Finding that first deal / Quickly filtering through listings

[John Moore]

I’ve spent a lot of time reading lately. I’m familiar with the 50% rule and the 70% rules of thumb. I’m looking for both a property to flip and a property for cash flow. I feel more confident in buying a rental property than I do a flip but I’d love to have the income this year from a flip. So I’m looking for both. 

After looking at a listing online, how do I know if that property is worth further investigation or not? I mean most people aren't going to list their properties at 70% of market value on any website and even if they did I wouldn't know it because I don't know what the market value is of their property. Plus I can't tell by a listing how motivated a seller is to sell at a lower price. Am I just going to get comps on every single property and then put offers in at 70% of ARV on every single property no matter what they listed it at? Which means I'd also have to estimate repairs, which I wouldn't know how to do without looking at the properties and even then I'm not confident I could estimate repairs. Even if I was good at estimating repairs, am I going to visit every single property that I find a listing on? I mean I'm finding tons of things for sale, albeit I have a somewhat broad set of search criteria.

So when I look at a ton of different listings, how do I decide what’s worth a little more investigation and what’s not?

[Kenny C.]

@John Moore use the deal analyzer on the site (5 free) Call an agent ask them to talk to the sellers agent. They can report back with as much info as they are allowed to divulge. You can also ask the agent to run comps for. Usually you can get the taxes from the listing. Call the untility companies in that particular area and ask for their rates. You should be able to get a ball park estimate on repairs by first finding out what you intend on repairing and then do some digging, Google "How much does it cost to fix ____ in whatever town you're looking in". At least this is what I do, Hope this helps,

Happy hunting!