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

Real Estate Category Top 20 Websites

Experian recently released their list of the top 20 real estate related websites.  Keep in mind that these sites deal mostly with the retail and traditional types of real estate.  They are not necessarily investor oriented.

The sites are useful for real estate bird dogs because you can use them to learn your local geographic market, which is extremely important if you want to be a successful property locator.  You must know your local market!

The table below shows the Top 20 websites in the ‘Business and Finance – Real Estate’ online industry for the month of February, 2011 based on visits.

The Property category focuses on residential and commercial real estate and property services including agency websites, real estate databases, classifieds of properties to buy, sell, rent or lease as well as services specifically catering to home buyers, sellers or renters.

You may read Experian’s entire report at http://www.hitwise.com/us/press-center/industry-reports?j=13966109.

Some Realtors will consider working with real estate investors, bird dogs and property locators.

As a real estate investor, I can tell you 2 things. Working with investors can be rewarding and lucrative OR it can be frustrating, difficult, time consuming and involve unwanted surprises.

The difference between whether this niche can be rewarding and lucrative, or not worth your time and effort is education and training….of the investor.

1. Investors are in it for the money…of course. But I am sure anyone here who has worked with a real estate investor knows that they can be scattered, unethical, demanding, you name it. The reason is because they do not how to make good use of their time, how to search for the right properties, estimate costs to repair and fail to perform due diligence on the properties in question. They are not true entrepreneurs or business professionals and have no respect for your time, expertise and knowledge. Read the rest of this entry