – Lesson 31

The ways to find investment properties are endless.  Use your imagination and you will be rewarded.  The best ways to start locating properties are by putting ads in the paper (better yet, calling people that have properties for sale) and on Craigslist.com, driving through neighborhoods, putting out signs, sending postcards, etc.  Look for sellers whose properties have been seized or foreclosed, tax sales, corporations, nonprofits, disinterested heirs, probate attorneys, and private auctions.  Look for distressed sellers in addition to distressed property (divorce, probate, moving, loss of income, etc.). Market yourself as an investor.  Good marketing does two things: first, it makes people aware of your product; and second, it gets them to take a desired action (for example, calling you). Read the rest of this entry

The Flip is Dead: New Rules of Real Estate Investing

No More Flipping Houses? Are Real Estate Investors going back to the fundamental Buy-and-Hold strategy?

The real estate market is still dominated by foreclosures, pre-foreclosures and other distressed properties, and as opportunistic investors, we can’t ignore short sales, foreclosures, and defaulted note buying.  One thing seems to have changed and that topic is about flipping houses for a quick profit. Whereas the preferred exit strategy used to be flipping a property or note for a quick profit, that strategy no longer works in many cases, due partly to new federal rules such as HAFA and HAMP, restrictions on same-day transactions, seasoning requirements, and general market factors.

Cash(flow) is King Again

However, there are other reasons that aggressive investors are looking beyond the quick flip–and that’s because buy-and-hold returns are so good right now.  All of a sudden, investing for cash flow never looked so good. (Robert Kiosaki is smiling and nodding…) Read the rest of this entry

If you are an experienced real estate bird dog you need to know the different types of investment property mortgage rates available to you and/or the real estate investors you are birddogging for.

According to many financial experts, investing in real estate is one of the safest decisions that you may take. You may flip a house by renovating it and then sell it off in order to earn some amount of profit. You can also make investments in the development properties when the prices of the properties are comparatively lower. Another alternative is to buy a property and lease purchase it to your tenants. You can take the help of a home mortgage calculator in order to calculate your affordability. Whichever option you may choose, make sure that you may be able to take advantage of the best investment property mortgage rate. Read the rest of this entry