There are a lot of new investors that never get past the step of searching for investment properties.  For many, it is due to not finding the deal fast enough or someone else beating your low bid on a home.  Why do some make it in the real estate business and some don’t?

Quite simply, the successful investors are the ones that either know something you don’t or do something you won’t.  It is not that they have a secret website that has all the good deal and you can’t get to it.  They are however, following up on the ones you wont or trying something you have not.

For example – Lets say your online looking around the IRS home seizure website at: http://www.ustreas.gov/auctions/irs/ and you found a home that you were interested in.  The beginning investor would write down the address, do his due diligence and find out as much about the home as he could and go to the auction.

A seasoned investor would do all of the same things as the beginning investor accept one important thing.  He would not go to the auction, he would try to acquire the property before it ever hits public access.  How?  Call the owner and find out why it’s being sold.  In this particular case, the IRS may have a lien on the property for non-payment of taxes.  If this were the case, maybe you could bring the taxes current and have the owner sell the home to you in exchange.  What an idea! 

Another example could be that you found this gem of a website that has a huge amount of homes for sale that are drop bottom prices.  The only problem is that to access the full address, you have to pay ten dollars a month.  The nerve of them!  Asking you to pay for services rendered!  So, what do you do?  Well, maybe they are dumb enough to give a street name, or a subdivision name.  Use this to your advantage instead of quitting just because there is a fee for finding the home.  Whether you are willing to pay or not, try and find ways to obtain information without the help of a service provider.

You could find the local tax assessors website and look up the street name and see which house is owned by a bank or trust.  You may even decide to call a local realtor and ask him to pull all the houses on a area and see if it matches.  Or, try cross comparison of the same house on another foreclosure site and see if each one may reference the same home.  This may point you closer to knowing what house is for sale; and by whom.

Try to remember that if you are doing what everyone else is doing, you’re doing it the hard way.