Did I locate a good Farm Area

[Nemi W.]

Hi All,

I'm a first-time poster, long-time reader, new to real estate investing.

Here's where I am in my venture: I've researched RE wholesaling for weeks now and feel I'm ready to take real action. I know I won't make money unless I make offers, but I won't make offers unless I have at least a handful of active buyers and a good farm area. The problem is that I don't feel confident about the area I've chosen, therefore, don't feel good about spending the next couple of weeks following the suggestion/rule of looking at 100 houses.

Steps I took:

1. Came across a website that lists bank foreclosures for sale by zip code.

2. Chose the zip code that had the most in my city.

3. Checked out the demographics (40,000 people, 17,000 households, $145k median home price)

4. Drove around the area.

I was confident as I drove to the area; less confident as I drove away. Here's why:

1. After deciding to divide the code in half and focus on the northern half, which are low-end homes that appear to need repair (plus I decided to take Steve's suggestion and focus on appr. 10,000 homes), I began to notice all the bandit signs were "for rent".

2. I saw no "i buy houses", "cash only", "investor special" signs.

3. I only saw one home being remodeled.

4. On the way home, I drove through other zip codes that had MANY signs.

Please help me learn to identify a good farm area so that I'm not wasting time. Given what I've shared, do you feel as though I may have one? Is there more research I need to do before investing time into looking at the 100 homes...or is that the research I need to do before choosing a farm area? I'm a little confused about that one.

Any comments will be much appreciated!