Still searching for more house deals to wholesale?

Opportunity and housing inventory seems to be growing fast among this one segment of the market. It’s only likely to grow even more this year.

If you are looking to do more deals, and to find motivated sellers willing to accept low offers, check this out…

Landlords Are Going Broke

More and more landlords, big and small, appear to be going broke. All the way from mom and pop landlords with one to a handful of properties, up to big banks with lots of pending REOs and their own underperforming real estate assets. As well as builders who are looking to exit before the market really changes on them.

Why Are They Going Broke?

There are many reasons that landlords are falling into financial distress right now. Ranging from poor acquisitions of properties with big and expensive issues, to the last couple years of the economy.

On the property level this can include deferred maintenance, tenant performance, inflation in holding and operating costs, poor property management and contractors, new regulations and malicious lawsuit trends, and more.

On a personal level this can include diminished retirement account balances and financial power, unemployment, inflation in personal living costs, and credit lines getting cut off.

Finding The House Deals

Some of these properties are being listed through agents. Though many owners are still on the fence, or haven’t listed yet. Especially as they don’t want the expense of Realtor commission.

So, how do you find them? Indicators to look for include; delinquent taxes, google searches related to financial distress, leads from property management companies, mortgage lates, mechanics liens, out of area owners, evictions records, building permits being pulled, code violations, local housing authority contacts and who has failed their inspections.

Make Lots Of Offers

Time to close and stopping the financial bleed are probably most important when it comes to selecting purchase offers. They might not get their whole investment out, but that’s better than losing more, or lawsuits from failing to keep up their properties.

 

New Jersey has announced it will start selling off homes for as little as $1. Along with states like Ohio and New York, which are again working to get ahead of blight in the form of abandoned homes, it seems more distressed real estate is coming down the pipe for investors.

While many of these house deals require substantial repairs and may be reserved for retail home buyers, investors can expect more inventory to become available this year.

Distressed Debt And Real Estate Deals Are Building Up

It’s no secret that credit card, auto loan, and other debt has been deteriorating in performance, with a mountain of nonperforming debt that has been growing for several years.

As consumers run out of money, savings, credit lines, and find it harder to get new jobs, this will almost inevitably turn into more nonperforming debt sales, and REOs.

In fact, one economist has predicted there will soon be $1T in defaulting real estate debt to contend with.

Buyers have become more cautious, and as the Fed still hasn’t begun cutting rates, they are unlikely to swarm the market or be eager to pay recent market rates.

Get Smart

Many real estate investors in the current market do not have experience with the types of transactions that were popular in the last great recession. It’s a smart time to educate yourself about these types of deals, so that you can embrace them.

This includes REOs, short sales, and various forms of alternative and creative financing. Including using transactional funding to wholesale real estate.

You should know who the parties involved are, what their processes and timelines are, and start building the right relationships now.

Making Successful Real Estate Purchase Offers

What does it take to get offers accepted in this environment?

Fast closings are critical to sellers. Many are under a lot of pressure, and will lose their properties if they don’t sell on a tight timeframe.

Simplicity is key. Buyers can’t afford to be tied up in lots of contingencies. They don’t want long inspection periods, appraisal contingencies, and the like.

Finally, they will prioritize offers from qualified buyers with proof of funds, and who they can be confident in to close.

The latest economic forecast from mortgage giant Fannie Mae predicts house prices will fall by over 6% over the next two years. That doesn’t sound like much, but investors, and consumers also need to understand what they are heralding as loudly.

Home Prices Are Already Down 4x More Than They Predicted

Fannie Mae previously predicted that house prices would only fall 1.5% this year, and 1.4% next year. So, we are already talking about 2-4x deeper price drops, and many might argue it hasn’t even really started yet.

Or course this is in direct contrast to Goldman Sachs’ forecast, which says we’ve already seen those levels of drops and should bottom out this summer.

Many property owners, and recent sellers may also tell you that prices are already down even double, triple, or more than this forecast.

They Can Revise Back Data

Just as the Realtor’s Association back revised four years of data to show much lower numbers after 2008, any of these report publishers could go back later and say the cuts have already been 50% or greater more than they announced.

It’s All Local

This 6% number from Fannie Mae is a national ‘average’. Which really means that in some areas prices may still be going up by 30%, and they could be going down by 36% in others.

Make sure you have your own intelligence and pulse on the local market.

Low Interest Rates Are Irrelevant In many Cases

Fannie Mae is using the fact that interest rates have been low to claim there won’t be rate shock like in 2006 to 2008, and in turn no major crisis.

However, in the past year mortgage rates seem to have more than doubled. A much bigger increase than in 2008. Buyers were also paying 125% or more of actual values among the fierce competition. Many will still walk away. Many won’t be able to refinance. Many will fall behind and into default for other reasons.

Defaults Are Already Up

The latest bank data published by DistressedPro shows that defaults on both residential and commercial mortgage loans reverse course and started increasing again in the last three months of 2022.

While there haven’t been a tsunami of REOs yet, expect more defaults and foreclosures coming.

It’s a great time to be wholesaling houses on the way down this ladder, and making substantial profits. With both discounts available, and those buying into these forecasts expecting the market to rebound soon.

 

Could an increase in late and defaulting consumer credit and business loans lead to more distressed real estate opportunities for buyers?

Mortgage loan defaults and foreclosures ended up being far lower than expected in the wake of COVID. Rather than a deep crash, house prices and sales rocketed. A lot of stimulus, forbearance plans, foreclosure moratoriums, and a strong housing market has certainly helped this.

Rising Credit Defaults

New bank data published by DistressedPro shows that while mortgage distress has been slowly improving, other types of credit are seeing more late payments and defaults

Among these are spikes in business loan, auto loan and credit card defaults. There are tens of billions of dollars in these distressed debt pools.

All of these classes of debt were showing increases in distress at the end of 2021.

How People Pay Their Bills

Typically, when consumers get into financial difficulties they first stop paying their credit cards. Then if they still can’t keep up they stop paying their car loans. Finally, if businesses and individuals still can’t keep up they start falling late or give up on making their house and real estate payments.

We also saw an extra 29,000 unemployment claims than expected in the second week of February 2022. Suggesting the job market may not be as strong as some thought.

While some areas of the economy appear to be doing very well, some experts wonder if we are actually heading into stagflation. A period of the economy in which inflation is high, but the overall economy is stagnant, and not really growing. Those conditions make it harder for businesses and workers. Their costs go up, but their sales and incomes may not.

More Opportunity For Real Estate Investors

The above all comes together to suggest that there may be more opportunity for real estate investors ahead.

With a continued rise in home prices we may not see a big rise in REOs. Banks are likely to be able to sell off these non-performing liabilities as mortgage notes before they get to that stage.

Commercial and residential property owners may also be able to sell their properties in the retail market before they lose them. They may not get premium prices, but the recent surge in equity could leave plenty of value on the table for everyone involved.

Keep your eyes out for more motivated sellers out there.

 

Does it matter who you sell your properties to as an investor?

Is there an ethical and legal responsibility sellers have when signing contracts with real estate buyers? If so, what does that mean for your career in real estate, or as an investor and real estate business?

Institutional Sellers Have Been Increasingly Selective

Since the 2008 crisis institutional sellers of nonperforming mortgage notes and REOs have become increasingly selective in who they will sell to.

They have created stringent rules for who qualifies to buy their properties and note assets. In some cases also writing in provisions guiding what those buyers can do with the properties within a specific time window. Such as not foreclosing or evicting for a set period of time.

Aside from the regular issues of making sure they are contracting with buyers who can actually follow through and close on the deal, this is being done to limit their own liability from the actions of those they sell too.

They don’t want to be held liable for negative impacts from the new buyer acting aggressively or harming the market.

Why It Matters Who You Sell Your Property To

While it may not be written in black and white, or even a hard law, sellers may end up bearing some responsibility for the outcomes of who they sell to.

Such as how the new owner:

• Treats occupants of properties

• Does a quality job on rehab work and creating new affordable and healthy housing

• Impacts the immediate neighborhood

• Operates ethically, and impacts the financial and real estate ecosystem

One of the great parts of the financial freedom that comes with being your own boss in real estate, or simply as an investor is that you now have the choice not to work for people and companies that are taking advantage of people and are treating their customers poorly, or even committing fraud.

It’s important to hold onto that, and flex that freedom in real estate too. You don’t want to be involved with someone who is going to just skim equity from the properties and allow them all to be foreclosed on. Or who may just cover up mold or other toxic health issues with paint and resell them to unsuspecting families with kids.

What It Means For Buying & Selling Properties

For acquisitions today, this means you need to build up your own resume. Show the good work you’ve done, and how you are a strong buyer. If you don’t have the reputation and track record yet, you may need to partner up with someone else who does to gain access to the best discounts on bulk deals.

On the flip side, you may want to carefully curate partnerships for liquidating and flipping properties to those you trust will do a good job.

Or have some parameters that you are looking for when selling high volumes of properties to individual buyers and companies. How many deals have they flipped? How good was the work? How happy are their end buyers or renters? What is their online reputation? Just make sure these are written out and uniform to avoid anything which could be misinterpreted as discrimination.

 

There’s a lot more foreclosure and REO activity out there today than many realize. Many cities still have thousands of foreclosure properties, and auctions have spiked by over 100% in some places. The deals are out there if you know where to look and how to approach those holding these assets.

Special Servicers

Special servicers handle the bulk of default debt and REOs today. If you are a licensed Realtor, you can approach these servicers and try to get REO listings. Or, if you have experience and a good presentation you may be able to buy REOs and non-performing notes in bulk.

Some of the top special servicers include:

1. Key Commercial Mortgage

2. BNY Asset Solutions, LLC

3. Midland Loan Services, Inc. (now part of PNC)

4. Bank of America

5. Prudential Asset Resources

6. Centerline Capital Group.

7. GEMSA Loan Services, L.P.

8. Hatfield Philips International Ltd.

9. Situs Servicing, Inc.

10. TriMont Real Estate Advisors

11. LNR Property Corp.

12. Ocwen Financial Corporation

13. Wells Fargo Commercial Mortgage Services

 

Pros:

• Low amount of effort if you have a good presentation on hand

• Can be done online

 

Cons:

• Often a wait and hope strategy

• Need to be able to buy in the tens of millions of dollars range

• No direct communication with real decision makers

 

REO Agent Directories

Realtors can be a great source of REOs, especially from the bigger banks and servicers. Check out the following directories where they hangout. If you are a Realtor you can get listed on them as well.

• REO Network

• Fannie Mae

• HUD Homestore

• REO Industry Directory

• Instant Home Link

• HAR.com

 

Pros:

• Easy to find contacts

• Can be done at scale quickly

Cons:

• Can be time consuming to personally comb through endless directories

• Can be a waiting game

Go Direct to Banks for REOs

Local community banks, credit unions and private lenders have REOs too. This inventory is typically less competitive and often overlooked. Go straight to these asset holders to purchase their REO.

Pros:

• Less competition

• Easier to reach decision makers

• More loyal sources of repeat business

Cons:

• Each will have fewer assets on hand than the big banks

• Probably don’t have organized processes for liquidating REOs

• Need to be good at relationship building

Pre-Foreclosures

Getting to these properties as pre-foreclosures before the auction and becoming REOs can mean they have more equity, less accrued fees on top, and sellers can be more flexible to work with. Find them online, by acquiring lists, and through attraction marketing.

Pros:

• Potential savings on Realtor fees, back interest and fees

• More flexibility in negotiations

• Ability to really help individual homeowners

 

Cons:

• Typically means working just one property at a time

• Sellers may not want to sell, even if they need to

• Lots of competition in most markets

What types of property deals are ripe for real estate wholesaling right now?

The market is always changing. What worked 5 years ago may not work as well today. Here are 5 niches to explore, test out and find bigger profits in now…

Small Multifamily & Mixed Use Properties

Overall yields on single family home rentals have been getting squeezed over the last year. To get the same spreads, many income property investors are having to look at multifamily apartments. Mixed use is still a hot item too. Funds and mom and pop investors alike need deal flow. Help them get it by considering flipping these types of properties.

Vacation Rentals

It’s true that the Airbnb Effect has dramatically driven up asset prices in many areas over the past few years. Yet, if you look, you can still find sweet spots where property prices are low and the potential yields from short term rentals can be massive. That makes it easy to flip these types of properties to rehabbers and buy and hold investors.

Empty Nesters

We’re in an interesting moment, coming off of a down period, but with a strong new economy. That means there could be fewer good inherited property deals or foreclosures. Yet, there are all types of reasons for sellers to be motivated. Age can be a big one. With age homes can end up being too big to manage, or just don’t fit health and mobility needs of seniors. Help these property owners who are more focused on convenience than price, and create more win-wins.

Construction REOs

Construction REOs have been a secret pocket of the distressed property industry. The average homeowner or new investor may not want to take on a home or apartment building that wasn’t 100% completed. That means these deals can have less competition and more bargaining room. Today, we need more new construction than ever. Take a look. You may find houses that just need a little love on interior design and applying for the Certificate of Occupancy. You don’t even have to finish the work. Wholesale them to rehabbers or small builders who can complete it.

Foreclosures

There are still foreclosures and foreclosure auctions. Check the data and you can find fresh spikes in this activity in different parts of the country. Be flexible and willing to go where the deals are at and you can still find great profits.

 

The next week may offer a big opportunity for wholesalers to get up their numbers. Are you making the most of it?

There is often a sweet spot for buying property at the end of the year. With some unique regulatory and trend twists, the last week of December could be especially profitable for wholesalers this year. It’s a short window, but one which can help you finish the year strong, and start 2018 even better.

Time to Buy

There is typically a lot less competition for bidding on and buying properties at this time of year. Realtors and home sellers who aren’t in a good financial position or who aren’t familiar with seasonal trends can be extra flexible and open to negotiating and cutting great deals.

Others are looking to make their annual numbers stronger. That can include home builders, real estate brokerages, and asset managers with REOs who are looking to maximize write-downs and losses for tax purposes.

The new tax bill also threatens to hit many with extra taxes in the new year, unless they downsize to avoid mortgage interest and property tax deduction limitations. Then there is the huge capital gains tax hit which will really hurt those who wait until January to sell.

Selling

While some people are too distracted with the holidays, there can be enhanced opportunities to wholesale and flip houses you find. Real estate is a great holiday present. Many executives and workers will be getting big bonuses this year, and will want to invest that too. Some firms and individuals will be under pressure to spend and invest to minimize tax exposure for the year as well. Then there are Realtors who want to get their numbers up for the quarter and year, and lenders who may be more willing to push through loan applications. There is often a dip in rates right after Christmas which can help buyers.

Investors should absolutely take time to enjoy the holidays, but don’t ignore the advantages to scoop deals, and flip them while others are distracted through the beginning of January.

Is reverse wholesaling a better way to flip properties?

Flipping houses has become incredibly popular thanks to reality TV shows, celebrity home flippers, and a rising housing market. Many investors have found property wholesaling a great way to take advantage of this with less risk, and more volume potential. Now some are pursuing a niche in reverse wholesaling. So how does that work? Could it be a smarter way to profit from the current market?

Reverse Wholesaling has been gaining attention thanks to real estate educators like Kent Clothier at REWW. The concept is simple. Instead of contracting to buy properties or acquiring them, and then going looking for end buyers, reverse wholesaling flips the process around. It means finding the end buyers, then filling their orders with wholesale properties. It’s essentially preselling and taking pre-orders.

Does it make sense? Of course. Instead of investing all the time, effort, and money into inventory which you aren’t sure will sell, or how long it will take to sell, it means the confidence, speed, and enhanced profitability of knowing your deals are already sold before you get them. This decreases risk, and makes sure you are operating at maximum efficiency.

To make this strategy work investors need to target buyers first. The more qualified buyers you have waiting for multiple deals the more you can get out there and do. Of course you will ultimately need the deals, but there are plenty out there if you know where to look. The latest data shows a substantial double digit surge in REOs this year, and there are almost 1.4M vacant homes which could be ripe for flipping.

As a reverse wholesaler your volume and income potential may only be capped by your access to capital. That’s what transactional funding lenders are for. Best Transaction Funding specializes in this type of lending, and can provide up to 100% financing with no appraisal requirements.

 

Authored by Best Transaction Funding BestTransactionFunding.com is the leading source of transactional funding for real estate wholesalers in the US, where 100% financing, and saying “Yes” is what we love doing all day long.

How can real estate wholesalers help homeowners overcome sales aversion to land more deals?

There are still over 200 billion dollars in defaulted loans and REOs at banks in America. This doesn’t even take into account all of the other foreclosures pending due to delinquent property taxes and HOA dues, nor all the motivated home sellers that need to sell their houses fast for other reasons.

The bottom line is that there are plenty of distressed properties, and potential for scoring deep discounts on homes that are ripe for wholesaling. There are many sources of these properties. Going direct to homeowners is still one of the favorites for the ability to cut out other costs and difficult to work with parties. However, despite the urgent need for many of these property owners to sell, and do it fast, and the valuable service that real estate wholesalers can deliver, there can still be a disconnect that prevents owners from taking advantage of the help.

Often this comes down to Sales Aversion. There are times when consumers want to be sold, for example when they really want to justify an expenditure to buy a luxury item. However, in general most of the population has come to avoid being put into positions where they are to be in high pressure sales pitches. They’ve learnt the hard way after falling for timeshare offers, being strong armed into overpaying for gym initiation fees, friends hosting parties with MLM motives, and even just being lured into giving up email addresses, only to be hounded with never-ending spam.

Consumers don’t want to be cornered into uncomfortable and abrasive sales pitches. They definitely don’t see why they should spend in order to be put in these positions either. Why should they take time off work, and drive miles to a used car dealer that refuses to give any upfront information? Why take the day off of income producing work, and endure a day of family stress to accommodate a property showing to a wholesaler who is vague, won’t provide detailed information upfront, and is expected to try and hard-sell them on committing to selling their home for pennies on the dollar?

This pain can be worse than just sticking with the status quo, even if they are in a tough spot. Sales 101 says that in order to make a deal prospects need to be shown a path out of their current pain toward pleasure.

Many of today’s wholesalers don’t realize that they aren’t accomplishing this.

Yes, property owners might be in distress. Yes, the best move for them may be to sell. It may even make sense for them to sell at serious discounts and just get out of the debt and walkaway. Wholesalers armed with transactional funding which can free homeowners, and even put cash in their hands may be their best option. But, in order to truly effectively convey that and make the process palatable and appealing can take a little more effort than some appear to be making.

So how can real estate wholesalers overcome sales aversion and close more house deals?

There are many ways to connect with motivated sellers. However, it really all boils down to two marketing strategies:

Notification Marketing

Word of Mouth Referrals

There is absolutely a need for Notification Marketing for new wholesalers. They need to get the word out about their services and product. This can include direct mail, social media advertising, Google Adwords, press releases, and email marketing. It can also include inbound marketing via articles and real estate blogs designed to help prospects in discovering solutions and meeting needs on demand.

Word of mouth marketing has evolved significantly too. The original form still applies, but this has also morphed into using affiliate marketers, social media, sponsorship, and strategic referral partnerships.

Whichever real estate marketing strategies are being used, one principle applies to making them effective for landing more real contracts today.

Doing business with wholesalers, and even just contacting them, and agreeing to meet them requires making it easy and attractive to do so. It has to offer the promise of more pleasure, while diminishing their current pains.

There are two critical parts to this. The first is overcoming objections in advance. This involves education, defining expectations, transparency, and clarity. This can be done upfront online, on real estate wholesaling websites, and in initial interactions.

The second part, which builds on the first is making it appealing to pick up the phone and call you, give up an email address, fill out a form, or arrange a showing. The anticipated experience should be appealing, not simply the homeowner opening themselves up to a high-pressure, hard sales pitch.

Define the process upfront, and offer a win-win for them for taking the action you desire, even if the two of you don’t wind up making a deal on this transaction. Cut the mystery, increase the clarity. This will boost your reputation, and the eagerness to share you by others.

 

The U.S. real estate market continues to be influenced by a variety of emerging factors simultaneously. This is creating incredible investment opportunities for innovative and fast moving wholesalers, while those failing to adapt will become trapped in reactionary cycles that will limit their success.

So what’s going on now, and how can real estate wholesalers cash in?

1. Revival of Industrial Real Estate

Several new reports highlight the growing attraction to industrial real estate and how big capital will be drawn in as the sector grows. A number of factors are changing this landscape from the widening of the Panama Canal to mobile and e-commerce growth resulting in giants like Amazon taking on millions of square feet of new space across the country. Making the jump into directly investing in industrial property may be a huge gamble for more investors, but by staying tuned into new development wholesalers can bank big on flipping residential and other types of local property in surrounding areas.

2. The End of Foreclosure Relief

Real estate professionals privy to detailed bank data know that there a huge wave of new loans falling into default. However, this pool of distressed homeowners that owe some $200 billion plus in non-performing loans are facing the expiration of short sale benefits from the Mortgage Forgiveness Act and the nation’s largest banks wrapping up their financial commitments under the giant settlement. This means a massive number of highly motivated sellers, with nowhere to turn but investors flush with cash, or at least with access to flash funding from BestTransactionFunding.com.

3. High Numbers of Construction REOs

While most investors have been busy chasing multifamily and single family homes, the biggest pool of REOs on banks books in many areas is actually made up of construction loans. While these properties can have permit issues, this also means less competition. And for those with the right buyers list – even bigger profit margins.

While some media pundits have recently raised questions as to whether the strong housing rebound will be detrimental to flipping houses a variety of trends and factors appear to be widening spreads for even further.

This week Market Wired can a story on a small Southern California investment firm which has tapped $50 million in private equity funds from Colony. Rather than using it to go after distressed property, the firm announced it will be acquiring already updated homes and plowing an additional 50 to 100% in further luxury improvements in them for resale.

Other passive income investors have been getting pulled into build-to-rent programs which land them with ‘deals’ priced above market and face having their money sit idle for months or years during construction before ever seeing a penny in return or cash flow.

Meanwhile Detroit seems unsure what to do with its $300m in redevelopment funds while sitting on 78,000 abandoned properties. At the same time residential mortgages in default top $210 billion, with a small fraction of this number represented by actual REOs. The rest are still ripe for picking up in a variety of ways.

Still, visibility seems to remain the issue which holds many wholesalers back from reaching their full potential and deal flow. The buyers are there, eager to pick up everything they can, and are surprisingly hitting the internet crying out for wholesale property contacts.

It’s on those investors with the inventory to step up and demand more visibility in order reap the rewards of the market. If you are not seeing all of the volume you’d like it is not the market, not a lack of demand, and with BestTransactionFunding.com to provide all the liquidity needed the only thing holding you back from more business and taking full advantage of the market is getting found by those that want the product.

To bridge the divide consider Twitter’s new advertising tools, press releases, SEO rich content, Google Adwords campaigns, and expanding your LinkedIn network.

Regardless of what you’ve heard, yes, it is time to freak out about shadow housing inventory!

That is, it is time to freak out about the many deals available and profits to be made thanks to shadow inventory being kept in the closet…

Savvy real estate investors are realizing that shadow real estate inventory is quickly becoming more of a blessing that a concern.

Few are now concerned about it having a significant, negative impact on the market today but there is no denying that it is lurking out there in a big way. Some have said the percentage of inventory in the shadows has dropped by as much as 30% in the last couple of years. However, there is no question that foreclosures have been surging by double digits in some states and Morgan Stanley recent projected there could be 5.7 million shadow properties being held off the market right now.

Holding these properties off-market is good for real estate investors and is pumping up home prices. Sure you’d like to do more deals and have them falling in your lap rather than having to look for them and some might say it is better to get foreclosures over and done with. However, no one wants a flood of distressed homes setting the recovery back right now and do you really want to be focused on fighting over REOs and having to overpay in ridiculous bidding wars.

On bright side shadow inventory means there are plenty of bargain properties out there for investors for the next 3-5 years while spreads grow and savvy real estate investors know that there are ways around the bulk of the competition, ways to get the lead and lock in profits when they buy regardless of what big money heavy weights might want a piece of the real estate pie.

Content is becoming increasingly crucial to successful and profitable real estate investing but how can you win at content marketing without going broke first?

A slew of search engine algorithm changes (with more to come) has only increased the value and importance of great content and lots of it for winning more real estate business.

Volume is important too. There is a direct correlation between those who post more frequently and higher earnings. Then there is static website content and email marketing as well as offline marketing pieces including direct mail, print and PR which al rely on great copywriting for maximum effectiveness and ROI.

So with all this need for content and no substitute for high quality, original content (as the less fresh and crispy the more damage it will do to your real estate investing efforts), how can investors afford it?

For a start real estate investors need to budget for hiring great top level writers and do it right the first time so they don’t have to redo everything, wasting money and lead time. This also means budgeting for increasing content costs as the best writers become more in demand, just as REOs are.

However, there are many ways investors can save and make their budgets go further without sacrificing results. Delegating down is essential. Don’t weigh yourself down with tasks that you can hire someone else to do. Also while you need great writers who may not be cheap, don’t bog them down with submission, spinning and syndication when an inexpensive VA can do that for far less.

Re-purpose content as much as possible too. Physical newsletters can also be used for email marketing. Blog posts can be used to fill up newsletters and can be spliced off for social media posts too, as can articles and press releases. If you are operating dozens of social profiles and blogs for a larger presence and SEO and you must spin, opt for manual spinning of your own high quality original pieces and have it done by hand by a lower level writer after your top gun crafts the master copy.

Finally, look for ways to collaborate. Feature interviews with other related professionals and link to each other and vice versa, invite others to guest blog occasionally without turning your blog into and ad space and offer to guest blog for others.

Real estate investors fed up with over-demanding lenders asking lofty prices for REOs and trying to sift through endless junk ‘wholesale’ deals online could find that they have been overlooking golden opportunities closer to home.

Consider these 6 new ways to identify local distressed property deals and find new leads:

1. Note Buyers

Note investing has become a hot trend recently and means many new investors acquiring distressed property notes which they are in turn offering modifications or principal reductions on for homeowners or foreclosing on them with plenty of equity to spare. These could be great opportunities for picking up bargain priced homes without having to deal with banks.

2. Aged Internet Leads

When borrowers first go into default the get burnt out by all the phone calls, marketing mail and offers of help they receive and often choose to do nothing out of frustration. However, after a few months the pressure on them builds and they are often more receptive to purchase offers. Acquiring these aged leads can often increase conversion ratios for real estate investors and lowers lead cost from many dollars to cents apiece.

3. For Rent Signs

Instead of just scouting the neighborhood for new Realtor and FSBO signs hunting for rent signs can bring distressed property leads with less competition. Distressed homeowners will often try to rent their homes first when they can’t afford them or need to relocate because they don’t believe they can sell if they are underwater. With a little coaching these can be great prospects.

4. Code Violations

Cities are cracking down harder on home maintenance, dishing out code violations and fines for simply forgetting to mow the lawn for a couple of weeks. Many homeowners, especially those who are already struggling can’t keep up with these demands. Make offers on these.

5. Arrest Reports

While potentially harder to piece together watching arrest reports could unveil some highly motivated sellers desperate for bail money or needing to put together cash for a defense attorney. Domestic violence cases also frequently mean homes being abandoned or needing to be sold. Attorneys, bail bonds offices and even cops could be a great lead course here.

6. Divorces

Divorces frequently mean homes need to be sold and one if not two parties needing to find new housing for a double dip on leads. Try tapping divorce attorneys and even potentially relationship counselors for a constant flow of these distressed property leads.

According to the National Association of Realtors housing inventory fell 22% nationwide in March. New stats show this number diving even further in April with many areas sitting on just a 3 month supply of homes.

This is driving down the number of days on market for homes being flipped by real estate investors but it is also making it incredibly difficult for many to find deals locally. So where are all the bargains now?

Recent research has shown that simply picking up the phone and cold calling can still be incredibly profitable for real estate investors. In fact one study puts the value of cold calling at just under $400 an hour for real estate professionals marketing for homes for sale.

Still not many investors love cold calling anymore and if you have a $400 an hour attorney you are going to need to make more than that. Social media is an obvious choice for those who prefer hiding behind their screens though increased competition means those getting started late have a lot of catching up to do. New tips released directly from Facebook suggest being more direct in your pitches, including strong calls to action and using more video and photos.

Some investors have turned to new software to run reconnaissance on smaller regional and local banks to find out what REOs and non-performing loans they are holding and are jumping ahead of the line to get them before they hit the MLS.

Starting your own real estate investors group or even hosting a regular local networking party for mingling with potential sellers can work but just make sure you enlist sponsors to offset your expenses or you bar tabs could grow bigger than your paychecks.

Creating more of an event feel and using more gimmicks to bring in more visitors to open houses you are currently running can also draw in more nosy neighbors, potential sellers and can generate many leads and referrals. Though again, just make sure the bottom line stays in the black.