The Real Estate Investing 7 Step Guide

Step 1 To Find Real Estate Investing Deals

The Formula For Finding Real Estate Deals

Find Experts

To begin finding deals you have to find the experts. Using the information in each section of this post you will learn how to build your Real Estate team. I will touch on each expert you need on you Real Estate Investing Team and why they are important to have on your team.

I also will include sample questions you can ask each expert. Questions are not enough though you also need the answers that you want to hear from them I will have a sample of those answers in each section.

Ask For Recommendations

The next step after finding your first expert is to ask for recommendations. For example, if you talk to a Real Estate agent ask them if they have any recommendations for a mortgage broker or attorney. Any expert that you still need is going to be who you ask for recommendations. As you are able to talk to more experts and interview them properly you will get more recommendations for better people to work with. The 1^st or 3^rd expert you talk to may not be a good fit but the more recommendations you get the closer you will be to finding someone who is better quality.

Another large advantage of asking for recommendations is that no one wants to give a bad recommendation since that would hurt their reputation. That helps you be able to find high quality experts who can help you find deals.

Find Experts Who Are Active Investors

The next step in this process is to find those experts who are active Real Estate investors themselves. This will increase your chances of the expert being able to help you find off market deals. The truth of the matter is there are too many people involved in Real Estate who don’t know what they are talking about. For many careers there is a low barrier to entry to seem like an expert in Real Estate, so being able to find those people who are excellent can hinge on whether they are investors themselves.

Marketing

Then you have the marketing side of the house, which is the second portion of Real Estate Investing after you find all of your experts. Combining marketing with your Real Estate team is the gas that can get your dreams on fire, because your give yourself multiple opportunities to succeed. As you market though you are still keeping up with your experts and following up with them to be able to see if they have any quality marketing deals. The mistake that many people make is that they are only doing one or the other. Building relationships or marketing,and without both you don’t give yourself the chance to succeed.

Connect With Community

Step 2 To Find Real Estate Investing Deals

Who You Need To Have On Your Team

Real Estate Agent

A Real Estate agent is arguably one of the most important people on your team because they not only help you find a house but they deal with all of the other aspects of buying a house the right way. Taking the time to find a good agent can make o break your Real Estate Investing career.

Mortgage Broker

An excellent mortgage broker is going to be a huge help to have on your team. If you don’t have the cash to buy a deal then you need to reach out to a mortgage broker to help you get the financing. Since you can’t even get started with out money picking the right broker is going to help you close on deals faster.

Attorney

To legally buy a house you need to have an attorney that knows what they are doing and can do a title search and all of the paperwork to close on your house fast with out a bunch of hassle. Get lazy and pick a bad one and you can be opening yourself up to all kinds of problems in the future.

Community Banker

A community banker can be a great asset to your team because very often community bankers can offer more attractive loan terms then most big banks out there. This can help you to use creative financing to buy properties. You may even be able to close a deal that wasn’t possible with a normal bank!

Home Inspector

A home inspector will help to make sure you know everything that is wrong with your property before you buy it. Pick a bad one who cuts corners and you can be in for a lot of trouble down the line when you find a crack in the foundation that they missed.

Appraiser

Having a good appraiser can make or break your deal. If he appraises a property too low then you can’t get a loan for the purchase price. If you want to refinance a loan after you fix a property up and the numbers are not what were expected then you never get your money back.

Contractor/Handyman

Finding a quality handy man or contractor is key in your investing career because things always need to be fixed. If they cut corners then you will have never ending headaches. Find a good one and it can be a goldmine!

CPA

Unfortunately, taxes are always going to be a thing. Having an excellent CPA that understands Real Estate can save you thousands a year in taxes. Have a bad one and you can get crushed by all the taxes you may have to pay on capital gains and other taxes.

Property Manager

Step 3 To Find Real Estate Investing Deals

How To Find Experts And What To Ask

Part of the challenge to building your team is how to find experts. If you are new to Real Estate Investing it is likely that you have no contacts so you will be starting from scratch. There is a method you can use having zero contacts and that method is twofold. First you can start with your Real Estate Agent and get a recommendation from a friend or family member for someone they have used. Secondly you can simply do a google search for top agents in your area and then call the first one you see. Now likely the first person you call will not be a good lead. But what you do is ask them for recommendations, which we will go deeper into detail in the next section.

Bottom Line

Sample Questions To Start Your Real Estate Investing Team

Real Estate Agent

Mortgage Broker

Can you put together 100% financing? Being able to find a broker who can put together 100% financing is rare but even if they can get do better then 80% can be extremely beneficial.

Is refinancing a major part of your business? Refinancing is one of the easiest parts of being a broker and if this is a major part of their business then stay away! You want a more experienced broker who gets their money closing loans.

Attorney

How long do your closings take? The closings should take less then 30 days. The shorter the better but only if they have a good team in place. You don’t want them rushing closings if they don’t have a team or they could make a ton of mistakes.

Do you work with investors? You definitely want you attorney to work with investors because they will be more likely to work with you if you are trying to purchase a property with creative financing or special terms vs one who only sells people primary homes.

Community Banker

Can you lend on Loan to Value instead of the contract price? If you can find a community banker that is flexible enough to loan on the LTV instead of the contract price then you will be able to not only borrow on the purchase price of the property, but you can get the repair money loaned to you. This will save the amount of cash you have to come up with out of your own pocket.

Home Inspector

How long have you been inspecting homes? You want to find an inspector that has been inspecting homes in your area over a year at least so that you know they have some level of experience.

What did you do before inspecting homes? Sometimes home inspectors will have less than one-year experience but they may have been a contractor before. Finding out their back ground can help you decide if they have enough experience in their prior career.

Appraiser

Are you FHA approved? You definitely want them FHA approved it means they have taken the time to improve their skills as an appraiser and they are higher quality.

How many houses have you appraised in this neighborhood? If they normally don’t work in the area that you are buying in then they very likely don’t understand your market and may make mistakes appraising your home.

Contractor/Handyman

Are you licensed? If you are looking for a contactor you want to make sure they are licensed, and that you get their license number and check it out to be sure they are legit.

Do you have any prior customers/references I can speak with? The biggest red flag for any contractor or handy man is if they won’t give you references. This probably means they don’t do good work.

CPA

What kind of real estate tax law knowledge do you have? You want this answer to be specific enough that you can gage if they actually have a good amount of knowledge.

Do you understand the impact of capital gains on real estate sales and how to mitigate that expense? Here is where you can test them on one important aspect of Real Estate Investing knowledge. If they were good at lying in the first question this will help you to determine if what they are saying is true.

Property Manager

Step 4 To Find Real Estate Investing Deals

How To Get Recommendations From Experts

Now that you have called experts and asked them questions you need to extend your reach beyond just who you find on google. Some of the best Real Estate agents and other experts have a very small online presence. The only way to find them is to get a recommendation. After you google that first Real Estate agent and after your conversation be sure to ask them for any other experts you still need. For example, ask them for a mortgage broker they work with regularly. Their recommendations should start to get you high quality experts.

The agent should want to give you their best recommendation because a bad recommendation would reflect badly on their business. Then once you call up the mortgage broker you can ask them for their recommendations for a Real Estate agent or any other expert you still need. As you start to call more and more people you will start to get better leads who will work best for you Real Estate Investing business.

Step 5 To Find Real Estate Investing Deals

How To Find Experts Who Are Investors

Step 6 To Find Real Estate Investing Deals

Use Marketing To Find Off Market Deals Near You

Once you find experts it is time to dive into the huge topic of marketing your Real Estate Deals. While I can’t go over everything in this post, I will mention some key tips to marketing for Real Estate Investing Deals.

Driving For Dollars

Driving for dollars is a great way to find deals in your area. It is even better because it is free except for the gas used to drive around.

• Scout out your area for the best neighborhoods for real estate investing.
• Drive around until you find vacant houses long grass in the yard, excess mail, boarded up windows etc.
• Check with the neighbors to find out who owns the property.
• If the owner no longer lives there look online to find out if you can track down their address or phone number.
• Check the property records at the court house to see if they have a deferent address on file.
• Send a letter to the address to the property owner asking them to contact you if they are interested in selling.

Mail/ Email Marketing

Check online to find Real Estate lists of out of state owners and send them a letter seeing if they are interested in selling their property. You can also get lists online for owners who have investment properties and see if they are ready to sell. There are lots of terms that you can search for to send owners letters.

Signs

Check your local laws before you put signs up in your area. You can make signs saying that you buy Real Estate with your name and phone number. Then place the signs near 4 way stop signs in your area. You can also put them in supermarkets and other places through-out your area to increase your leads.

Phone Marketing

As you get leads calling you be sure to thoroughly interview them asking all the details about their property. You don’t want to waste your time looking at properties that won’ work for you. That is why thoroughly interviewing them will limit the amount of time you have to spend looking at properties that don’t work for you.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a huge topic that takes along time to master. However, you can take a couple of steps to increase your leads online. One easy way is to create a Facebook ad focusing on your town and collect peoples email or phone information indicating they are interested in selling their home. Additionally, Google Ads allow you to target your town to be able to gain leads.

Networking

Networking at Real estate investor meetings is another free way to be able to get in contact with other like-minded investors in your area. By going online, you can search for meetings in your area.

Rewards Flyer/Business Card

Step 7 To Find Real Estate Investing Deals

How To Follow Up With Experts

Summary On How To Find Real Estate Investing Deals