How to Purchase and Find Foreclosure Property

Purchasing foreclosure property is easier than you think. There are dozens of ways to locate and purchase foreclosure property at prices below market value. Being a successful real estate investor and making serious money doesn't require luck, extraordinary skill, or a degree in finance. It just takes persistence and knowledge!

Finding and purchasing foreclosure property is all about continually getting information out to people who really need your help getting out of a difficult predicament.

Be there first or be there last, but be there! Persistence is important, but understand that most successful deals happen when the investor gets there first, or, is the one that finds a property after it has been on the market for a long time, with the owner now highly motivated to sell. If you get to a property first, speed is important Often, being minutes ahead of, or behind a fellow investor can spell the difference between a successful transaction and a missed opportunity.

Being able to evaluate foreclosure property quickly is a major key to being a successful investor. Using a software based evaluation program is really the best solution. REIS by Custom Design Software is such a program. It's a real estate evaluation tool that can save you hours of valuable time and can assist you in making more profitable investment decisions. It's reasonably priced, easy to use, and contains all the tools you really need at a price that you can afford.

If you're not the first to the table or if the price isn't right when you initially look at the property, simply store away the information (a good software program simplifies this) and come back to it in about six months. If the property has not sold the owner should be pretty motivated and much more likely to want to deal. Here are five areas to concentrate on if you want to be a successful investor:

Only Contact "Motivated" Sellers

Don't spending too much time looking at deals that you haven't pre-qualified. Don't spend any time analyzing a property for repairs, costs of improvements, closing costs, etc. before you know you can get a decent deal on the purchase. Before you ever go to look at the property, you should know whether you have a potentially profitable deal. Talk to the seller beforehand.

Do Your Homework

Research public records for names and addresses of people in trouble. This includes people who are delinquent in the payment of their property taxes. Divorce records all produce a high amount of potential sellers but the ratio of sellers to motivated sellers will not be as good. Remember you're looking for people who are likely motivated to sell. You can bet that people who are just days away from completely losing their house are motivated to sell.

Remember there are people, at this very moment, THAT NEED YOUR HELP and are hoping and praying for someone like you to appear in their lives and solve their problem with their house. There are probably at least two or three people needing your services within 5 square miles of your house (providing that you live in a populated area and not out in the sticks, of course). That someone might even be your next door neighbor. Can they find you?

For too many investors the answer is, "They can’t."

If you have done your job, those motivated sellers can pick up the newspaper, talk to a friend, find you on the internet, or respond to your letter or postcard. If they are in foreclosure, going through an eviction, delinquent on their property taxes, have an IRS lien, or have a unpaid water bill, they should have already heard from you.

There Are Many Ways To Find "Motivated" Sellers

Want to make the big money in real estate? Then you must put deals together consistently. "Well no kidding," you say, "But how?" If you can only remember one thing about finding investment property, remember this: YOU MUST learn how to put your message into the hands of the people who are anxious to sell their property! If you do, success will follow!

But you have to get your message out there consistently.

Getting information to the right people is easier than you think. Postcards, letters, phone calls, and package delivery are just some of the ways investors get the message to the people that need it. The cheapest and probably most time-to-cost effective tools are post cards. Send out as many as possible every day. Make sure that the information is clear and concise and that they know how to reach you. If they are thinking about getting rid of their property when the postcard shows up in their mailbox, you have a possible deal in the works.

Use technology to your advantage

Remember the proper evaluation of a potential investment property is a major key to success. Using all the tools available can give you that extra edge. The Real Estate Investor Suite by CDS is a software package that can give the advantage over your competition.

Have You Called Any Sellers Today?

If you're not on the phone making deals, you need to ask yourself, "Am I doing what it takes to be successful?" If you respond "no", then it's time to roll up your sleeves and get to work. It all starts with getting your marketing in place. Starting small is fine. You don’t need to have everything in place right now. Just set up at least one marketing strategy and work it until you start to see callers on the line on a regular basis.

If you can figure out a way to do this consistently, you're in business.