Finding Your Properties (3)

Paying the Back Taxes

To wrap up other manners real estate investors use to find target properties is purchase properties which owe taxes. Typically, when you pay off their taxes you are paying for the right to foreclose on a property because you paid the taxes. The government gives you this right to foreclose for doing so.  However, laws differ for place to place and some areas give the homeowner a period of time in which they can pay of their debt and regain their property.

Study what others successful Real Estate Investors have done.

Ask those who have done well how they did it. Buy books and read what others have done.

You don’t need to invent the wheel, but it is nice to know why its round. Research the subject. Watch blogs on it. We each learn differently. What ever method of learning works best for you apply and adapt it to your situation and create a method that works for you.

Searching The Neighborhood

            This method is simply going out with pen and paper and

Writing down the addresses of properties which shows signs of being a destressed property. Once you return to your office you look up information on the property or the properties owner. Then you could call them, send them cards, letters. Seldom does this type of purchase happen after one contact with the owner.

            When you are writing down the address also list the signs which told you the property was distressed, or its obvious signs of neglect. These could be:

• An overgrown lawn
• Lack of or unkept landscaping
• Piles of newspapers or overstuffed mailbox
• Dead grass Make sure there aren’t restriction on watering in the area. Some places make it against the law to wash your cars and water your lawn once they declare a drought.)
• Bad roofs
• Boarded up window and doors
• Rotting wood on exterior
•  Rain gutters falling off or full of weed and other plants
• Broken windows

As you use the signals you also must consider things.

Example Is everything else about the property kept up but the is a broken window in the side yard. Then maybe a ball has just broken the window.

The point is that there are many methods people use to find real estate properties. My question remains, why would a serious real estate investor only use one. Make an effort to find a way to utilize every method you possible can. So, it only works once every few years. Your only rehabbing 3 or four when starting out anyway and one is at least 25% of your task of purchasing properties. Once your business model is running on all cylinders you won’t overlook possibilities.

Note: Images on this blog site are from a free source or taken by the author. No image or group of photos is intended to represent the people the author serves. The author does not care about Race (that is a politically correct term that he does not like because we are all of the same Race, the Human Race. He prefers the term ethnicity, color, religion, sex, gender, marital status, disability, genetic information, national origin, source of income, Veteran or military status, ancestry, citizenship, primary language or immigration status.) He is a service provider for all people. We will all rise together when we band together and help one another. Joseph Erwin is a Real Estate Broker, DRE # O2131799, and a CA general contractor # B 696662. He’s a member of the CRMLS and The East Valley Association of Realtors located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California.