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If you surf the Internet and read books on real estate investing you will come across a lot of useful information, though the majority of these sources concentrate on providing information on just one particular sphere of investing. Thus, if you are looking to find out more about real estate investing, in general, you may not find that much information and may be at a loss when it comes to formulating the proper strategies by which to maximize your profits.
Not A Get Rich Scheme
It should be clearly understood at the very outset that real estate investing is not a scheme that makes people rich overnight. On the contrary, real estate investing means putting in a lot of hard work before you realize your objectives. It also requires that you perfect certain skills and techniques, that, when combined with your experience will allow you to optimize your effectiveness.
Methods to Find Deals
Now, there are a lot of different methods you can use to start building your deal funnel. Here are a few. You may use just a couple that work well for you or all of those listed here, plus maybe more of your own:
- First, you may want to consider creating Your own website. This is easier than you think with such free online services as WIX and Weebly. The purpose of a website is to have an ongoing “ad,” so to speak, where you clearly define what you are looking for and how people can reach you.
- Business Cards
- Go on the Internet, register at the right portals, define what you are looking for and watch the leads come in
- realtor.com
- trulia.com
- zillow.com
- redfin.com
- Setting up filters
- Getting access to MLS through a real estate agent
- Types of properties
- Regular
- REOs
- Short Sales
- Newspaper (old school) and online classified ad sites like Craigslist.com
- Word of Mouth – tell everyone you know and meet what you are doing and what kind of properties you are looking to buy
- Develop an elevator pitch!
- Others
- Realtors who you can offer them a piece of the prize (finders fee, etc.)
- Mail carriers
- Newspaper delivery people – they see houses properties that look abandoned or in need of help
- Bird doggers that you pay finders fees to bring you good leads
- Create a Business card that offers $500 finders fee
- Networking
- biggerpockets.com
- Local real estate clubs
- Meet-Ups
- Service clubs
- Direct Mail
- List Brokers – You can buy lists where you define exactly what you are looking for, for example – I want out-of-state owners, that have owned a property of 10 years, who owns properties from duplexes through 30 units, in this specific town or zip… and on and on, to define your key criteria
- Types of Direct Mail
- Yellow letters
- Typed letters
- Postcards
- Who to Mail to
- Absentee owners
- Abandoned properties
- Probates
- Pre-foreclosures
- Foreclosures
- Apartment owners
- Expired listings
- Online advertising
- Facebook/Google/Twitter ads
- Pay-per-click ads
- Signs – Bandit signs
- One of the best ways to find good commercial property leads is through Commercial real estate brokers
- Brokers regularly get access to off-market deals because sellers don’t want to advertise
- One of the ways to locate is to go to loopnet.com (even though you might not like the property) find the top brokers in the market and contact them and develop that relationship
- Wholesalers
- Internet
- For Sale By Owner
- GOOGLE: Type in the specs on the property you want and the town and see what comes up
- Social media
- Blogging
- City Records
- Evictions
- Board of Health
- Tax records (County Assessor)
- Driving for Dollars
- Virtual Assistants
- fiverr.com
- freelance.com
- upwork.com
- virtualassistants.com
- Do a Google search on Virtual Assistants
- Don’t Chase Deals – Attract them!
This is a quick overview – not meant to be comprehensive – but the idea is to share with you and maybe spark an idea that you can utilize and start putting together a plan that will work best for you and your goals.
More Strategies
Once you realize that the more deals you close, the more money will come your way. You need to focus your real estate investing efforts in a few simple, yet effective, directions. First off, buy properties more from private owners, since it will allow you to bypass competitive buyers who usually throng auctions looking for bargain buys. Also, private owners may be facing foreclosure and thus would be on the lookout for a buyer, so you can land some sweet deals in this novel and effective way.
You can also profit in real estate investing by selling and leasing back. A source worth tapping out in this regard is businesses that have bought properties during boom periods but who are now facing liquidity problems. If you have the cash, such businesses will be willing to do business with you. You can then buy the property and then lease it back to the company and expect a nine to ten percent return on your investment.
Foreclosures, however, are a better option because you can get the property at knock-off prices and then make a good profit by selling them later, when the timing is right.
Using these simple strategies, you should not have any problem boosting the volume of your real estate investing deals. As you increase your number of properties, you can further optimize operations, accelerate mortgage pay downs, and soon see your cash flow and profits grow substantially.
Bill Manassero is the founder/top dog at “The Old Dawg’s REI Network,” a blog, newsletter, and podcast for seniors and retirees, that teaches the art of real estate investing. His personal real estate investing goal, which will be chronicled at olddawgsreinetwork.com, is to own/control 1,000 units/doors in the next 6 years. Prior to that, Bill and his family lived in Haiti for 11 years as missionaries serving orphaned, abandoned and at-risk children.
