How I Find Deals In Seattle

[Ryland Taniguchi]

In my local market in Seattle, I have figured out several ways to systematically find great deals in real estate. The best way has been to systematically drive for dollars. Using Property Radar (which is unfortunately only has property data available in like 7 states), I personally (this is the one thing I haven't delegated) drive ever street in an area. I use the Estimated Equity tab on property radar and only focus on properties with more than 40% in equity. I then physically from my car look for signs of physical distress including weeds, failing roofs, siding issues, old paint, old junk cars, I repaired fences, stacked up mail, old windows, hoarder signs, trash everywhere and old front doors.

I also tag these properties in Property Radar including tags for neighborhood, hoarder, flip, multifamily, different development zonings, urban churches, tear down, BRRRR, private, out-of-state owner, subdivision opportunity, and door-knocking team. Property Radar also gives me the owner's current address. This allows me to figure if the owner is out of state and if the owner lives in the house to tag for our door-knocking team. Because I do this systematically, I have almost every "ugly" house in Seattle (except West Seattle which I stay away from) in my database.

In Seattle, I run my mailers once a month from August to February. I found that I don't get good response  rates when the real estate selling season occurs from March to July. I have two flipping/developing companies with two different partners who negotiate with the sellers and answer the calls. I have a  full-time marketing coordinator and virtual assistant that send out the mailers and tweak/test the copy and track campaigns. I have two door knockers that work between September and February. They target the properties that I tag that look like viable opportunities.

I find about 40-50 real deals a year through these systems and I have always thought about wholesaling the ones I don't want. But then comes the age old question from other investors, "Ryland we know you buy a lot of properties. If this deal was so good, then why aren't you buying it themselves?"

Now this is a very good question. And of course I am going to keep the best deals myself. The problem is that unlike other wholesalers I am getting my leads from driving for dollars and so I am not finding deals in areas that I am not targeting. Because I am a paranoid investor who has been through the 2000 and 2008 real estate crashed, the only place I want to buy is in the City of Seattle for flips and development and in the City of Tacoma for rentals. So, it's not like I am getting leads in areas like in Renton, Kent, Lake Stevens, Everett, Bonney Lake, etc. that I don't buy in and would be happy to wholesale to other investors.