Finding Real Estate Worth Flipping

As you know, I feel passionate about teaching professionals from all industries and walks of life the critical skills needed to start investing in real estate. Real estate investing is an ideal vehicle for creating multiple monthly cash streams, and I believe it can be an excellent companion and springboard for your existing professional practice. Whether you are a doctor, lawyer, teacher, first responder or are in the military, investing in real estate is a smart decision that creates freedom for you to pursue your passion.

In this episode of Real Estate Investing for Professional Men and Women, I share with you my strategies for finding properties worth flipping. I’ve developed a detailed system using free tools and resources that are publicly available to allow you to really drill down to a very specific niche of properties and property owners. The reason you want to narrow your focus is that not every property is worth flipping. You want to look in neighborhoods where people are moving out, sure, but those neighborhoods also need to be desirable enough that people are wanting to move in (or otherwise you may have a tough time selling your property).

As always, I want to stress the importance of investing your own money rather than using one of the popular no-money-down financing methods. Investing ethically is always the right thing to do, and using your own money can help you avoid risky or questionable investment methods.

Drilling Down to the Perfect Properties

Your success in real estate flipping will in large part come down to the neighborhoods you choose to invest in. If there aren’t enough people moving out of the neighborhood, you’re going to have trouble finding properties to purchase. If there aren’t enough people moving into the neighborhood, you could find yourself sitting on a property for far longer than you would want. The secret to finding perfect neighborhoods lies in data, and during the podcast episode, I offer you several completely free public resources you can use to find ideal investment neighborhoods.

The problem is that MLS listings don’t give you the full story. That’s where resources like my proprietary School Report can help. The School Report shows incoming and outgoing real estate activity based on schools’ areas so that you can get a better sense of which neighborhoods would be desirable for the typical family with their 2.1 kids. This data, used in combination with information available from the U.S. Postal service and the local community’s planning commission, will allow you to get a street-by-street idea of the demographics and social makeup of a neighborhood. Detailed information like this can be a powerful tool to help you find ideal flipping properties.

Making First Contact With Owners

Once you’ve found a neighborhood that looks enticing and have found properties that may be available for purchase, it’s time to reach out to the owners. In the situation of a foreclosure, the owner is the bank. How you approach the bank matters, and so it’s important to say the right things during that key first phone call. During the episode, I provided a short, simple and ideal script to follow that will help you connect with the right person at the bank to get results.

However, if the owner is an individual rather than the bank, the best way to reach out is with a highly personalized letter, explaining why you’re interested in their property. Again, I provided an outline during the podcast episode that you can use to grab the owner’s attention, plant the seed that they might want to sell to you, and keep their attention so that they’ll read the whole letter. 

I hope you find the information available in this episode of Real Estate Investing for Professional Men and Women useful and helpful. I’ve refined the process to be as simple as possible and to help you get results and make better investments. You can find more episodes of the show as well as other great resources to help you better invest your money and grow your wealth by visiting me at www.myinvestmentservices.com.

Want to hear more? Listen to this podcast here.