All Forum Posts by: Michael Woodward

You touched a subject that makes some investors immediately clam up because they don't want to give away their best secrets. Finding leads is probably the most important (and difficult) part of an investment deal. In my opinion, there are more than enough deals for us all so I don't mind to share what I know.

One precursor.....to get the best deals you really need to be prepared to offer cash for the property. If you aren't prepared for it another investor probably will be and will get it first.

Here's a list of where I look:

- www.realtor.com

This is my number one source. You have to act quick but I've bought nearly all my deals this way. Sometimes foreclosures are listed from out-of-town Realtors which means that they show up on realtor.com BEFORE the local Realtors know anything about it. I put a house under contract a couple years ago from an out-of-town Realtor. Two days later, my local Realtor called me to tell me about this awesome deal they found. I had to laugh. It was eye-opening to see how far ahead of the Realtors I was using this method.

- www.homepath.com

This is where you'll find (most of) the government foreclosure listings. I always call the Realtor that has the listing and let them know that I want to make an offer the property the instant that the owner-buyer waiting period is over. If you call the Realtor direct instead of getting another Realtor to call them, they'll work much harder for you to get the house so they can keep the whole commission.

- Your local MLS

Our local MLS has a "public" section that allows anyone to search all the current MLS listings. It doesn't have all the features that the Realtors system has but it's a complete list.

- Other investors

Call the people in your area that advertise "WE BUY HOUSES" and ask them if they have any deals they want to flip/wholesale to you.

- Area "farming"

Many local areas have their public records posted online. You can literally look up everything you need to know about each property from your computer at home. You just need to decide what criteria you're looking for and start mining for data. Or you can use the shotgun approach and just send out mailers to everyone in the area you're "farming" and offer to buy their house. Most won't but some will!

Good Luck!

I think you're on a great path for financial freedom. Your choice to use real estate as the financial vehicle and seeking out advice from this forum is a very good recipe for success. Isolation is (almost) a guarantee for failure.

My first experience with real estate came just after I graduated from college. I didn't approach it as an investor. I just wanted to find a nice place to live. My wife and I spent the next year and a half fixing up the property to suit our likes. About that time, the plant I was working in shut down so I had to make a quick decision about whether to find another job there or move back to my home state. Long story short......we decided to move back home so we sold the house (post-repairs) and made about $25k on it. WOW! Talk about an eye-opener. I was able to pay off all my student loan debt on my first deal and returned home with a pocket full of cash! I've had the real estate bug ever since.

I want to caution you however that you CAN lose money in real estate!.....a LOT of money! The best thing to do is continue what you're doing right now. Ask for as much advice as possible. Forums are an awesome, "living" source of information. I would also incourage you to look for books related to basic real estate investing. The kind that will explain all the different methods so you can pick the ones that appeal to you.

Treat your investing career the same as you did for your professionsal career.
- Spend lots of time researching your methods.
- Get to know your local market.
- BUILD YOUR LOCAL TEAM! Ask realtors for contractor referrals. Ask appliance stores for kitchen cabinet referrals. Ask painters for drywall referrals. Ask finish carpenters for framer referrals. Ask framers for concrete referrals. ETC!
- When you're ready to "graduate", you'll have enough knowledge to move with confidence.

Good Luck!

It's a tough call on the tree. I sold a house a few years ago that had a tree next to it with an enormous, beautiful canopy. In my opinion, it was the nicest feature on the property. When I got the sales contract, it was contingent on cutting the tree down before closing. Apparently someone in the family was concerned that it would fall on the house. I think the best choice is to leave it for now. You can't bring it back if you cut it down but you can always cut it if your buyer doesn't want it.

Concrete vs. asphalt can also be a tough call. Both are vulnerable to your environment. Asphalt flexes better if you have roots under the driveway, concrete holds its shape better if your ground is soft, etc....I tend to agree with the earlier comments that you should probably just match the neighbor's driveways. One more thing to consider though is.... you should visualize whether the appearance is better with the driveway black or white. If "pop" is the deciding factor, it might just come down to color.

In my experience, ridiculous bids come from one of two kinds of contractors.

1) Overloaded: They're very busy and/or don't like something about your project, or...

2) Shady: Predatory contractors that throw out lots of outrageous bids and wait for someone to bite. I like to think the best of people but I think this kind of thing happens a lot. It's so difficult to get ANY response from contractors that it leaves the door open for the more unscrupulous contractors to take advantage of people.

I recently bought a house for $13k that needed all of the usual repairs of a typical distressed property. I got one bid for $20k which was roughly in line with my budget. The second bid I got was $50k!! I will never know if the second contractor was type 1 or type 2 but regardless, it reinforces the need to ALWAYS get multiple bids.