Make Your Property Search Count with these Tips

Finding a new investment property can be a painstaking process. At any given time, there are likely hundreds or more homes for sale in your market, making it a time-consuming task to wade through the listings to find the property that’s right for you.

But what if I told you there was a more productive way to find new investment properties, that would save you time AND result in findings with more potential? Would you do it?

Of course you would!

So here’s how.

First, it really does pay to connect with an agent who specializes in working in investors, or at least one who’s very experienced at it. The average real estate agent works primarily with traditional buyers, and let’s face it, these buyers’ needs are far different from yours. Partnering with an agent who understands the unique needs of an investor means they can filter through listings to find ones that fit your criteria and investment strategy exactly. They probably also have a network of other investors they work with, meaning they’ll hear about properties and market trends and other relevant info that you may miss out on otherwise.

Speaking of networks, you should also be working to build your own. Some of the people you might want to include, in addition to real estate agents, are contractors, lenders, brokers, and other investors. Getting to know people will only broaden your search field, because if you play your cards right, you’ll be privy to all the inside information they know, in addition to what you’re finding out through your own search methods.

You can also work to be a bit more proactive in your search tactics. Instead of just browsing listings online for a few minutes each day or waiting for a phone call from your agent, get out there and start driving around in your target neighborhood. This is called “driving for dollars,” and it can be a surprisingly effective way to nab a new property. Don’t be afraid to get out and talk to people, too, including the owner of any property you’re eyeballing. Take some business cards, explain why you’re there, and feel them out to gauge their interest in possibly selling. (Obviously, do not put yourself in any potentially dangerous situation. If a person looks like they don’t want to be approached, don’t do it.) Bottom line, being a bit more aggressive in your search can amount to a big payoff - you scoring that property in your ideal neighborhood.

Lastly, one of the easiest ways to make your property searches more productive is to work with a turnkey provider. Turnkey providers have an inventory of rehabbed, move-in ready, and often already tenanted properties that are ready for an investor to buy. These properties have been carefully selected for their cash flow potential, so they make ideal investments. Are you going to get an amazing, low price for a property? Honestly, no. You’re going to pay market value. But in return, you’ll save countless hours of your time that would have been spent searching, running calculations to ensure profitability, and negotiating with the seller. You may even find that you save money, too, because all the repairs and rehab work has already been done.

Property searches don’t have to be the arduous task they once were. With a bit of tweaking, you can streamline your search efforts to become more efficient and productive, resulting in time and money savings and a great investment property to boot.