Real Estate Investing Tip – Driving for dollars! We all want to find more real estate deals and are often looking for additional creative ways to find these real estate deals. Our Realtors work very hard but can only find so many deals through the Multiple Listing Service. A key for us to find more deals leads for us to look for off market and unlisted deals. I put together this short list of creative techniques to help you to discover distressed properties.
If you become good at finding off market deals, you will have an opportunity to profit from these little gems. Across the country there are so many opportunities. The question might be where do you start? Well, I will go into detail to discuss this as well as highlight some of the ways you can start.
Distressed properties can offer tremendous opportunities for real estate investors. Listed below are some things to look for in your neighborhood that might indicate distressed properties with motivated sellers:
– Blue Tarps on Roofs
– Weeks or months of mail jammed in the front door or piled up on the doorstep to the home
– Overgrown grass, hedges, trees and landscaping
– Snow that has been shoveled
– Excessive pealing exterior paint on home or garage
– Rotted or exposed wood
– Lock-boxes on doors, railing, fence or poles
– Boarded up windows or doors
– Outdated exterior design
– Zoning and municipal notices posted on the homes windows and doors
Always try to generate leads from a variety of sources:
Tax Time! – Accountants, Bookkeepers and Certified Public Accountants – They have clients with financial problems or issues and an investor can help solve these problems or issues.
Attorneys – know when their clients need money. Contact attorneys that handle estates, probate, divorce, family law and real estate.
Bird Dogs – Build an army of bird dogs to leverage the time of others to be your eyes and ears to help find you more motivated sellers that might lead to more real estate deals.
City and County Inspectors – may have cited properties for code violations. If you develop a reputation of buying distressed properties and improving them, you will become an asset to your community. Network!
Condemned Properties – could be an option to explore.
Court Eviction Filings – Probate Court, Divorce Cases, Tax Liens, Code Violations, etc.
The list keeps growing so please share any other great ideas or techniques. A few months back, I was in the State of New York and we found numerous distressed properties within several miles of each other. I snapped a photo of this house listed in the photo that was distressed in the neighborhood we were driving.
Live life in the moment with no regrets! Believe and Achieve! – Joe Jurek
