How to Find a Good Real Estate Investment Property

**waziri** · 05-15-2009, 05:18 AM

There are many ways in which you can find a great property for your real estate investment. The problem lies in the fact that many would be investors aren't exactly certain what specific types of investment they wish to make. Unfortunately, the type of investing will greatly affect the type of property that will best suit your real estate needs. This article focuses on finding a great property for the purpose of flipping or rehabbing a property.

Seek Bargains

This is absolutely a necessary step when it comes to finding properties with excellent potential as flipped properties. Bargains are often sold at bargain prices for a reason. The good news is that many of these reasons are purely cosmetic and quite simple to fix. Finding a realtor that is willing to work with you for lower prices, bargain properties offer an excellent place to begin. If he or she is a knowledgeable professional you should have access to properties that would have been unavailable to you had you continued the search without the assistance of a professional.

Another great place to find bargains of this nature is to search through foreclosures, auctions, and homes that are preparing to enter into foreclosure. While not always the case, there are many in these situations that are willing to be a bit more flexible with the price. Never offer full asking price first. Start low and negotiate up. This may lose some properties but in the end it will be a much more profitable venture if you can get the properties you want for a smaller investment.

Know the Neighborhood

Before placing a bid on a potential property for flipping you need to learn as much about the neighborhood as possible. You do not want to place a family home in the middle of a retirement neighborhood, nor do you want to place a potential bachelor pad in that type of area. You also want to avoid areas that are entering a state of decline, as the rehab efforts are unlikely to achieve the profits you are hoping to receive. Instead, look for bargains in areas that are approaching some sort of renewal or have very low crime and excellent growth potential.

If you are rehabbing a home that is meant to appeal to families make sure the neighborhood is safe, has a relatively low crime rate, access to good schools, and entertainment opportunities that may appeal to families. These things will affect the price you are likely to be able to expect once the rehab efforts have been completed as well as the type of renovations you will need to perform on the property. Buying a property in an area that you know nothing about is like buying a property without an inspection-which brings me to my next point.

Get a Thorough Inspection

This is one of the most important steps in the process of selecting the perfect property for your real estate investment needs. A qualified inspection will prepare you for any problems that may arise during the course of your work on the home. These are things that will affect the amount of money you should offer on the home, the amount of money you will need to invest in repairs, and the amount of money you can expect once all is said and done.

Failing to have a complete and proper inspection can lead to disaster when the renovations begin costing extra money and time as efforts are undone in order to get to the root of the problems as you go. There are very few things that can save you the time or money that having a decent inspection can manage to save. Inspections can also make you aware of any structural problems, code problems, and other problems that may mean the difference between this property offering a possible profit or a probable loss. It is much better to be armed with this knowledge before ever making an offer on the property in question.

Realize That You do not Need to Buy the First Property You See

This is an important thing to remember. If the first property doesn't speak to you, move on until you find one that does. This process is part science and part inspiration. If you are uninspired by a property it is unlikely that this property will suddenly take on a life of its own in order to suit your real estate investment needs. Keep searching until you find the property that meets all of your needs in order to find the perfect property for your first or your fiftieth flip.

**moneyyoda** · 05-15-2009, 09:25 AM

I agree, having systems is a key to succeed in real estate investing. You have to have systems for buying and more importantly, systems for selling houses real quick. Otherwise, your business will depend on you. The problem with that is this...

In your first deal, you are excited and energetic. You put out marketing out there to attract motivated sellers. You excitedly answer the phone and you make several offers and you are even more excited as you get one of your offers accepted. Now you have a deal. You then frantically put out marketing to sell the property. You are excited once more as you answer the phone and pre-screen the calls to get to the motivated, qualified buyer of your property. After several weeks you found your buyer. You then submit all the documents required to the title company to get to the closing and you are excited once more by the huge amount of money you're going to make. You anxiously await the closing. Why can't we get this over and done with sooner - you ask.

There are two things that can happen here.

Best case scenario you get the deal closed. You walk away with a BIG, FAT check like what Trace promised. Yey! BUT, you realized that you did not have a deal coming up. You have no pipeline. You have to start over and start marketing to find motivated sellers once again. You set a goal of buying one house a month but now, three months have passed and you've realized you have no deals to sell.

Worst case scenario, the deal falls through because of some title issues...or the buyer backed out. Or the seller became angry at you because of all the money you would be making on the deal. What did the seller expect? You work for free? Now, you have no BIG FAT check and no deal coming up as a back up. You've lost three months with no money to even fund your marketing. This stuff does not work as Trace says it would. SO, you give up and kill your dream...and join the 97% of beginning real estate investors who will never buy their first investment property!

To avoid any of the scenarios from happening to you, you have to have systems. You have to have systems for buying, selling, funding, even closing your deals. You have to have a pipeline of properties to sell and a pipeline of eager, qualified buyers competing for your deals.

Dedicated to your financial success,
Trace Trajano
blogspot: tracetrajano

**rentec** · 05-18-2009, 06:09 AM

Especially the part about not needing to buy the first one you see! I've seen it happen too many times. The emotional aspect of buying realestate loses people a lot of money.

If your buying for investment, there's no reason to get emotionally attached to any property. There's no such thing as "I better get it before it's gone because there isn't going to be another deal like this in my lifetime". There's ALWAYS another deal around the corner. If your in a small town, there's going to be another deal available next week. There's a $190 house that will take $130.

Save your wallet some heartache, and look at no less than 20 properties before buying 1.

**clintonbaisley** · 05-23-2009, 03:25 AM

If you are trying to invest in real estate and need to start finding undervalued and discounted investment property, then you will need to know where to look so that you can find the deals before the next guy does. Investment real estate is a very competitive field and those that are not quick will have a hard time finding a good discount investment property. The worst thing you can do as an investor is to pay full price for a home and think that you can fix it up or flip it. Here is a guide to finding undervalued real estate and other forms of real estate investment.

**Condos Florida** · 05-25-2009, 10:39 PM

i think in recession period its a great opportunity to invest the money in real estate if you are buying for investment then you can buy a flats or condos you will get good rewords after the recession period.

**shubh** · 05-27-2009, 07:52 PM

Thanks for sharing the tips. You may also ask for the video clips or the photographs to get a better idea of proposed property. Bt at the final stage, don’t miss to pay personal visit at the site and if you see to many damage or any defects not mentioned earlier, you may ask for the reduction in the prices. To know more about latest real estate business practices and trends, one may visit foreclosureworkouts.info also.

**minnesota-mls** · 05-31-2009, 09:17 AM

Thanks for your post. It remains an awesome time to be looking to buy any investment property here in Minnesota.

There are still alot of homes for sale on the MLS, interest rates are low, and rental demand is strong.

Our team really believes in buy and hold!

Thanks again!

**sarah_9** · 06-01-2009, 12:57 AM

Hello,

Hey Waziri, thanks for sharing such a useful post, people often make little mistakes at early stage and repent later, it is better to get the service of some professional service provider, who are expert in handling real estate matters, so you get best out of your investment.

Regards,
sarah_9

Maryland Properties
Balduscommercial

**jstevenson** · 06-04-2009, 08:17 AM

Thanks for the tips. I'm waiting for the Toronto real estate market to crash hard and then I'll be purchasing properties.

**florida real estate** · 06-12-2009, 02:46 AM

Good points this all points very important to consider when buying real estate property in any area yes but agree that current time is best who having money and want to invest in real estate property.