Where Do I Find a Deal??

[Mason Vitalis]

"Where do I find deals?"

When I'm speaking to investors this question always comes up. It can be difficult to find the right deal especially in tough markets these days. The good news is that there's deals everywhere. Not all of them are good deals and some are outright bad. It takes time to learn how to analyze properties to ensure you aren't setting yourself up for failure. My mentor always says, "No deal is better than a bad deal." 

The trick is knowing where to look so you don't waste hours of your time analyzing bad deals. Firstly, everyone says off market is the best place to go for the best deals and it certainly can be provided you do the work required to make relationships with sellers through mailers or even door knocking. Second, wholesalers can be another great source of deals. Just make sure they're reputable and aren't daisy chaining commissions. Usually once you do one deal with them, it'll be difficult to get them to stop sending you deals. This is a good problem to have. Finally, the seemingly obvious place to look is right on the MLS. You can access these listings by hiring a realtor or even just looking on Zillow or Realtor.com. I've even seen for sale by owner Propeties on Facebook marketplace.

The point is there's good deals in every market. It might take some digging to find the good ones, but I assure you that they're out there. After working with dozens of househackers and investors, I can tell you that there are deals on the MLS that are just as good and sometimes even better that off-market ones. So, what's stopping you?

I think the three places I stated above are more than enough to find your first deal and certainly the easiest for beginners. Which strategy would you like to try first?