Tacoma deals?

[Peter Grote]

I have a colleague that's been investing in the Tacoma market for single family homes to buy and hold for the past 10 years. I've just started this year and am finding the MLS increasingly difficult to find anything that pencils out for a long term rental. Even forclosure auctions don't seem dramatically better. Anyone having luck finding deals elsewhere? or something they might want to partner on?

[Rudy Manna]

@Peter Grote

@Pete Perez

@Ruth Bayang

I am sorry to say this, but I think the deals that are distributed in Tacoma, Olympia and Seattle south-side are piece of crap. The terribly underestimate the rehab cost and severely overestimate the ARV, and most frequently miss associated costs such as double closing, financing fees, escrow costs etc. I am following all the deals from the top 5 wholesalers in the area, and they are just not deals. There is a sentiment that things that come from wholesalers are deals, and it is being used to sell crap-loads at a premium prices.

I have been finding my deals from MLS through analyzing lots of houses (I mean lots, almost every house), having my own data analysis tools, looking at lots of houses, finding out the sweet spot during negotiation with the owners and/or giving them some incentive during closing (faster closing, waivers etc. ). I applied those strategy off MLS and closed 4 houses in 2016 in the area. Those deals probably aren't the deal of a lifetime, but they are better than almost all deals that are disseminated through the wholesalers.I think the only way you can make wholeaaling work is have your own wholesaling/ direct-mail campaign and that's something I am working on.

I personally know that experts like

@Ryland Taniguchi or  

@Albert Bui have relationships to find better deals from wholesalers, but I seriously think newcomers shouldn't try wholesalers to start with. It's a ugly channel, and most probably you will stuck with a piece of crap. Work hard, scour through the MLS, analyze lots of deals, see lots of houses, and something will work out. Don't touch wholesaling as it is now in 2016.