Driving for Dollars!!

[Mike Hernandez]

My wife and I are currently located in El Paso, Texas, but we will be relocating in a few months to Pflugerville, Tx. where we will look for our first investment property. We are interested in buy and hold investment properties, so this morning we decided to get off our behinds and drive around town to practice analyzing multi-families! We looked at places that are listed on Trulia, and found two properties that we took note of. Tomorrow I will call the listing agent for further details. Based on the sales price for a quad and what other quads in that area are renting for, one already looks like a bad deal. Again, these numbers are based on Trulia, so I do not know how accurate they are. Once I get a hold of the actual numbers, I will post more specifics to get some feedback! Since we are not actually looking to purchase a property here, should I take it far enough to ask for past financials on the homes? I don't want to waste anybody's time, however I want to feel comfortable analyzing deals properly. What are your thoughts?

[Brian Stieler]

I'm still a beginner at all this, but here's what I've been reading/doing.

I also did my first "driving for dollars" this weekend. Instead of just looking at properties for sale, I made notes of houses that were the ugliest on the block. I then found them on zillow.com and starred them. The best deals most likely haven't come to market yet, and you want to be the first to discover them. I've read it's good to make a business card saying you're an investor, and actually talk to people in the neighborhoods. Give them your card, and hope they call you when something turns up.

Good luck!