If you find a house...

[Shannon X.]

And it's vacant, do you try to automatically get in touch with the owner to try to make a deal or do you look at the neighborhood and check comps and other things?

[Ibrahim Hughes]

If I find a house in my farm area then I usually have a good idea as to the ARV as well as FMV.

But I still need to research and find out what's going on and why the property is vacant. This is when knowing how to navigate your public records comes in handy. Is the owner deceased? Are the heirs in court squabbling over the estate? Is there an old mortgage encumbering the property? These are things I need to know BEFORE I start marketing to my owner. I need to know what 'might' be stopping him/her from selling so that I can address that problem (in my marketing) as directly as possible.

Once this is done I reach out to the owner asap and try to make a deal.