What is the best way to get off market deals?

Question

One of the biggest challenges that many have in acquiring deals is finding off market properties.

Like to hear the opinions of people on here what are their strategies? For example, do you get lists and do mailers or call people from sites like PropStream or other others?

Do you sign up with as many wholesalers and get their leads?

Do you go knocking door to door?

Love to hear from others. One thing that I have found is the majority of lists that I used to be on from wholesalers were from virtual wholesalers who never visited a property or provide accurate scope and pricing for renovation and comps were way out of line.

L

Kevin Sobilo · Answer

@Chris Seveney, I would first say it depends on your goals, whether you are boots on the ground local or not,  and what you're bringing to the deal making table.

If you need a flow of deals, you probably need to be on those wholesalers' lists, a good agent, and to do some mailer prospecting.

If you only need a deal at a time and especially if you are boots on the ground you can probably cut some of those costs out and get deals other ways whether its driving for dollars or whatnot.

I would also, identify what you bring to make a deal. MANY people view a deal as a physically distressed property, but I view it as ANY kind of distress a seller might have as long as its something I can cope with.

A small example: Last year I went to see an MLS listing but the tenant would not answer the door to let me in even after an appt was confirmed. I found from the listing agent that this happened to almost all other showings.

I IMMEDIATELY identified the tenant situation as being a "distressed condition" and made 2 simultaneous cash offers. A lower offer where the tenant could stay, no inspections just a walk through and also a higher offer where the house must be vacant for closing and with full inspections.

As I spoke with the listing agent, I learned that the seller had no written agreement with the tenant, no security deposit, no keys, and that the tenant was disgruntled because they wanted to buy the house but were unable. It became clear the seller was not up for dealing with the tenant situation and so they negotiated on the LOWER offer. Since nobody was getting in to see the property I had no competition and was able to buy the property for about 20% under ask where it should have sold for full ask or a little over!

I saw the tenant situation as an opportunity to make a deal while the other showings who were turned away didn't think of it that way. Deals are what YOU make of them not what a seller or listing agent or wholesaler tells you the deal is.

Don Konipol · Answer

What’s worked best for me is networking.  Now, much of networking is online, and you can waste a lot of time and money using the wrong media or on line platform.  It’s much trickier than when we went to industry events and gave a 60 second presentation of our “needs and wants”.  I literally made millions of $ in profits from deals I came to find out about at real estate networking events.  Now, I don’t attend any events at all, just participate in an on line platform and have an email list of 15,000 mortgage brokers I mail out to 8 time per year and another list of 12,000 commercial realtors I email to just whenever I want to purchase a property.  Since my parameters are quite specific ( NOT, hey I’m looking for a good deal, LOL) the responses rate while low is usually of fairly high quality.

A good associate of mine (we do a lot of deals together) owns a commercial debt negotiating company and wanted to expand from direct telephone sales solicitation to social media.  He hired a specialist company to create a substantial online presence and SEO, SEM, and social media. Over 9 months he spent $85,000 and believes that he did not obtain a single client!  Meanwhile, 18 months ago I convinced him that we should spend $1500 per month for SEO and social media placement.  The free lancer we hired has been in the business 15 years, and has PROVEN track record of success with real estate agents and mortgage brokers.  Our business more than doubled last year.  Maybe it’s a crap shoot?

Stuart Udis · Answer

The best way to build a pipeline of good off market acquisitions is to be active & perform on contracts you execute without re-trading on terms (unless there's a valid diligence discovery). Reputation is everything and the brokerage community takes notice. Ultimately, those who are pushing the deals want to send them to buyers who will execute and make their lives easy. After all, they want certainty (or at least as close to certainty) as they can get in order to collect their fees. You provide reasonable certainty and do so consistently, you will be rewarded with deals that are brought to you off market.

Mike Paolucci · Answer

I would connect with an investor friendly agent who is located in the market/near the market you're looking to buy in. They'll be able to source deals for you which will allow you to utilize your time on other, more important things.

What is the best way to get off market deals?

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