Overly competitive market- need help

[L. Brown]

Hello BP,

I really need some advice. I bought my first duplex in 2020, where I rent out the larger part of the house and live in the attic apartment. The plan was to live in it for a year and buy another investment property (a duplex or higher that I would live in). High rocketing home prices, increases in the mortgage rates and insane competition has kept me from buying my next property. Living in the attic apartment was ok for 1 year but we are not into year 3 and I can't take it anymore. 

At first I wanted to buy close to where I live, but it's a high cost of living area and I would consistently get beat out by people offering way over asking/market and/or cash buyers. So I decided maybe I would look farther out, but alas, the same experience. The last property I looked at had 25+ offers and was under contract a few days after being listed. I am somewhat surprised as I thought the high interest rates would keep some from buying. I guess not.

 I admit, I'm pretty frustrated and not sure how to move forward. I would welcome any suggestions you may have.

[Joe Villeneuve]

First, there is no such thing as an "overly competitive market".  When you encounter a market/property where there are many, many offers that end up raising the end purchase price to a number much higher than you thought it would (or higher than what it should have been), all you di was run into a group of buyers that are focused on the property and not the deal.  They did you a favor.

Learn how to design offers into deals (strategies).  Learn how to analyze markets (based on dollars, not school systems, etc...) not properties, and instead of looking for deals, look for opportunities.  You won't find an "overly competitive market" there because you're the only one that knows how to buy there.

The best "deals" are generated from opportunities.  They are not just "found".  What you've experienced is just one reason why.  All deals are made up of two things:

1 - Minimum cost to the REI. The only cost to the REI is the cash they put in, so this starts with the smallest DP possible, and positive CF.
2 - The terms where someone/something else pays for the rest.

How you design those two things are based on the strategies you develop over time, an in depth understanding of math (geometry and algebra) as it applies to money, and your ability to correctly (mathematically) analyze markets. That's it.