How to Find Good Real Estate Deals - The Gold Mine of Information.

  Have you ever heard people say that "it's not what you know, it's WHO you know that counts"? Well, in the real estate investing arena this can many times be absolutely true when it comes to learning how to find good real estate deals. Take a few moments and plan out your strategy for finding great real estate investments by gaining the attention, cooperation and loyalty of integral pieces to the real estate investing puzzle: the people you never talk to that you see every single day. These people hold the keys to your fortune (even if they drive a garbage truck).

The knowledge and inside information of who needs what, who has what, and who's looking for what, that lies untapped in the head of every single person you meet, and so you can find motivated sellers by networking. You can find investors and private lenders by networking. You can find tenants by networking. You can absolutely have others help you find property by word of mouth- and doing all these things every day can make you a very rich investor.

As you're mapping out your winning strategy for real estate investing, keep this in mind: in the real estate business, just like in life, your positive and strong relationships with other people are the greatest assets you can ever have. Thus, networking is an extremely important part of enhancing your investing success.

Networking with like-minded individuals, other investors and real estate professionals who can help you on your journey to success can help investors like you and I locate some great deals. However, it's networking with people NOT in the real estate business that can often bear the BEST fruit, the very best deals available.

How to Find Good Real Estate Deals - Overlooked People Resources

Why? Many times, we can learn about these great deals before anyone else- simply by being the ear on the receiving end of someone who wants to do us a favor (or return one). By being the person among someone's group of friends, family, acquaintances, or co-workers who is known to them as the "go-to-guy" to solve problems in real estate- and by making it worth that person's while to give you the information you need. (That's very important!)

This person could be ANYONE we meet, even if we just met them TODAY.

It's true, when it comes to finding great real estate investments; the best deals are never listed. Not on the MLS. Not in a FSBO magazine. Not on a website somewhere. No, the best deals are often never listed at all. In fact, a mentor of mine made famous the phrase, "if it's on a list, the deal doesn't exist". No, a true deal is something few people are going to know about (and the best is one where none who know about it know how to or are prepared to act on it). You want to be one of those few people who know!

Networking can yield some surprisingly fantastic results as connections are made with other movers and shakers and people in the know and believe me when I say that relationships can be forged in some unlikely place- and with some unlikely people.

Even your garbage man can be a great person to network with, when you're looking for great potential real estate deals. In fact, with a few garbage men on your bird-dog team you can find motivated sellers by networking all month long, just by being on the receiving end from information they might have that others don't (and compensating them for it legally- see your attorney).

Think about it a second and you'll realize why this makes so much sense. Do you see it?

In fact, right now I'm willing to bet that most of us (myself included) MISS OUT on most of the GREAT deals the universe has put within our grasp, simply because we do not have the eyes to see the message or the ears to hear the messenger or the voice to ask the right questions of the right person at the very moment we have been given the free opportunity to reach out and grab it.

Find Property by Word of Mouth & Networking

Many people fail to realize that the man or woman on the train next to you, the checkout girl at the local supermarket, or that guy at the gym who seems like he's trying to squat himself to death very well might hold the key to their investing dreams. They might have the knowledge of a potential deal that no one else does.

And all we have to do is ASK.

And you know what? Chances are two things are happening in this situation you and I miss out on almost every single day.

One, these folks have NO IDEA how VALUABLE the information they have is. They themselves don't have the specialized knowledge you do (they aren't real estate investors after all) to even SEE the deal, or make profits doing the deal, or the right words to use in getting the investor, or the resources in buying the house, or the need for renting the house...but they sure can give you all the information YOU need to do it.

Two, we never find out that information because we never think to ASK! We will only know for sure how many deals we have been missing out on if we take the critical first step to engage everyone we come into contact with a conversation, asking who they might know that needs "X", who has "Y", who is looking for "Z".

Who do you know looking to rent?

Who do you know maybe wants to sell their house?

Do you know anyone looking to invest money in real estate?

Etc

Don't believe me about the fact that you're missing a deal EVERY SINGLE DAY?

Then it's time for a demonstration of how to find good real estate deals, ok?

Let's take one simple example, shall we? Let's say for instance that you live in Atlanta and you're a pre-foreclosure investor, meaning you buy the homes from sellers who are behind on their mortgage and want out before their home gets foreclosed on and their credit is ruined. People will tell you that these deals are hard to find and that there is a lot of competition for them. They'd be right only if YOU believed THEM.

In fact, while these deals aren't EASY to find. It CAN be SIMPLE to find property by word of mouth and networking.

Here's how.

Open up your mind to the possibilities that people all around you know about these deals.

If I told you that 1 in 54 houses in Atlanta were going to foreclose in the next 12 months, what would that mean to you?

1 in 54!

That's tens of thousands of potential pre-foreclosure deals for this example investor to find.

Is the best way to find motivated sellers by networking?

Maybe, maybe not. In a large city like Atlanta, you might see a motivated seller prompted to call from a billboard, a Yellow Pages ad, a TV commercial, from one of the hundreds of thousands if not millions of pieces of direct mail daily dropped in the area- or you could see that same call generated by simple word of mouth. Simple, cheap, effective word of mouth.

And each of those people going through foreclosure will know an average of 300 friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances, as the statistics of human relations tell us.

Do you think one of them might be known by the man or woman on the train next to you, the checkout girl at the local supermarket, or that guy at the gym who seems like he's trying to squat himself to death?

Do you think your garbage man might know one of them?

Do you think they might tell you what you need to know or who you need to talk with, if you give them an incentive to do so?

Yes and Yes.

Are you beginning to see what I'm talking about now?

About how you can be out there with a force of people finding great real estate investments for you?

Talk to everyone!

And give them a reason to tell you who they know who can use your services.

It can happen so easily... you can analyze a property so easily when it's from a distance. You can see clearly what price makes sense for you, and what makes a great deal.

Then, the second you decide to put in an offer your competitive instincts tend to kick in.

As a real estate investor looking at property, it's so easy to be objective about a property until you are in the middle of negotiating the deal.

Most people say they'd rather be rich than right but they act like they'd rather be right than rich.

They draw a line in the sand and require the other party to step over that line in order to do the deal. They pretend to seek the 'win - win' scenario but are only really thinking about winning.

You want to beat the seller into giving you the lowest price possible. At least you feel that way until you find out that there's a competing bid and then suddenly you find yourself offering way more than you planned to offer just because you have to win the deal.

Well I am not going to pretend to be able to negotiate everything expertly - but years of working in sales (from packaged goods to real estate information), training sales staff, and negotiating real estate deals has taught me a lot about what works, and what doesn't.

Keeping it simple... here's my 10 Commandments for Negotiations Great Real Estate Deals:

1. Keith Cunningham, author of Keys to the Vault says that the only reason you are in a negotiation is to do better than your alternatives - so, make that your focus instead of 'winning'. I see this happen all the time on the Canadian television show 'Dragon's Den' (the American equivalent is Shark Tank). Just last week a fellow selling a rice alternative initially turned down an offer for 50% of his business in exchange for expertise and cash that he badly needed. He had no other alternatives. His other alternative was to move on from his product. He almost said no because he felt 50% was too high. But really, right now, he has 100% of a $100,000 loss and this deal would give him the chance to have 50% of a $5,000,000 a year business... He'd lost site of the fact that he was there to do better than his alternatives not look like the king of negotiations on Canadian national television.

2. Be a problem solver. Why is the person selling? Ask lots of questions to try and understand the motivation of the seller. Then figure out how you can offer the best solution to their problem. Maybe the seller needs a fast close more than they need their full purchase price. You won't know what kind of a deal you can create unless you focus on solving the problem of the seller.

3. To steal the line from the BC Lottery Corporation: Know your limit, play within it. In other words, BEFORE you set foot into a negotiation, determine what is a good deal for you. And this will be a range, not a specific number. If you get any number within your range take the deal. Resist the urge to squeeze for that last $2,000.

4. Remember, it's not just about price when negotiating a great real estate deal. I encourage you to have a limit to what you'll pay, but I also encourage you to find other ways to make the deal work for you and for the vendor. For example, you'll often find that you can get the deal done with less hassle and fewer expenses if the vendor will finance the property. In that case, it may be worth it to pay more than you were originally willing to pay. Alternatively, the vendor might throw in furniture, vehicles, art work or even some services they might offer (dentistry, massage therapy, auto mechanics... etc) just to get a higher price on the property.

5. Be flexible without being emotional. Similar to the above, there may be ways to make the deal even better. The purchase price range is a good thing to have, but you may choose to bend it if you find other ways to make the deal work for everyonehttps://www.penidaland.com/. The trick is to be able to analyze the deal without getting emotional. If at any time you start to feel yourself getting too emotional take a step back. Review the numbers and the facts of the deal. What makes this a good deal for you?

6. Options = power. When you start to feel like you're getting backed into a corner, think about your options. Even better, before you even begin think about your the best option you have if you don't do this deal. Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, calls it a BATNA - a best alternative to a negotiated agreement. When you think about what your options are you realize that there WILL be other deals and no matter how much you like this property it's never worthwhile to overpay for a property just to get it.

7. Options = power for the seller too! Rather than be a hard nosed negotiator pushing the seller to agree to your deal, try giving the seller choices. You have a better chance of understanding their problem and getting the deal you want if you make the seller feel like they have some power and control over the deal. For example, to avoid having the seller say "no" to my offer, I would say something like this: "The best I can do is $200,000 if I have to go to a bank for financing. They're going to require me to prove the rental income, pay for an appraisal, and do a ton of paperwork to qualify for that loan. So if you'll accept my $200,000 offer, I will close on the date you want. But if you are willing to provide at least 70 percent of the financing, I can offer you $210,000. And I would still be willing to close on the date you want." By giving my seller these two options, I make him feel like he is in control of the outcome of our negotiation... even though either one would be a great deal for me.

8. A confused mind says no. I don't know who originally said this, but it's always true. When have you ever been confused and agreed to do something? It just doesn't happen. Explain your offer so simply that your 8 year old niece would understand it. And, if you're relying on your realtor to tell the seller's realtor and then the seller's realtor to explain it to the seller consider writing a letter to be presented with the offer. In that letter explain what you're offering and why. Keep it simple and specific.

9. Explain WHY. In Robert Cialdini's book called Influence, he explains the details of an interesting study he did on the power of WHY. He determined that even a poor reason why is far more influential than no reason at all. He studied this in a line up of people waiting to make copies. When someone asked to go to the front of the line most people turned them down but when they asked and included "because I am in a hurry" or "because I have to make several copies quickly" - which is really no reason at all, most people let that person ahead of them in line! So when you're making an offer be sure to provide a reason for the offer. Explain the rationale behind why you're offering less than market value and why you need a certain time frame. You don't have to show all your cards but you should give the seller every opportunity to accept your deal.

10. Negotiating is not a game nor is it a sport. A negotiation is not something to be won. In fact, I would argue that it's more of a science or an art. It's something that is very individual but it's also something with principals that are fundamental to every negotiation. And it's something that cannot be judged by win or lose but it can be judged by the results. Do not let your negotiating become a game or a sport and you'll find that you are less likely to try to be right, which means you are much more likely to be rich!

In every real estate deal you'll find you have a desired outcome. If you keep these commandments in mind you'll always remember that you have choices and you only do deals that make sense for you and your goals. Negotiating is not about win - win. It's a means to an end. A negotiation is simply an opportunity to do better than your alternatives. If you have really good alternatives then you'll make a great deal because you have options, and options give you power!