Finding Good Investment Property Deals

Here are six resources where you might find good real estate deals. Perhaps they're all rather obvious, but worth mentioning nonetheless.

A Real Estate Professional Developing a good-working relationship with a qualified real estate salesperson can be an excellent resource for you. There are just two suggestions: the more loyalty you give the agent the better, and getting two or three agents to beat the bushes for you in the same community can be counter-productive because most real estate agents won't generally spend a lot of extra time trying to hunt down a property for a real estate investor when it looks like a dog race.

Builder-Developer Look for people who are in the business of selling their own real estate. Often you can find someone with a treasure trove of inventory motivated to sell off some of it.

Code Violations Local building codes sometimes change during the course of ownership and put a seller into a difficult spot. For example, the state now requires buildings of a certain category to have fire sprinklers installed, or earthquake reinforcement. A sudden added investment to do that work may be more than the owner has to spend, and in turn might motivate the owner to sell at a reduced price instead.

Foreclosure-REO When lenders foreclose on a delinquent loan and buy the property themselves at a foreclosure sale they end up with real estate owned property (REO) they prefer to sell rather than operate. REO properties can sometimes be a prime source for good deals.

For Sale By Owner It's common for owners to market their own properties to avoid paying a real estate commission. When properly handled, sale by owner can be a good source for good deals.

Management Problems Properties in need of maintenance can be an indicator that the owner no longer has a heart to continue managing the property and might want to sell. A call to the owner expressing your interest in the property might be all it takes to negotiate a purchase and good deal for yourself.