I use these searches with my students every day, to demonstrate how to understand your target market by seeing what is listed and active on the MLS.
Many realtors and new students (and wholesalers) do not search this way. Because of this, they have a hard time understanding what a wholesale deal is and are unable to recognize houses that are a good deal at a wholesale price.
Investors that fix and flip houses or buy rentals for a living know and understand this information very well and use it every day when they are searching for houses to buy.
It would benefit more wholesalers and beginners to understand this concept better since if you know who your customer is (who you are flipping the house to) and you know what they are looking for, then you can flip a lot of houses (and build a deep long term relationship with them).
Right now the biggest issue with Wholesalers and the deals they are putting out on their deal blasts are that the prices do not represent a good deal for most investors. They are priced too high, and the markup is too much where the deal does not make sense to an investor. But yet people still buy these deals. Why? Because they believe the market will keep going up.
I never buy real estate because I think prices will keep increasing. I buy a property when I can get two things. Equity and Cash flow. If I cannot get both, then I will not buy the property. Buying on the hope that prices keep increasing is speculating not investing. Investing has a known certain outcome. For example I know that If I buy a 300k ARV house for 150k and spend 50k repairing it that I can sell it for a profit. And I know that if I keep it I will have equity from day one and I will cash flow if I rent it out.
I am NOT relying on the price going up. In fact, It makes no difference to me since I have equity and I can cash flow. If my goal is to put a 15 year mortgage on that property then in 15 years I will own it free and clear and the equity will be much higher and the cash flow will be much higher. In real estate, you make your money when you buy.
There are way too many new investors chasing prices higher and overpaying for properties. This won’t end well for them because they don’t have the discipline (and the patience) to buy right.
The three most important things to learn and understand well in your target market when you are searching for houses to buy to wholesale, fix and flip or keep as rental properties are:
If inventory is decreasing, prices will increase which will result in a higher price per square foot and a higher dollar price per listing.
If inventory is increasing, prices will decrease which will result in a lower price per square foot and a lower dollar price per listing.
So as an investor, you need to be watching inventory and prices very closely. If you want to learn how to get started wholesaling and flipping houses, make sure you find out more about the Wholesaling Real Estate Boot Camp coming up. Click the button below to learn more about the Boot Camp or call our office to reserve your seat today 561-948-2127!
