This will be the final post in my Finding Deals By Building Relationships segment.  Finding deals this way is actually free and by far the best way to find properties consistently.  Once you build the relationships you will have more potential deals coming your way.

Property Management Companies

Property management companies are a great tool if you have a lot of properties that you would like to be rented out and build a monthly cash flow. They will find your tenants, take care of the maintenance and they will collect the rent on your behalf among many other time saving things. They have a huge database of property owners. You want to build a relationship with the company and the people who run these property management companies. They will know well before the owner of the property if the property should indeed be sold. They will know about problem tenants, a problem house that is getting worse and worse – but to you as a wholesaler these are all the qualifications for the perfect deal. Once you have that good relationship you will be able to network with the landlords of these properties which can potentially lead to a deal.

Title Companies

Just like property management companies, title companies are in constant contact with investors on a daily basis. What are the chances that the title companies know investors who want to unload some properties? If you have a good relationship with a title company, there is a big chance that they will bring lead after lead right to you.

Landlords Who Run Classified Ads In The Rent Section

When you look in the newspaper you will see classified ads for people selling their property. You can also find classified ads for people who are renting a property. You may ask yourself why would I want to look at the rent section, I am not looking to rent a property? You have to think out of the box for this one. The people who have placed these ads are likely to be landlords that are holding onto several properties. You should call them and start to build a relationship with them. You also want to find out if they have any properties for sale! This is the main reason you are calling them. Maybe they are having problems with a tenant, the property is distressed or maybe they are an out of area owner. The possibilities are endless but you will never know unless you call them.

Foreclosure Auctions

I go to foreclosure auctions to network. I don’t go to foreclosure auctions to buy property. There will be a lot of hot shot and big time investors purchasing property there and it is your time to get to know them. These people have two benefits to you. First off they are purchasing property so they are your cash buyers for the future who you can wholesale properties to in the future. Secondly they may have to start selling off their properties in the future. Some of them may retire or they may fall on hard times, but eventually they will need to sell their property. If you have built a good relationship with them now it will pay dividends in the future.

Bird Dogs

Bird dogs are the best way to expand your network. Bird dogs can be both people who want to want to get into real estate investing or people who just want to make extra income. If you really want to have great bird dogs you will have to educate them about the basics. At the same time they will be educating you because they will be providing you information about your area. Bird dogs will point you to the vacant, boarded up, unwanted homes. They may also bring other types of motivated sellers to you.

Bird dogs do not have any legal risks, they do not put any properties under contract and they do not fix up houses. What they do is simply point out these houses to you. A bird dog gets paid a finders fee when you close and complete a deal on a property that they pointed out to you. You are allowed to pay them any amount of money you want. The going rate seems to range from $250 - $1,500 which depends on the size of the deal.

The more bird dogs you have the better and stronger your network will be. It doesn’t matter how many bird dogs you have because they don’t get paid unless you make money by closing on a property. I mentioned in the previous section that everyone you come in contact with should get both your business card and your bird dog card. My business card explains that I buy and sell houses while my bird dog cards explains that you can make $500 by simply telling me about a property.

My best bird dog is the mailman. Some of the other people who can be key bird dogs to your network are the following…

·         FED EX, DHL, UPS – package and letter carriers.

·         Landscapers

·         Carpet cleaners

·         Pool service companies

·         Newspaper delivery person

·         Contractors, plumbers, home repair handymen

·         Anyone that you can think of that drives around your area.

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Previously I talked about building relationships with professionals. Today I want to talk to you about a few other neat secrets and strategies I have picked up over the year.

Let the networking begin….

Department Of Code Enforcement & Inspections

Every area will have a local Department of Code Enforcement and Inspections. They will condemn properties and write up properties that have violated the local laws and property codes. You want to build a relationship with these code enforcers because they can be a huge asset to your real estate network. They will know all of the properties that are perfect for wholesaling in your area. They are the ones who write up vacant properties because their grass is too tall, or a property that has the roof falling down and is a hazard to society. They will also write YOU up and come after you if you put your bandit signs all over town. It is considered vandalizing and loitering. So be careful where you put your signs because you want to get on code enforcements good side, not on their bad side.

The Bearers Of Bad News – Process Servers

Process servers bring the bad news to many people. But if you are on their side they will bring you good news and good leads. Processes servers are people who serve legal documents to properties that are going to be foreclosed on and properties that require the tenants to be evicted among many other things. If you have a few process servers in your network you learn about properties before they go on the market.

Insurance Companies

You must set yourself ahead of your competition by aggressively marketing and building relationship with professionals like insurance companies and agents. When you have insurance agents in your network you will be able to find out about properties that can’t be insured. Some of these properties might not be insured because of extensive fire damage, horrible condition because of mold or flood damage.

The property may be a hazard and nuisance to the insurance company and the owner but to you it is a goldmine with a motivated seller. The person who owns the property will most likely want to move out and you can help them and make a healthy profit in the process. These properties will need extensive repairs but there will be a lot of room for profit if done properly.

In part 3 of my Finding Deals - Building Relationships series I will give you a few more strategies that will set you far apart of your competition.

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Over the next few posts I am going to give you some of the best ways of finding real estate leads which we all hope turn into profitable deals.  Many people ask me all the time, “How can I generate more leads without spending a lot more money.” 

We’ll this is for you..

Building relationships with people who deal with real estate in any way possible is a great source of free leads. The strategies listed below will put you well ahead of your competition. Once you start using these strategies your network will explode and so will your profits.

This section will show you that real estate is more than just advertising your business. With the strategies in this section you can put your lead generation on autopilot. Building relationships is the single most important thing you can do for your real estate investing career.

 So here is the first on a long list of ways to get more free leads for your real estate business.

Networking With Professionals

This is dedicated to networking with professionals that deal with real estate. By networking with some of the professionals I will describe to you, you can put yourself well ahead of the average investors in your area and become a seasoned professional. Some of these professionals don’t deal specifically with real estate but in one way or another the work with people who own real estate. That may sound a little confusing so lets get right into it so you can use these people to your advantage.

The type of professionals I am talking about are; lawyers, Realtors, CPA’s etc.Now you may be saying how can a lawyer help me out. Think about it for a second and think how do lawyer’s deal with real estate? There are divorce lawyer’s, bankruptcy lawyer’s, real estate lawyer’s, wills, trust and probate lawyers, criminal lawyers, the list goes on and on. These type of professionals deal with people everyday who own property. You need to build relationships and market yourself to these type of professionals. Most often they will have a client that is in a bad situation and the lawyer helps them out to a certain extent but you as the real estate investor can really help them out.

Lets look at an example of a divorce lawyer. A couple will have their assets sold off, split in half or whatever they choose to do. All of the time there are issues of what to do with their property. Should they sell it or should someone live in the house and pay the mortgage by themselves. This can often be a very complicated decision to make. There is just so much a lawyer can do for this couple. But if you have built a solid relationship with the lawyer and he knows that you help people out all the time by purchasing their house from them then boy will you have deal after deal coming your way.

The lawyer can tell the couple that he knows someone who is a real estate investor who buys property for a living. He can often pay cash for your property and the deal can be done within 2 weeks. If the couple can’t decide what to do with the property, at least they will be given one more choice and you are that choice. They worst that happens is they call you, you tell them what you can do for them and they pass. But if you are a savvy real estate investor you will be able to close every deal that comes to you. You will be able to talk to them and show them why you are the answer and why they should sell their property to you!

The possibilities are endless when it comes to marketing and building relationships with these type of professionals. Simply open up your Yellow Pages and just go page by page. You will soon see that there is an overwhelming number of people that you can work with to bring deal after deal to you.  Also anytime you come in contact with someone with this type of job; get to know them and tell them what you do.  Some great places to find these type of people who understand creative real estate wholesaling are at your local real estate investment group.  At REI meetings there are a lot of lawyers, CPA’s and such at these meetings.

So go out there and start networking.

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The real estate flipping process can be simplified into 4 F’s. I will briefly cover each part here in this post and later on in following posts I will go over each one in more detail.

But to break the real estate flipping process down into a simple process it looks like this.

1. FIND - first and foremost you need to find your property. Many people put the cart before the horse in worrying about how to find money. First you need your rock solid deal and the money will follow. Your best type of home to flip is a residential single family 3 bedroom 2 bathroom home in the middle class area of your town. These properties are by far the best type to work with as there are plenty of them to go around and people want to live in these areas.
2. FUND -the money will follow based on your deal. Too many people worry about this the most and you really don’t need to. You can get money from many different sources that we will cover later. But without a deal you will not get any money. You will get money based on your deal. Many different lenders have a lot of the same criteria though. They will usually only lend on homes that you are buying at a big discount. The home has to be purchased at about 60% - 70% of its true fixed up value.
3. FIX - After you have found your deal and you have it funded then you begin the fix up phase. The important part of this is to bring in a more experienced contractor or someone who can do a better job than you so you can focus on finding your next deal. Always remember to negotiate the prices and do some research before saying yes to someone. Get referrals and past work experience from any contractor. Also you should never be paying in advance for uncompleted work. Remember to never over do the fix up. Of course you need to make the home desirable for your buyers but there is a point when going to far with repairs. It will kill your profits in a second.
4. FLIP - The last part to the puzzle itself is the actual flipping part yourself. Your goal is to get the property sold as fast as possible to avoid long term holding costs. Some investors may use a Realtor and others don’t. I will give you my advice and opinion in subsequent posts. Both have their pro’s and con’s. But one thing all investors can agree on is to have a buyers database as you go so you can have the house nearly sold before it’s even ready. As you go along in your real estate flipping business you are going to get many potential buyers looking at your deals. It is very wise to keep a list with everyone’s name and contact information, what they are looking for and what they can afford. This way when your next real estate property is done you know exactly who to call to get it sold.

That is all for now and like I said in my subsequent post we are going to focus on these 4 aspects of real estate flipping.

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In a previous post I wrote about Bob Vila’s How To Library and how sometimes it is okay to do small repairs yourself. Making repairs at first if you are just starting out is also alright as it is good to learn how to do a few things so you won’t get ripped off by a contractor. But learning from a resource like Bob Vila is even better. It is learning without actually repairing.

But as the title of this post suggests being the deal maker is what the house flipping business is all about. You as the business owner are the problem solver and the deal maker. Your job is to focus on helping the motivated seller get rid of their problematic property and to find your next deal.

You will only be as profitable as your next deal. It is far better to spend the extra money on budgeting in a contractor to do the repairs and make a little bit less on each deal than spending months and months doing the repairs yourself.

In the time you will spend doing the repairs yourself you could have spent that time finding a few more deals that will yield you a continuous profit.

If you approach this the right way you will come out on top. You should not try and hit a home run on every deal by saving money repairing houses yourself. You will do far better if you profit smaller consistent amounts over time than hitting a home run once a year.

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When you are in the house flipping business it is always wise to treat it as a business and not a hobby. That is something that many people forget. They become too attached to the properties and over do the repairs.

The most important aspect of the house flipping business is to spend your time wisely and focus on the business growth.

Many investors also decide to do every repair on their own. This often fails to be the wrong approach. Budgeting properly for repairs and hiring a contractor to do the repairs is key. It is much more profitable for you to work on finding the NEXT BIG DEAL than spending 4 months repairing the house yourself.

But the point of this post is to give you a great free resource that is available that will show you how to do nearly any small repair when hiring a contractor is too much.

Bob Vila’s How To Library

Bob Vila has a great resource on his website for you to see. It will show you many repairs as if they are your problem. You can learn what to do and how to do it with out actually doing it. Sometimes it will be okay to do the small repair yourself without hiring a contractor to come in and do it.

Sometimes it is okay to make that small repair yourself as it truly isn’t that hard. I hope you enjoy it.

Remember that you are in the house flipping business and you are not a repair man but sometimes it is okay to make a small repair yourself.

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Today I wanted to post an article written by Jarad Severe,
a very talented real estate investor.

Secrets to Finding Pre-Foreclosures for Short Sales

By far, the most essential step in the short sale process is finding motivated sellers in pre-foreclosure. If you can’t find motivated sellers in pre-foreclosure, then it will be very difficult to do short sales. I will share with you a few of my secrets of finding motivated sellers and you just need to choose 3 or 4 of them to use that fit your style. The idea behind this is to maintain a constant flow of pre-foreclosure leads - potential homeowners who need your help and expertise.

There are several ways in which to find motivated homeowners. Newspapers, ads, signs, courthouse, attorneys, just to name a few. See, when a homeowner is delinquent on their mortgage, a legal notice or notice of default must be sent to the homeowner to let them know that their property will be going to auction soon. Once the legal notice has been recorded, you can go to the courthouse and research these files to find homeowners in default. These legal notices are published weekly, sometimes daily at the courthouse. This will be the first place to look. Go down to your county courthouse and ask to speak to the clerk of courts. Then ask him where they publicize the legal notices or notices of foreclosure or lis pendens. Depending on what state you live in, they may call it something different. If you can’t get any answers, then go to the recorders office. Any legal action must be recorded. You are looking for notices that show homeowners have defaulted on a loan and are now trying to collect the debt. Once you find them, make sure you don’t take any of these notices or files out of the building, just ask them if you can make copies.

Before you leave, ask the clerk or recorder if there is a county website or newspaper that publishes all the legal notices so you can save time by just looking them up on your computer. Most newspapers have a website with everything on it - yes even legal notices. Let me clarify one thing. Ideally, you are trying to find homeowners who are 90 days from the auction because this gives you more time to negotiate a short sale with the bank. Every state is required to notify the public, usually by newspaper, that there will be a foreclosure auction on such and such a property anywhere between 3 to 5 weeks before the auction. So be aware that if you find legal notices in a newspaper, the auction is only 3 to 5 week away. You must act very quickly and know what you are doing. On the other hand, when you go to the courthouse or recorders office, typically the homeowner still has a few months before the auction.

Real estate agents can become very useful to you. They are constantly looking at real estate, it’s their job. Start networking with them. Come up with some sort of win-win. Let them know if they ever see a property that is upside down or over-leveraged, to give you a call. If you buy the property, let them list it for you. Agents make their money from commissions. You treat them good, they will treat you good.

Business cards are another great way to find pre-foreclosures. You can hand them out to everyone and let them know you buy distressed properties. Give them out to real estate agents, attorneys, friends, neighbors and so on. Anything that gets your name out there that you are looking to invest in distressed properties. Make them attractive so people want to call you back. Send them out in all your letters. Money talks for most people. So set up some sort of referral program where you give them money if they know of anyone who may need your help and you buy their home. I don’t know how many people I’ve talked to just because of a small finders fee. Most of the time it’s friends and neighbors of the people you are doing the short sale with. They are so pleased with what you’ve done with them, they want you to help their friends or family, plus they get a finders fee. You could have something like this - “this card is worth $1000 to whomever finds me a property!”

Attorneys work well because a huge number of people are filing for divorce or bankruptcy. If you know any attorneys that specialize in these areas, work with them. They can become one of your greatest assets.

Other methods include flyers, magnets, newspaper ads, and signs you see on the side of the road. Try all these ways to find pre-foreclosure leads and then focus on the ones that bring you the best results.

Jarad Severe is a leading authority and expert in Foreclosures. He is President and CEO of Foreclosures and Flippers Inc. Visit his site www.foreclosuresandflippers.com to receive more information on foreclosures, short sales and more.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jarad_Severe

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