Need Advice on How to Find a Property

[Mary K.]

Hi Everyone,

I am feeling pretty discouraged and wanted to vent and see if anyone could offer me some advice- please!!

About me: I am a newbie buy and hold investor in Northern Virginia, long time lurker, and recent poster to the forum...getting a little addicted to it in the past month :) 

My market is extremely competitive - Northern VA and Montgomery County, MD - so I am aware finding an off-market property that cash flows after some renovations is not going to be easy... but it feels like it is impossible. I have been checking the MLS, HUD, foreclosure.com, I signed up for Marketpro deals and another well marketed wholesale company lists, and recently posted my criteria all over Craigslist and Facebook aiming my message at wholesalers. I am also trying to meet wholesalers at meetups I find on meetup.com (I don't know where else to connect with them) but they are mostly talk and I have not received ANYTHING of value from them. I also have an agent looking for me.

I am only looking for a single property!! 

Aside from what I've mentioned above, I have not spent any time reaching out directly to owners via obtaining a list of distressed buyers (I don't even know where I would get one from) or bandit signs- things that I would gladly pay a wholesaler to do for me.

Am I being lazy? Should I start my own marketing campaign? Is there something else I should be doing?

I figured this forum would be able to tell me what I am doing wrong. 

Thank you so much for reading!

[Christopher Sparacino]

have you tried posting in your local buy/sell facebook groups? that usually works for me.. I havent gotten my first deal yet, but i have an excel sheet with about 80 off market leads along the east coast from this year. try targeting homeowners with a simple message saying you are an investor looking for properties to purchase this month.. It usually works for me pretty quickly.. the other thing you could do is Drive 4 dollars.. Where you drive around different neighborhoods and look for beat up houses then take down the info, skip trace the owners contact information and reach out to them to see if they want to sell.