A general thought on finding properties

[Alex Huang]

I've been diligently looking for properties for both flip and buy & hold purposes over the last several months. I'd be curious to hear people's thoughts on my following conclusions:

Sites like Zillow, RedFin, Realtor are terrible resources for finding great deals. These sites are the equivalent to the picked-over Black Friday sale items. The only opportunity for finding good deals is by the off-chance you find a 'unicorn' property where you are able to buy significantly below list price (eg a $100k property that the seller is willing to actually sell for $50k or less) - a property that a buyer would have no indication at this price except through communication. Otherwise, all of the good / favorable listed properties have already been snatched up by investors who have relationships with wholesalers or agents.

The real opportunities, as mentioned above, are acquired through wholesale, private seller, direct marketing, or agent relationships. The MLS is too slow and efficient that finding deals are nearly impossible, unless you are in a market with no competition.

Thoughts?