Acquiring information about potential duplex deals

[Account Closed]

Hi everyone, I have set, what I believe, an achievable goal of acquiring two duplexes in the next 90 days. I have financing in place, flexibility in price, and more than enough desire to pull the trigger on a deal. I have begun my search on traditional real estate sites such as Zillow and Realtor, however I am not sure if I'm effectively using my time. I am about to contact local real estate agents and ask for assistance, however I'm not sure where they would look that I am not seeing, besides the MLS of course. With this being said, are most duplex/multi family deals found through these traditional sites? Or do you guys, the community, find your rental deals in other ways? And my next question would be, how accurate would you consider zillows tax and expense estimates.. Not sure if I should be using them. And if I wanted to acquire, for example, all the information required to use calculators to estimate monthly income, would I ask the listing agent for that information, or how is that information typically received? Thanks everyone, and if anyone here is trying to sell a duplex or other rental property in NH , let me know :)

[Ann Bellamy]

Axel, although most MLS listings show on realtor.com, not all of them and not always immediately. Since there is no cost to you to using a buyer agent, why wouldn't you add that to you list of methods of finding deals? they can set you up with automatic notices of new duplexes that come on the market.

Second, many investors find deals the same way real estate agents find listings:  by marketing for them.  empty properties, probate connections, craigslist, fsbo signs, etc.  There are many many threads here on BP about marketing for leads, so do some searches under the category "real estate investor marketing and advice"

I would start attending local events and networking with wholesalers.  there are two groups near you:  NHREIA.com in Manchester which is the second Wednesday, and NH Real Estate Investors Mastermind which is the third Wed I think, you can find that group on Meetup.  

As for expenses, I wouldn't use zillow for that under any circumstances.  First you need to start to understand all the expenses involved, and I can almost guarantee that most mls listings will leave some out.  It is very common that agents listings duplexes are focuses on residential single family properties, so have very little clue what makes a good investment.   So a few books on landlording will help.  Also there are several resources here on BP under the "Learn" tab.  My favorite on multi family analysis is Milt Tanzer's "Real estate investments and how to make them" or something close to that.  

For example, most mls listings will ignore water/sewer.  You can call the city and ask them about the usage on a particular property.  As for taxes, look them up on the city website, the assessment will be listed on the property card, and the rate per thousand will be either on the assessment page or the tax collector page.  Ask your insurance agent for a rule of them when estimate insurance costs in various towns that you are looking.  You need to be able to estimate expenses yourself and not depend on what the agent provides, which is likely to be a fairy tale.  

I always run my own analysis and don't depend on the realtor to give me the entire picture.  You should start to develop your own system for doing this.  I developed my own spreadsheet long ago to help me.