How to Find Profitable Real Estate Investment Properties, Unlisted Turnkey Properties

It took some bad scouting trips and a couple of years to discover that real estate investment properties (unlisted turnkey properties) were not in the MLS! I started real estate investing as most people do, by finding a Realtor and having him show me properties that would make good investments. We looked at hundreds of houses to try and find one that made any sense. No matter how many houses we looked at we could not find anything that had any financial merits at all, I was wondering why this realtor was not showing me properties that I could use as a valid investment.

Frustrated by the results I set out to get my own real estate license so I could have access to the MLS system and look at the properties online before driving around and physically looking at all the properties only to be frustrated when we could not find one.

My Ah Ha

I learned a statistic in class that will forever stay with me. The class instructor shared that only 3 percent of realtors actually invest in real estate themselves. I know the instructor was as shocked as I was shocked by this. Interestingly enough, most of the class was unfazed by this info (the 97% who do not invest).

The Ah Ha was that I when I went out with a "normal" Realtor, I was working with a person who did not have a good understanding as to what I wanted and why I wanted it. If the person helping you does not have perfect clarity as to what you want they cannot properly assist you.

3 Things To Know When Working With Realtors:

1. Find one who invests in real estate, these realtors will be a good fit for you as they will understand your needs better.

2. As different investors have different overall objectives, make sure you clearly communicate your short term and long term investment objectives. When your Realtor knows your objectives they will be better positioned to be scoping out the best opportunities for you.

3. My 35+ years of investing experience clearly illustrates that there are more investors than there are good properties that provide great returns.

This means that for you to get the good deals you not only need to communicate your objectives but you need to be positioned to act on them. Having financing in place and your goals solidified. Real estate professionals who understand investing know that the decision making process is based on logic as opposed to emotions. You want to have your logic based, decision making hat on and be ready to act when opportunities arise or you may risk being looked over the next time.

A Better Way

With age comes experience. After investing for better than 25 years and selling investment property in a Broker capacity for over 10 years, I finally discovered the biggest Aha Ha...Great investment property is not found on the MLS system!

Attending a sales seminar, the instructor asked a question, "what is the MLS function?" The answer forever changed the way I do real estate.

The answer to the questions is, "to attract retail buyers”. I instantly thought of my real estate investing exit strategy which always is, "to attract retail buyers" (the person who will pay me top dollar). So if the MLS is used to attract the end user buyer, how can it be the best forum to find investment property?

After much diligence I learned that most investment property is indeed unlisted turnkey property. Think about it, your best investment is a property that is already rented and is a performing asset. Tenants are in place and you have a clear understanding of what income and expenses are going to be as they are already proven. No more speculation or guess work of how much you can get for rent or what will the expenses will be.

With a turnkey property all that is established.

Turnkey properties are not listed on the MLS.

A seller looking to sell a property that is tenant occupied certainly does not want to broadcast this to the world of buyers who are looking to buy a house to live in. A rental property which is occupied by a tenant with a lease will not sell to a person looking to move into a house so why market it to them. These turnkey properties are marketed by marketing companies who understand real estate investment properties.

The Right Source

A world of opportunity opens up when you look with the right source for investment property. To find the best investment properties, identify your preferred location and then find companies who specialize in turnkey real estate.

I suppose it would be fair to note that we do this every day and have become extremely good at finding these best turnkey companies and we have a great vetting process to weed thru to the best ones. If you would like to find out more about the properties we have on market now, feel free to call me at : Larry Arth 941-718-7761 or email me at: larry@larryarth.com.