| Successful real estate investing demands you acquire profitable deals regardless of your business model.
The following tips will guide you on how to narrow down on profitable deals and weed out the bad ones.
1) Market Value
You must have a property market value before you can buy it. When buying houses, I try to work with low market value to be safe.
The value shown by the county records is a good estimate in most cases. In most cases, it is lower than reasonable comparable sales in the area. However in a depressed real estate market, the market value can be affected by foreclosures. If you do not have access to your local MLS, it would be advisable to team up with a local realtor who can run comps for you from time to time.
2) Repair Estimates
Repair is an integral part of buying and selling houses. You must get a reliable repair estimate without getting too detailed. As you get more experienced, you can reliably estimate repairs by looking at a house in 5 to 10 minutes.
I try to over-estimate restoration to stay safe.
3) Mortgage Balance
You cannot make an offer on the house unless you know the mortgage balance. Unless you can pay off the mortgage and leave room for a profit, the deal may not be worth pursuing.
If a motivated seller is not motivated enough to provide this information, you might want to move on to the next one.
4) Asking Price
If a seller wants full market value for their house, they are not motivated enough for you. If they cannot accept an offer that leaves a profit for you, that is not your deal.
Sometimes motivated sellers may not know the market value of their house, and showing them your numbers may change their minds and accept your offer.
5) Is It Vacant?
This indicates how motivated the seller is. Sellers who make more than one payment will want to sell fast. It also means you can take ownership of the house as soon as you buy it.
How do you collect this information?
A good real estate investor website is the easiest way to receive this information. A good real estate investing website will definitely help you receive this information. The website should serve to convince them you are the best person to buy their property and collect the information you need right on the website.
The form should collect as little information as possible, but just enough to know whether it is a deal or not.
The less information you request the more people are likely to respond via your website. This will save you lots of time because you only talk to motivated sellers whose numbers make sense.
You can then ask for any remaining information once you talk to them on the phone.
Simon Macharia is a real estate investor in Dallas, Texas. His business is run from a real estate investor website that pre-educates motivated sellers delivering pre-screened and pre-negotiated deals. Visit http://www.realestateinvestorswebsites.net to see how to pre-screen motivated sellers hands-off. |
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