How do you find deals?

[Daniel Saunders]

Hi All,

I currently find 99% of my deals on the MLS and as we all know is very competitive. We get the occasional deal from pocketlistings with realtors but the is a rarity. My question is, how are other real world investors getting their deals. Do you buy software from the "gurus" for leads or to automatically write hundreds of offers? Or do you just grind it out and send postcards and try to work the phones as the calls come in? And if so how do you manage those leads?

Sorry that maybe a lot of questions for one post!

Thanks all!

[Michael R.]

So far 2 of our deals came off of the MLS and the other from word of mouth at work. "Hey you buy houses right? So and so just inherited a house from his mom and wants to get rid of it." The deals sourced from the MLS were between good and very good while the word-of-mouth deal was outstanding. Hopefully as more and more people find out we buy houses we'll be the first ones that come to mind as others inherit homes or look to sell something they own.

Just some thoughts:  The plan was to start a direct mail campaign, but there happen to be a few wholesalers in our area we'd be glad to pay an assignment fee to in the event that they send over something decent.  Leads have been coming in from them at a fairly consistent rate.  A number of them have been right-price-wrong-area so that's promising.  You're paying to avoid the aggravation and if $5,000-$10,000 makes or breaks the deal, to us, it's probably not worth making a move on.  If direct mail is a job you don't mind doing then you stand to save some coin there.  One thing to consider with wholesalers is it's hard to tell if you're getting the "pick of the litter" having not done a deal with them in the past.  It may take some time to build up to that.