Since the housing bubble has burst, the price of real estate has significantly decreased. Because of this, experts say that it is a great time to purchase property or to buy investment properties. If you have never purchased investment properties before, you may not know where to start.
With real estate, as in other areas of the business sector, it isn’t so much what you know as it is who you know. Knowing people that deal with real estate on a professional level can really help you in the long run. If you happen to know construction workers, developers and real estate professionals, you chances of finding a great property at a reasonable price are significantly increased.
Don’t neglect other sources however. For example, the postal clerk may also know about homes that are up for sale or homes that will be foreclosing. In fact, the lady who cuts your hair may also be a good source of information too. When you are looking for a property, it’s important to talk to people in the community and let them know that you are looking for reasonably priced real estate. You may be surprised at the information you will find when you put the word out. In fact, you may be overwhelmed with the number of leads that you will get using this method!
Basically, finding great real estate opportunities is nothing more than networking. You should network online as well as personally among your online and offline contacts. In order to network effectively, you may want to take some time to plan out your strategy. In order to effectively network, you will need to have a relationship with people and gain their loyalty as well as their trust.
If people feel that you are just out to get information, they will naturally be hesitant to share information with you. On the other hand, if you show people that you care about them and if you are polite and respectful, this will go a long way to helping you achieve your objectives.
Ideally, you should start to create a network before you even need to gather information or leads about properties. Then, when you need an investor, or tenants or information about certain properties, you can easily find what you need. While looking in the newspaper or advertising is often a good strategy, the majority of real estate leads never get published! This means that you can miss out on great opportunities if you limit yourself to this one strategy.
Once you begin to maximize your networking opportunities, you may be amazed at the leads that you will find as you go about your day. The clerk at the coffee shop may know someone who is trying to sell a house or the receptionist at the doctor’s office may be looking to rent a nice property. Or, the newspaper delivery man may actually be looking for some side construction jobs to help pay off some bills.
Once you put all the pieces of the puzzle together, you may find that you have just what you need to buy, renovate, and rent a property, without ever looking outside of your networking circle.
