Mecklenburg Times: News for Mecklenburg, Union and Iredell counties Real Estate, Development, Construction, and Community News in the Charlotte area and throughout Mecklenburg, Union and Iredell counties
Is your local real estate market hot? Are good real estate deals getting harder to find? If so, you’re not alone.
But this isn’t a new problem. The times when it’s easy to find real estate deals are the exception. The 2009 – 2012 U.S. real estate downturn briefly made finding incredible deals as easy as catching fish in a barrel. You just had to look on the MLS (multiple listing service), make offers, and pull the deal in.
But in almost every other normal real estate market, it’s much more competitive. You’ve got to develop a competitive advantage to find real estate deals. The good ones don’t just fall in your lap.
To help you build that competitive advantage, this is the first in a series of articles that will share 5 ways to find good real estate deals in any market. They include:
- Create a focused real estate plan
- Put more fishing lines in the water
- Improve your communication & negotiation skills
- Build a better toolbox of solutions for sellers
- Don’t give up too easily
These are the same principles I’ve used to consistently find deals for the last 15+ years. I hope you’ll find them as helpful as they’ve been for me.
A Focused Real Estate Plan
I’ll look at anything as long as it’s a good deal.”
When I hear that answer from an investor, I know they’re not focused enough. Why? Because there’s not a universal stamp on real estate opportunities that says “good deal.”
A good deal depends upon your personal goals, your strategy, your available resources, your personal risk tolerance, your personal preferences, your desired target market, and your chosen niche.
If you’re not buying enough deals, you should probably start by asking yourself if you’re too scattered and not focused on a specific real estate strategy.
When I help other investors 1-on-1, the first thing we work on is a business plan. We get focused on a big picture strategy, a target market, a niche within that market, and analysis goals for each deal.
The key word here is FOCUS. It’s the secret weapon of real estate investors who buy a lot of deals.
The perfect comparison is a flashlight vs a laser beam. Which is more powerful? Of course, it’s the laser beam. The difference between the two is focus and intensity.
Chad Carson is a member of Metrolina REIA (metrolinareia.org), which provides education, networking, and networking for real estate investing in the Charlotte region. Chad also writes about real estate, money, and life at coachcarson.com.
