One of the most important steps in successfully flipping a home is finding the home! Not many people know how to look for a great deal yet so many companies out there are giving bogus advertisements on training seminars and do it yourself packages. In this article you'll learn the basics of how to find the right property to flip.

How to search for the right house to flip. There are several ways to search for a home:

Personally, I don't like numbers 3, 4 or 5. Let's take a quick look at them so I can explain to you why they are not my favorite choices.

Foreclosure listing websites are not very effective and by the time they reach you , someone else has already hopped onto the deal. Because a property is in foreclosure doesn't instantly give it the "awesome deal" status.

As a branch manager for a mortgage company and a mortgage broker, I will tell you that I would not use someone in my field to help me find homes. Every now and then one of them might run into a specific scenario that sounds great. But like any other businessman, they are always looking for their best interest first.

I refuse to talk to friends and family when I'm working on getting a deal together. They have no knowledge in the real estate field yet have a huge influence in my decision making. Of course there are exceptions and I'm not telling you to hide everything from your family, I'm just saying that you will probably be getting a lot of negative criticism from them when you initially begin your campaign.

Lets move on to the stuff that I like to work with;

Real Estate Agents

Agents haven't really proven well for me, but overall they are a necessity. Let me explain to you my difficulty with Real Estate Agents by giving you my own experience as an example.

Over the last year I had asked several agents to hook me up with some good properties to flip. I came to a very quick conclusion, out of the 20,000 or so agents in the Twin Cities Minnesota area, only a handful of them really know whats going on in the industry and the rest of them are just paper pushers and typical salesman.

I mean, I'm in this business too and I work with them on a regular basis but once I became the customer who knew all the ins and outs, I realized how little they know.

The first agent I offered to work with showed me a bunch of her own listings. Unfortunately for her I was a bit smarter then to buy into her sales pitch. She just wanted my help in making commission on both sides of the transaction.

The next three agents I worked with each had the same technique. Open the MLS website, search for the term *foreclosure* then send all 500 results to my email. It's not that I'm too lazy to go through all 500, but its the fact that the agent has no idea what a good deal is. To them, a good deal is anything with the word foreclosure in it. Obviously, this is not the case.

Another agent I tried to start a relationship with I called the morning I saw my first flip project online. I told them hey, can you guys make it out here tomorrow morning, this property was just listed and it looks like an awesome deal. The first thing they asked was: "How much is it listed for", then they realized it wasn't all that so they told me their weekend was booked with appointments. I found a different agent to show me the property instead and we ended up putting an offer in the same day and eventually bought the house. I will give them a bit of credit because they did live quite a bit away from me and the property, but it was still a transaction they lost.

So through these experiences, I learned that there are some fantastic agents out there, but they are few and far in between. Most of them are just great salesman.

You're eventually going to have to get one to set appointments to check out houses. You can use the listing agent on the property to be your agent too. The good thing about doing that is they might give you a bump and nudge on to how much the bank would be comfortable with. Availability is very important. You never know when you might find a good deal and good deals don't last long. So you need your agent to be on top of the scheduling, the drafting of the purchase agreement and the negotiations.

Searching for Properties Online

This is probably my favorite way of doing things. In this piece, I will let you in on some fantastic tips so you can decide whether you're getting a good deal or not.

Check growing neighborhoods and areas that don't have three houses for sale on every block. Attractive suburban areas will attract your typical self employed buyers and properties in a metro area will generally attract corporate workers. Immigration communities are also a huge plus to look for. Don't look for homes that are over an hour away from a major city or establishment. Well not until you have enough money to risk on investments like that at least.

When I search for properties online this is what I generally do. I look for the neighborhoods I think will be stable and growing. As a first project, don't go too high unless you find an unbelievable deal. In Minnesota I'd look for a property between $0 - $175,000. Obviously the current market does play a big factor in the price I'm looking for seeing that there are tons of foreclosures around. In a California type market you'd surely be looking at higher price points.

I look for homes that have a minimum of 2 bedrooms and at least 2 bathrooms. The ideal scenario is 3 bedroom 2 bathroom. Most typical families would fall right into that home. Anything less and you're limiting your buyers market to a newly wed couple, or senior citizens.

Here's the part no one does. I find the year the property was built (just so I know how much damage to expect) and then search the properties on the local counties assessor page. Then I search for the assessed tax value which is typically 10-20% lower than the actual value might be. In some cases it might be more or less. The closer to the assessed value the better. In today's market I run into plenty that are below assessed value. Now remember, this doesn't give you a number to work with, it just gives you an idea of how good of a deal you're getting.

After all this is done, I forward the list of houses I'm left with to my agent. I ask them to search how many days the property has been on the market and what the comparable in the area are running for. Also if available, how much did the previous owner pay for this house? They have access to this information through their MLS system which the general public doesn't have.

Now if a property has been on the market forever (lets say about 100+ days) then I'd give a real low offer on the property. Especially if its bank owned, then I'll really throw something much lower. Why? Because sometimes banks get so fed up with properties that they get to a point where they just want to get rid of them. If the property just got onto the market then it could be a brand spanking new deal.

Don't rush into it though. Do your homework and don't fall in love with the properties you look at. Avoid your agents remarks about how great of a deal the property is (especially if it happens to be the listing agent) and instead if you're very serious about a specific property, bring your contractor with you to take a look at the extent of damage. Don't forget about an inspection either! We'll talk about contractors and inspectors in a different training on a different day.

A wise man once told me that any house can be a good deal as long as you buy it for the right price.

You want to buy the house as low as possible, find the best contractor for the lowest price point, and then lower all additional costs to make the most profit. Just selling the house at the highest price possible isn't always the solution.

This my friends, was the first step in Finding the Right House to Flip. Read more articles and learn more on the The Home Flipping Guide

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