"Hack" of the Week - Sept. 15: How to Find Cash Buyers Using the MLS

Do you want to wholesale houses but you're afraid of pulling the trigger because you don't have any buyer lined up? The "Hack" of the week solves that problem.

Use the MLS to find CASH BUYERS.

How?

If you're NOT a real estate agent, you have to befriend one or partner with one. There are many real estate agents here on BP. Search for several agents (who are members of BP - so they understand how investors like us think) in your city or town and meet them for lunch. If you're a real estate agent, then follow the steps below. NOTE: the diagrams below are for Chicago MLS. How your MLS looks like and the steps might be a little different depending on your MLS system but the over-all principle should be the same.

Step 1: Open the MLS and search for "detached houses" or whatever appropriate property type you're searching for (for example: if your city has more condo's then search for condo's)

Step 2: On the Status, click CLOSED or sold

Step 3: On the boundaries, choose a 10-mile radius from where you live. You want to see how many cash buyers are there within a 10-mile radius. If you don't get a lot of cash buyers, then choose a bigger area (extend it to a 20-mile radius).

Step 4: On months back, choose 2 months. You want the most recent sales in your area that are cash. I choose 2 months because there's a 30-day delay before the title gets recorded. I want the most recent cash closings where the new owner's information has already become public records. Chicago is a dynamic market so I want the most recent cash buyers. You may extend this to 3 months or even 6 months depending on how active your market is.

Step 5: You can add a field in your search called "Finance code". Pull that and choose Cash. This step ensures that the only ones that will appear in your search are all the cash transactions.

Here's how your search fields will look like. I did a count and there are over 200 cash transactions in a 10-mile radius in the past 2 months alone in a 10-mile radius from where my office is at.

Step 6: Click View Results and then click on each cash transaction.

Step 7: If your MLS has the link to the county tax records, great. Just click the link to the tax records to see if the property address is the same as the mailing or tax billing address. If they are the same it just means you have a buyer who bought a property cash and they are living in the property. Instead, choose the ones whose mailing or tax billing address is different from the property address.

Here's a screen shot of an investor-cash buyer (I removed some details for privacy purposes):

As you can see above, the property address is different from the Tax Billing Address.

Step 8: You can google the name of the buyer and see if you can find the phone number through 411.com. If not, you can search Facebook to see if they have a FB profile. Then you can contact them preferably through a phone call or through FB. If you can't find either the phone number or their FB profile, you can send them a LETTER introducing who you are and why you want to meet them.

You can choose to contact them NOW or contact them when you have a property for sale. Either way, through the MLS, you can build a database of cash buyers who have closed on a deal recently. I hope this "Hack of the Week" will help you succeed in your real estate business.