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Beginner's Real Estate
Investing Guide: How to Find Great Real Estate Deals
By Jeanette Joy Fisher
One of the first questions new
real estate investors ask is where they can find great
deals. It's only natural, since they've often been
eagerly watching the various infomercials that crowd
late-night television and they're eager to cash in on
what seems to be the easy money available in real
estate.
The bad news: it's not as easy as they make it sound of
television. The good news: you can make some great money
as a real estate investor if you know where to look and
do your homework well. Here are a few ideas for finding
deals.
The first is obvious. Check your local area, especially
if you live in a smaller town. Your competition will be
much less, and you may find sellers more willing to be
flexible, since their options are also limited by the
smaller population base. You can also advertise yourself
as a real estate investor who is interested in buying
property in your area. You'll probably get calls, which
is often not the case when your ad has to compete
against dozens of others in a big city newspaper.
If you see estate sales listed in your local paper,
visit them and ask if the real estate will be for sale,
as well. The same is true about garage sales. Though
only some 20 percent of people holding garage sales are
planning to move, you may be the only person who asks
about their home during their garage sale. The key is to
stand out from your competition.
As you drive around your target area, always be on the
lookout for vacant houses, especially those that are
somewhat rundown and have lawns that haven't been mowed
in awhile. When you find one, stop and talk to the
neighbors. Do they know what’s happening with the house?
They can be a wealth of information, and you'll often
find them happy to talk to you, because an unsightly,
abandoned home in a neighborhood hurts all the other
houses in the area. Leave your card on the front door.
You just might get a call from a motivated seller.
Tell local lenders that you're interested in buying
homes they're in the process of repossessing. If you get
yourself preapproved for a loan, you may be the first
person the bank will call when one of their properties
is soon to become available. They might even walk you
through the process of a short sale, which can save you
a considerable amount of money. Many of these homes will
also carry special financing or allowances for repairs,
so they're worth looking into.
Put up flyers to let people know you buy homes. Offer a
finder's fee for leads that turn into sales. It's worth
paying someone a few hundred dollars to make thousands.
Talk to folks who deal with people who are moving and
offer them a finder's fee. Whether it's a property
manager, your mailman, or your paper boy, you never know
where your next lead will come from. Tell everyone you
meet that you're in the market for investment homes.
Although it may not be as easy as the late-night gurus
make it sound, make no mistake: the deals are out there,
and when you find them, you really can make lots of
money as a real estate investor.
Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher
This is #5 in a series of
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