In this competitive real estate investing market, I know no one is going to turn down some FREE methods to help them find deals, so I’m going to continue with my previous topic on creative ways to find leads and deals for your real estate invsting business.
Previously, I shared 7 Tips To Finding Off-Market Properties to help find deals and I’m now giving you 6 more very easy, practicle and proven methods for finding great investment deals.
6 FREE OFFLINE TIPS FOR FINDING OFF-MARKET PROPERTIES
1. Attorneys
Probate, General Practice, Real Estate and Divorce attorneys all have clients who are going through divorce, bankruptcy, etc. They know of properties that are off the market with little to NO competition.
2. Mortgage Brokers and Banks
They are in real estate full time as lender and regularly get leads from sellers who are looking to refinance, but can’t because they have bad credit.
Brokers can often make a marketing fee for introducing you to their lead, so it’s a win-win situation for everyone.
Mortgage Broker Case Study:
100 US Grant Street
Purchase Price: $300,000
Renovations: $100,000
Private Money: $400,000
ARV: $1,100,000 (10% cap rate)
Net Profit: $600,000 equity
PLUS $130,000/year gross cash flow
OR $75,000/year net after expenses
- Purchased in December 2014 – I was going to use this as a commercial space but now I am in the process of totally repositioning it into a Senior Living/Assisted Living facility
- I received this lead through a mortgage broker referral who knew I had the cash to close
3. Land Bank
Communities like Cleveland, Ohio or other rust belt cities have properties that are abandoned. Some counties set up a land bank which takes over these abandoned properties and sells them to investors for a very low cost.
The properties are owned by someone or a bank and are donated to a land bank who receive the properties for free. The land bank usually allocates about $7-10k to demo properties, so they try to sell some of them since they don’t have enough money to demolish them all.
Did You Know: There are 197 land banks in the United States.
Land Bank Case Study:
Jack Petrick, a student of mine, used a land bank to obtain several of his rental properties around the Cleveland, Ohio area.
- 4615 Burleigh, Garfield Heights Ohio
– Paid $5k, Rehab $25,000, Rents for $900/month Section 8 - 5610 South Blvd, Maple Heights Ohio
– Paid $4k, Rehab $25,000, Rents for $900/month Section 8 - 19205 Longview, Maple Heights Ohio
– Paid $4k, Rehab $25,000, Rents for $900/month Section 8 - 5082 Thomas St., Maple Heights Ohio
– Paid $4k, Rehab $25,000, Rents for $900/month Section 8
That’s 4 properties from the land bank for less than $20k total! These properties are not in a war zone, they are just in a landlord community where rentals are more popular.
4. Code Violations
Each city has a building department that keeps a running list of buildings with code violations. The list should be public record, so you can call your city building department and see if they will share it with you. These properties could have anything from simple violations to major ones, like fire damage.
5. Past Sellers/Past Clients
Once a deal closes, the seller’s opinion of you will never be higher. Make sure to ask them to keep you in mind for referrals or introductions in the future.
You should also be sending a monthly newsletter (physical and email) to make sure that you are keeping your name at the tip of people’s tongues when real estate comes up in conversation.
6. Hedge Funds/Wholesalers with Tapes
Google and search “Homes for sale in (insert your city here)” or “Real estate investing in (insert your city here).” Many hedge funds or wholesalers that come into certain markets and started buying properties are now liquidating some of them.
If you talk to other real estate investors or agents in your area, ask them if there are any hedge funds or private equity funds in your market.
There are wholesalers who buy properties in “tapes”, which is around 20-40 properties at a time. They usually only want to keep a few for themselves and they will wholesale off the rest.
What you really need to think about here is that all of these strategies are FREE. They cost you nothing, so why aren’t you using them?
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