Driving for Dollars - Some practical insights...

Greetings fellow investors.

My hope is that this blog will spark some great ideas, discussions and sharing with regards to looking for deals in local neighborhoods.

To get us started, I'd like to share a couple thoughts from my Driving for Dollars adventure earlier this morning.

I dropped my son off at the soccer complex around 8am as he had several games to ref today. On my way back home I decided to take a little detour through a neighborhood that I thought might have great potential for providing investment opportunities. During my drive I had a couple ah-ha moments that I'd like to share. These may not be breakthroughs but for myself, as a new investor, every little tidbit of info seems to add to my education in this new venture. 

First, I drive by this neighborhood fairly often and have never really explored all of the little side streets. I'm glad I did today as I found a couple of FSBO (for sale by owner) properties as well as a couple properties that appear to be vacant. These properties were tucked away on the short side streets that I didn't even realize existed. Lesson learned: Leave no stone unturned (or road untraveled - within your target area). You never know what you might find.

Next, as I drove around I caught myself pre-judging the homes I saw. I would think things like "that place will need a ton of work" or "it's going to cost a lot to get that one ready to sell". I eventually realized I was eliminating several homes that might be a perfect fit for me to fix & flip. Instead of looking at the cost to repair, I started remembering that the repair costs are not as important as being able to buy the property at the right price. Lesson learned: As investors, we make money (profit) when we buy. Knowing the ARV and repair costs will ensure that we make an offer that will provide the profit we are seeking.

Finally, this is probably a no-brainer for most, but being new I found it insightful. Some of the properties I saw today might have absentee owners (landlords). Once I complete that part of my research, I will be contacting the owners. I got to thinking, if they own one property, what are the chances that they might own others? Asking them if they have any other properties that they are looking to sell seems to be a logical question to ask when contacting them. Lesson learned: Always be thinking a step ahead. That next idea might be the one that opens the door to a  game changing deal.

Have a great weekend and happy hunting!