Choosing the Right Target Market Part 1
When investors approach me about where they should look for houses they are looking for me to tell them a general rule of thumb in distance from their house. I remember when I first decided to become a real estate investor I was looking for the same answer. I read Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad Poor Dad and was looking for the magic bullet. He said to look for properties that were within an easy drive from your house when starting. You know 30 – 60 minutes or less than 30 miles.
That made my decision even tougher because there were so many different types of areas in that range. I could go to one of the highest valued neighborhoods in the country or go somewhere where I could buy drugs easier that finding a house. That really didn’t help narrow down my choices at all.
I have since gone to many different boot camps by many educators and each one said something similar. Others at least specified demographics as well as geographic areas. That helped somewhat, but really not enough. It was still a large area with nothing that was really helping me choose the best area to farm.
I dug in my heals and decided to do my home work. First based upon the type of investing I was doing I knew that I needed motivated sellers, someone who would sell me their house creatively. That narrowed it down somewhat. I knew that I wanted to be able to
sell my house quickly once I was ready so I new that it would have to be in that sweet spot of price. I new that I would have to buy it for less that median price and so that helped me choose an area had a preponderance of houses in that price range.
I know that I didn’t want to do a major renovation so I knew that I wanted pretty neighborhoods with newer houses rather than a house that was 50 years old and badly outdated. I wanted people who were more inclined to me motivated to sell creatively so I decided to target people who were behind in payments or about to be behind. I knew that with the sub-prime meltdown the people who had mortgages that had adjustable rates were more likely to be in need of
selling my house quickly.
I have since gone to many different boot camps by many educators and each one said something similar. Others at least specified demographics as well as geographic areas. That helped somewhat, but really not enough. It was still a large area with nothing that was really helping me choose the best area to farm.
I dug in my heals and decided to do my home work. First based upon the type of investing I was doing I knew that I needed motivated sellers, someone who would sell me their house creatively. That narrowed it down somewhat. I knew that I wanted to be able to sell my house quickly once I was ready so I new that it would have to be in that sweet spot of price. I new that I would have to buy it for less that median price and so that helped me choose an area had a preponderance of houses in that price range.
I know that I didn’t want to do a major renovation so I knew that I wanted pretty neighborhoods with newer houses rather than a house that was 50 years old and badly outdated. I wanted people who were more inclined to me motivated to sell creatively so I decided to target people who were behind in payments or about to be behind. I knew that with the sub-prime meltdown the people who had mortgages that had adjustable rates were more likely to be in need of selling my house quickly.