Today, I want to talk about investor-oriented resources and how they can help you locate good investments. There is no doubt that the Internet has had a tremendous positive effect on the career of real estate investors and helping them find deals. What we used to do by driving around and making phone calls can quickly be done online today. There are investor-oriented websites, online investor communities, and countless private investor websites in existence.
Investor-Oriented Websites
I’m a real fan of a couple of free investor-oriented websites. Unlike so many others, they don’t charge subscription fees, and you get tons of listings from private parties (as opposed to companies that don't really have properties to sell. Two of my favorites are:
www.Rehablist.com
www.Foreclosures-4-investors.com
Keep in mind that you can often find deals from consumers selling homes as well as investors wholesaling deals. Often, even real estate agents will have lucrative deals on these sites.
I'm not much of a fan of the paid foreclosure subscription services. There are a couple of good ones, but most of them have information that is either grossly outdated (read: useless) or otherwise inaccurate. Or, the information is often nothing more than what available to the public through other means for free!
Even the good subscription services can be out of date, and have scores of public information, so you have to take that into consideration. Plus, the fees tend to be really cost-prohibitive anyone but experienced investors who have enough activity to justify the cost. All that said, if you choose to use a paid foreclosure service, select your company wisely.
Real Estate Investing Communities
I’m also a fan of a handful of creative real estate investing communities online because their forums and classified ads can lead to impressive situations.
www.uslandco.com
www.creonline.com
I'll also put in a plug for my own real estate community just formed on a social networking site called Ning.com. It's very similar to facebook.com or myspace.com if you are familiar with those. It takes full advantage of contemporary Internet features such as photos video and "social networking" among members. My site is:
http://coast2coastinvestor.ning.com/
In invite you to join me, post your introductions, network, ask questions, etc.
Until my next post...live your real estate dreams!
William Flood
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Locating Properties (part 3) - National Real Estate Sites
Let's jump right in and take a look at how national real estate sites can be a good source of property leads.
There’s no doubt that real estate brokerages control the vast majority of listings of property for sale. Agent listings on national sites can have certain kinds of issues - among them outdated listings that don't get removed, they are still an important place to look.
There are some pretty well-know places to search:
www.Realtor.com. I don’t tend to use realtor.com to search for listings because I get frustrated with the amount of outdated information I find. It seems to me that about 7 or 8 out of every 10 listings on realtor.com are no longer for sale, but were never taken offline. I do use realtor.com to help find agents, to browse properties in areas in which I am interested to get a sense of value, and learn the communities and so forth. It has some pretty good search tools, so for that it’s useful. And, my comments withstanding, realtor.com is still among the top places to find property for sale.
Here's an FYI (for your information) - be watchful when you are browsing the online classifieds of regional papers. Often when you think you are browsing their reader-placed ads you end up just looking at realtor.com listings. Often you have to dig deeper in the newspaper's website than just the "property for sale" link to find the actual reader-placed classifieds.
The real gem, as far as real estate agent listings go, is being able to access the various multiple listings services. In some cases like Houston’s www.HAR.com, or Ohio's Lake Eerie region's www.firelandsmls.com the service is available to the public without any complication. Some others like Tidewater Virginia's www.hrmls.com provide a certain amount for free, but require either an agent's connection or the paying of a modest subscription fee.
Many links to local MLS services go right through agents' websites, and these can be accessed just as easily as those you can access directly. Searching for the term "MLS" in the area of your interest will generally bring up links, whether they are direct, or on an agency website.
Another FYI - if an agent forces you through a contact page to get your criteria – in other words, you really can’t access the MLS through their site without giving them your contact data. I’d move on. Your objective at this juncture is to research and locate properties, not to be forced into a contact with an agent.
That said, when you find a good agent to work with, they can send you automatically emailed listings that meet your criteria. This is a really useful service and probably the best reason to invest time and energy locating an investor-friendly agent. Probably the best tool I have at my disposal is the nearly daily flood of leads automatically generated by various MLS services and sent through these agents auto-emailings.
Homes guides are great to pick up when you are in an area. I don’t know if you are like me (my wife just laughs at this), but whenever I travel to a new location one of the first things I do is pick up all the homes guides at the grocery store or street corner. Thankfully, most have online versions. Here are three to get you started:
www.Homes.com
www.Homesandland.com
www.harmonhomes.com
Next time I'll be discussing private investor sites and providing a great collection of links to investors who have great deals - often at wholesale pricing - for other investors.
Until Next Time, live your real estate dreams!
William Flood
The Coast to Coast Real Estate Investor
There’s no doubt that real estate brokerages control the vast majority of listings of property for sale. Agent listings on national sites can have certain kinds of issues - among them outdated listings that don't get removed, they are still an important place to look.
There are some pretty well-know places to search:
www.Realtor.com. I don’t tend to use realtor.com to search for listings because I get frustrated with the amount of outdated information I find. It seems to me that about 7 or 8 out of every 10 listings on realtor.com are no longer for sale, but were never taken offline. I do use realtor.com to help find agents, to browse properties in areas in which I am interested to get a sense of value, and learn the communities and so forth. It has some pretty good search tools, so for that it’s useful. And, my comments withstanding, realtor.com is still among the top places to find property for sale.
Here's an FYI (for your information) - be watchful when you are browsing the online classifieds of regional papers. Often when you think you are browsing their reader-placed ads you end up just looking at realtor.com listings. Often you have to dig deeper in the newspaper's website than just the "property for sale" link to find the actual reader-placed classifieds.
The real gem, as far as real estate agent listings go, is being able to access the various multiple listings services. In some cases like Houston’s www.HAR.com, or Ohio's Lake Eerie region's www.firelandsmls.com the service is available to the public without any complication. Some others like Tidewater Virginia's www.hrmls.com provide a certain amount for free, but require either an agent's connection or the paying of a modest subscription fee.
Many links to local MLS services go right through agents' websites, and these can be accessed just as easily as those you can access directly. Searching for the term "MLS" in the area of your interest will generally bring up links, whether they are direct, or on an agency website.
Another FYI - if an agent forces you through a contact page to get your criteria – in other words, you really can’t access the MLS through their site without giving them your contact data. I’d move on. Your objective at this juncture is to research and locate properties, not to be forced into a contact with an agent.
That said, when you find a good agent to work with, they can send you automatically emailed listings that meet your criteria. This is a really useful service and probably the best reason to invest time and energy locating an investor-friendly agent. Probably the best tool I have at my disposal is the nearly daily flood of leads automatically generated by various MLS services and sent through these agents auto-emailings.
Homes guides are great to pick up when you are in an area. I don’t know if you are like me (my wife just laughs at this), but whenever I travel to a new location one of the first things I do is pick up all the homes guides at the grocery store or street corner. Thankfully, most have online versions. Here are three to get you started:
www.Homes.com
www.Homesandland.com
www.harmonhomes.com
Next time I'll be discussing private investor sites and providing a great collection of links to investors who have great deals - often at wholesale pricing - for other investors.
Until Next Time, live your real estate dreams!
William Flood
The Coast to Coast Real Estate Investor
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Locating Properties (Part 2) - Classified Sites
Hi Everyone. Welcome to another edition of the Coast to Coast Real Estate Investor. In this edition I'll be continuing my multi-part series on how and where to locate suitable investment properties out of state.
In this edition, I'll be exploring classified advertising sites and resources. Right on the heels of the For Sale By Owner (FSBO) sites are the big national classified advertising sites. My top pick is the well-known www.Craigslist.com. I’ve heard a lot of people complain that they can’t find deals on Craigslist or that only amateurs use it. That can’t be further from the truth. Any time you have a collection of sellers, you are going to have a certain percentage that are “don’t wanter” types that are really flexible. You just need to know what to look for.
The trick to Craigslist is learning how to search. Craigslist allows you to do keyword searches, so you need to look for terms that would pull up potential candidates. For example, searching for “owner relocating” or “out of state” often pulls up some interesting possibilities. It does take a certain amount of finessing to really work Craigslist searches, and I’m going to dedicate a future lesson on just how to do some very precise looking. For now, searching for common investor-oriented terms like “owner motivated” or “fixer upper” can produce fantastic results.
My second pick in classified sites is www.backpage.com. It’s very much like Craigslist, but less well known. It has the advantage that it pulls ads from local papers and free newsies. It’s also very searchable, which makes it a great tool. I also like www.classifiedads.com for the same reasons, although the data on there isn't as extensive as the other two.
Don’t forget local publications like newspapers and Pennysavers. Their classifieds are often online, and of course, you can pick up the publications when you are in an area or subscribe to them. Browsing the online classifieds of an out-of-state newspaper online is fine, although if it has search tools, it's a better situation. One thing to be aware of when you use out of state newspaper sites is that the real estate classified ads are often nothing more than listings pulled from www.realtor.com, and are not the same as the actual ads run by individual sellers. You often have to look a bit deeply to find the actual ads that are running in the printed version of the paper.
Next time I'll be delving into national real estate sites. They can be a wonderful resource.
Until next time - live your real estate dreams!
In this edition, I'll be exploring classified advertising sites and resources. Right on the heels of the For Sale By Owner (FSBO) sites are the big national classified advertising sites. My top pick is the well-known www.Craigslist.com. I’ve heard a lot of people complain that they can’t find deals on Craigslist or that only amateurs use it. That can’t be further from the truth. Any time you have a collection of sellers, you are going to have a certain percentage that are “don’t wanter” types that are really flexible. You just need to know what to look for.
The trick to Craigslist is learning how to search. Craigslist allows you to do keyword searches, so you need to look for terms that would pull up potential candidates. For example, searching for “owner relocating” or “out of state” often pulls up some interesting possibilities. It does take a certain amount of finessing to really work Craigslist searches, and I’m going to dedicate a future lesson on just how to do some very precise looking. For now, searching for common investor-oriented terms like “owner motivated” or “fixer upper” can produce fantastic results.
My second pick in classified sites is www.backpage.com. It’s very much like Craigslist, but less well known. It has the advantage that it pulls ads from local papers and free newsies. It’s also very searchable, which makes it a great tool. I also like www.classifiedads.com for the same reasons, although the data on there isn't as extensive as the other two.
Don’t forget local publications like newspapers and Pennysavers. Their classifieds are often online, and of course, you can pick up the publications when you are in an area or subscribe to them. Browsing the online classifieds of an out-of-state newspaper online is fine, although if it has search tools, it's a better situation. One thing to be aware of when you use out of state newspaper sites is that the real estate classified ads are often nothing more than listings pulled from www.realtor.com, and are not the same as the actual ads run by individual sellers. You often have to look a bit deeply to find the actual ads that are running in the printed version of the paper.
Next time I'll be delving into national real estate sites. They can be a wonderful resource.
Until next time - live your real estate dreams!
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