How to find off market properties

The truth is… there is no secret way to find off market properties. However, it is possible to find them and finding off market properties is one of the most powerful strategies for property investors looking to secure the best deals before they hit the open market. Use this blog as a brief guide to actually understand the process of acquiring a property off market for a deal.

What are off market properties?

We’re sure that if you are reading this you have some knowledge on what an off market property is but for those who do not and have only heard it being thrown around by gurus all the time, off market properties are homes or buildings that are for sale but not publicly advertised on platforms like Rightmove, Zoopla, or estate agent websites. These properties are usually sold privately- giving buyers less competition. There are many different reasons why properties are sold off market but when it comes to finding a deal that is either for yourself to invest in or to find and sell to an investor, the main reason you will be ideally looking for is that the seller is motivated to sell, meaning they want or need to sell as quickly as possible. We will cover more on this later on.

Why Off Market Properties are Good for Investing

This topic can, and most likely will, have a whole post on its own, but we will provide a brief overview before going into the real reason you will be reading which is how to find the off market properties.

First of all, as the seller of the property is motivated, they are far more likely to be willing to sell at a reduced price (below market value). A below market value property comes with many benefits from not only having the opportunity to make more money, but from mortgage financing, backend fees for the sourcer etc. They also mean that you can be in control of the whole deal process as estate agents aren’t involved. This leads us on to the first way of how off market properties can be found.

Build relationships with Estate Agents

Yes, we know estate agents are the enemy when it comes to being a property sourcer. However, if the relationship building process is done correctly estate agents can be very beneficial to your property sourcing journey. The different reasons why an estate agent would have access to off market properties are:

-       Sellers have gone to them but the time it will take to sell is to long for the time the seller needs to have sold

-       Some properties condition is so bad that an estate agent just cannot sell it

-       Some people need cash purchases which an estate agent cannot get them for whatever reason

There are more reasons than just the three identified but to not get repetitive we will leave it at that. So, when it comes to building the relationship, you want to be different from what every other property sourcer is doing, this means not going in and saying, “here’s my number if you have any below market value off market properties, phone me”. Instead, you want to provide them with value and not even think about anything in return, yet. The approach we have found to be the most effective has been as follows;

“Hi, I am new to investing in this area and what I usually do is advertise for people looking to sell their properties and if they meet my criteria, I will buy them and usually either let them out or flip them. Although I have found that many of the properties are not meeting my criteria I was wondering if I could pass them onto someone like you as I wouldn’t want to let anyone down. While I have you, I was also interested in knowing if when I am carrying out my flips, if it would be possible to work alongside yourselves in the renovation process to ensure the property has the different aspects which people who are buying in the are looking for so that when it comes to selling, we can work together and get the best possible price for the sale”

This approach not only indicates that you will be doing free marketing for them when it comes to receiving clients as you will be telling the sellers who don’t match your criteria to go to them, but you will also be taking all the properties you are flipping to them as well. Once you have provided the estate agent with both the leads and the flips, you will then be the first on their list for sourcers to phone as they know the value you give them. They just don’t need to know that you have also had the exact same phone call with every other estate agent in the local area.

Direct-to-vendor

You now might be wondering “yes, if I pass deals that I don’t want onto the estate agents they will then give me off market one. But how am I first going to even find deals to pass onto them.” This is where direct-to-vendor comes in and is what truly is the most effective way to find off market properties. This can be done in different ways:

-       Mass leaflets through doors in the area you know best and want to invest in

-       Direct letters (these will be in the essentials pack which will be available soon)

-       Social media posts

-       Social media ads

We will discuss the online methods later but for now we will cover offline direct to vendor. Offline is probably the most costly and least effective for the cost. The reason for this is when it comes to leafletting you will need to buy and send out around 5,000-10,000 leaflets each week for around 5 weeks and even from that you may only get a few leads if you are lucky. The letters that we can provide you with are the most effective offline strategy as they are more targeted and get the seller to consider an off market sale much more.

The online methods are what we recommend and have found to be the most effective. The way to do this is through paid ads on platforms like Google and Facebook which can be targeted at specific areas and to specific people who are searching what you are advertising for.

Social Media & Local Groups and Pages

Following on from the previous section, by just putting posts out on social media allows people to know what you are actually doing, even if you think know you know will be in the situation where they are wanting to sell their property fast, they may actually be. They may also know people who are in that situation, and they will be able to pass people on to you. For this to happen though you will need to put yourself out there and build up the reputation for being the property person.

These posts can also be done in Facebook groups of the local areas you want to source in. These groups are very helpful as the posts can be seen by people who you aren’t even friends with.

Property Networking Events

Now property networking events have the potential to be good, but from many experiences they are not what they could be. Most people at networking events are people who are new to property themselves and have just seen the property “experts” posting saying how it is easy to become financially free and a millionaire from property. Yes, there are some good events out there but most of them are not worth the time or money. However, if you are lucky and are at one that is good and has experience property investors then it is good to network and get to learn from their experiences. Another good type of person to meet is landlords because if they are already landlords and are attending networking events there is a high chance that they may be tired and looking to off load some of their properties.

Other Property Sourcers

Now we know that might sound strange but let us explain. Co-sourcing is now a huge part of property sourcing and is a reason why having a network is very beneficial. When it comes to sourcing a lot of people do lots of work then eventually find a deal then realise they don’t actually have an investor to sell the deal to, this is where a co-source happens and you work with the other sourcer by bring them one of your investors, which you may have met at a networking event or been approached by through one of your social media posts, and you spit the sourcing fee 50/50 and in another blog we will show you how you can actually make much more than that even in a co-source. Working with co-sourcers also work the other way where you might have a deal and they bring the investor.