What To Do In Strong Sellers Market ?
I was wondering If this newbie could get some advice on the best way to find properties in a strong sellers market. I'm trying to find distressed properties at wholesale or foreclosures and am finding that there are few and far between. The Vermont market right now is very inflated and there is a houseing shortage. People aren't going into foreclosure because they are eventually selling there house and paying what they owe. People are bidding for some houses 20% over FMV. This is great whenever i finally do find properties, i'm just having a difficult time finding them. Any advice would help, thank you.
Does anyone here have any advice ??
you could wait until the market cycle turns full circle.
or you could look in another area. thats what most people are doing in socal. its very very difficult for newbies here. i have a friend who gave up after about 10 months of putting up signs, doing the foreclosure route and basically working the system full-time. he finally got one deal with about 20K equity and the lender refused to deal with him. it went into foreclosure, and the lender sold it at full price a few weeks later.
It is tough out there right now!! I actually started working in an area about 2 hours from where I live. Fortunately, I have friends and family in that area. My oldest friend is helping me with property management and her husband is my handyman. That makes life a lot easier. Maybe you can try something similar? I did end up buying a 3unit, a 5 unit and a single family house there. I hope that helps.
Murta,
You're going to have to do some leg work! Berlin isn't that big so you'll have no problem driving around and keeping your eyes open. Look for rundown, overgrown houses and possibly vacant ones. If you find some that look good start your search there. You'd be surprised who owns some of these. They may be older folks who have them as rentals or even people from out of state that are tired of dealing with them. Check with the tax office and you should be able to track the owners down. From there a simple letter or phone call inquiring if they've thought of selling their property may turn up a lead. From there I'd also say you'll have to branch out. From where you are it's only about an hour to Hanover NH, Rutland VT, etc.
The point is you may have to expand your search.
Another thing to consider is maybe to take a look at what kind of properties you're looking for. I'm sure there are many people who are sucessful buying wholesale and flipping to investors but there are several other plays including rehabs, and buying smaller obsolete properties such as maybe one bedrooms and putting on an addition to add living space. Then you can take advantage of the inflated real estate values at hand.
Just a few of my thoughts!
Good Luck
Well since you are buying deals based only on the numbers, why not check classifies in cities of areas where there are better investments? I hear stories all of the time of people who buy properties out of state. In my particular case, California, it is a very similar market and after 4 months, I find some properties that might work for flipping but not for rentals.
HTH,
Robert
Robert:
I agree with you, the Calif market is out of control, where and how do you find out of state deals/property ? I dont have any contacts in other local states any ideas in how and where to establish these as well? Are you finding some local states to Calif. are better to work with and have more deals than others?
Thanks
RAL
Thanks for the info. That is good advice, I appreciate it. My only concern with doing rehabs or anything else at a further distance is the time it will take to fix up and or manage the property. My Dad is a Contractor so rehabs are right up our alley. It's hard to get him to move any further out then 30 miles. But i'll see what I can do. Thanks again.
Hello Murta,
I was just wondering about your progress?
Hopefully it is going well. Hows about an Update?
Happy Investing!
OK, a couple of suggestions. Try other areas (already suggested). Try other kinds of properties, there are lots of people out there chasing SFR's many fewer chasing commercial, almost none chasing junk industrial.
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The market is very hot here (San Jose, CA). Buyers are bidding on properties and the price never come down.
Things are going pretty well. I am closing on a 3 unit apartment building in a month and a SFH around the same time. I've realized that the deals are few and between and you really have to hustle to make anything work. It's not a place where you can buy 4-5 properties a month. I will start off slow build equity and credit..and then move to a more des ireable market.