Finding Contact Data on Properties

[Matthew Metros]

Background on myself:

I am a real estate investor from NYC. I'm attracted to the growth of the Austin, San Antonio, and Fort-Worth markets and I'm strongly considering adding any of these as my next out of state market. I am looking for small MF, 4-15 units in B areas with a value add strategy to raise income, decrease expenses or both.

Now my Question:

I am finding it very difficult to find deals on the market. I am actively looking to purchase, but all deals that I find on the market either get snatched up in seconds or do not fit my investment thesis.

I am starting to think that a better approach would be to contact owners of properties that are not yet up for sale. Some initial thoughts were:

1. To find Owners of properties that have not been sold in 5+ years.

2. To find Owners of properties where there is a need to sell (Late on mortgage, divorce, and so on...)

I would also like to preface that I have access to costar.

Overall - I am looking for direction on how to gain access to these types of datasets. Would love to hear how others have gone about finding off-market deals.

[Christopher Campbell]

Connect with local experienced wholesalers. Networking in general is typically the best bet. The on-market game is way too tough to compete in here for the OOS investor, especially for the highly coveted small multi everyone and their mom wants. Investors that know the area well, have been doing this a while, have their teams here or have a heads up on the deal will always beat you out. I've closed a few small-mid sized off-market multi-family deals here in San Antonio with my investors and have had success. I'd be glad to share XP and market knowledge. 

[Evan Cook]

Hi Matthew,

Personally I use DealMachine and BatchDriven as a kind of drive4dollars tool. They both help you get contact information of property owners, so if you see something you like a lot that isn't for sale and want to contact the owner to make an offer as soon as possible these are great for that!

Hope this helps!

Evan

[Joseph Cacciapaglia]

If you have access to CoStar, then you have the owner info for virtually every 5-15 unit property on the market (it doesn't include many fourplexes). Depending on which areas you decide to classify as "B", there are probably less than 100 total properties of that size in total in San Antonio. That's a pretty small list to either direct mail or cold call. I'm not sure you need to bother shortening the list further. If you do want to, you can filter out corporate owners and owners that have multiple properties. Both of those groups are less likely to be mismanaged and/or in distress.

As far as fourplexes, there are probably only 5-7 subdivisions in San Antonio that you'll want to mail to or call. You can find owner info for these properties on BCAD and filter out recent sales with a download of MLS data. I use a VA to compile all this data, and then Spokeo to get phone numbers. I find this is cheaper than buying lists.

I would focus on one market to begin with. As @Christopher Campbell mentioned, networking plays a major role in finding off market deals. If you're getting to know several owners in one market, you'll learn that market quicker, and have a better chance of being referred a deal from someone that you've already contacted.

I would also suggest that you don't give up on on-market deals just yet. I sell plenty of small multifamily properties to out of state investors. It's a matter of being patient, and then acting quickly when deals do come up. This is a very slow time of year for new listings, but you'll start to see more come up once the new year rolls around.