How to search the MLS

[Braden Hobbs]

How do you begin your search for a new deal?

Did some searching on this and found very little. I know all scenarios will be different but thought it would be great to get lots of ideas on this for all the newbies(pointing at myself here).

For those of you with MLS access(or just Zillow), how do you start your search for deals? Are you staying under a price window? Are you only searching for foreclosures and short sales? Do you look for properties with long DOMs?

[Jamie DeRossett]

First don't use the mls. I have bought 3 properties off the mls this year and made $30,000. I bought 1 wholesale deal and made $40,000. Once it hits the mls there is instantly 6% and alot of competition. All three properties I bought off the mls this year had over 5 offers and I had to pay over list price, but they were all REO's and I knew I could make money. I underestimated the repairs on 2 of 3 and barely made any money.

This is because of low inventory nationwide and especially in the major markets which has caused prices to rise all over the country. This summer I was basically buying property off the mls just to keep my workers busy because there was very small margins as I paid over list for each property. We went $30,000 over list on 1 and lost it because they countered a all cash buyer at our offer and they took it. The mls is over valued.

If you want to look for kicks and giggles set your filters to reo, short sale, auction, foreclosure and those are what you want to look at and you are probably only going to find overpriced stale listing unless they were just listed. 

 Where do I find the houses? The best deals are always at the court house steps at your local foreclosure sale.  There is some property exchange in every state where properties where the lender has filed foreclosure on a homeowner that failed to pay the mortgage.  In Kentucky it is the master commisioner sale and every county has one and they are all cash and means there is alot less competition.  Another place I have made some money recently is auction websites. I have recently bought 3 houses off of www.hubzu.com and done really on each of them with about 30% return on my money.  I also search www.homesearch.com and have bought 1 house from there, but they had title issues and could not close it.  Contact your local wholesalers or better yet put up some bandit signs.  We Buy Houses, Any Condition, Close in 3 days (right), No Commisions. Hope this helps.  Thanks for the post and have a great night!