BiggerPockets - 4 Overlooked Ways to Find Off-Market Real Estate Deals

Short Summary

Main recommendation: Find off-market real estate deals by targeting motivated "situations" rather than just properties, using four overlooked lead sources: strategic networking, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace hunting (including landlord rental listings), direct mail, and cold calling. The speaker argues that consistency across these channels is what produces deal flow, especially in a hot market where buyers are overpaying.

Key Points

• The four promised ways to find off-market deals, as named in the video:
  1. Strategic networking with seasoned investors, investor-friendly real estate agents, and wholesalers.
  2. Searching Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, including the rental sections, for distressed listings.
  3. Direct mail campaigns targeting owners with equity and motivation.
  4. Cold calling, often outsourced to a trained caller.
• The core target is a seller with both equity and motivation (e.g., divorce, death in the family, or a property in poor condition).
• Paid leads (direct mail, cold calling) and hustle leads (networking, marketplace searching) should be used in a healthy mix when starting out.
• Persistence is the common thread: the speaker says deals come from relentless, repeated contact rather than one-off efforts.

Details Worth Noting

• Concrete instructions:
  • Networking: attend local real estate meetups every week, tell active investors what you want to buy, take them to lunch, and send periodic check-in texts (the speaker's buyer texts once or twice a month: "Hey Henry, just checking in, do you have anything right now?").
  • Wholesalers: search Google for "how can I sell my house fast for cash" plus your city and state, look at paid ads, prefer wholesalers with local area codes, ask to be added to their buyers list and to receive all current deals, then invite them to lunch.
  • Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace: spend a fixed block of time daily (the speaker suggests 30 minutes to an hour), look for dark, low-quality photos or dated/dirty listings, and check the rental sections for landlords who may be tired of problem tenants. Pitch landlords on buying the property.
  • Super pro tip: before calling a landlord, estimate your offer range, then state a dollar range (the speaker's example: $120,000 to $175,000) instead of a vague "I'd like to make an offer."
  • Direct mail: use filters in PropStream, ListSource, or DealMachine to build a list of owners with equity and motivation, then send postcards consistently. Sample message: "Hi, my name is Henry. I'd like to buy your house at 123 Main Street. I'll pay all your closing costs. You don't have to fix anything. I'll buy it as is."
  • Cold calling: hire a trained caller (via a service, or a virtual assistant found on Upwork or OnlineJobs.ph), ask applicants for sample calls, skip trace your list for phone numbers, and give the list to the caller.
• The speaker typically aims for about seven touches before removing a contact from a mail list, since a seller may need several pieces of mail before deciding to call.
• A referenced earlier flip deal: a distressed seller who wanted no listing and no visitors accepted a five-minute walkthrough; the speaker spent roughly $40,000 on renovations and reported a $60,000 to $70,000 profit.
• The speaker presents these methods as his personal experience and does not offer legal or financial advice.

Bottom Line

Off-market deals come from being consistently visible to the right people and the right sellers, so the work is a sustained weekly or daily routine across several channels rather than a single campaign.