Did you know there’s more than one way real estate investors find homes? There are a lot of homes for sale in Hunt County and surrounding areas. Most of those homes for sale in Hunt County are found because they are listed by a local real estate agent, placed on the MLS, and syndicated to real estate websites. But if you’re thinking about becoming an investor, that shouldn’t be your only avenue to find distressed homes. The best deals are not necessarily advertised as homes for sale. Here are a few ways seasoned investors find homes. Usually, investors focus on one or 2 ways and make that their niche.

Trustee sales:

All homes in Hunt County in the foreclosure process must go to the trustee sale according to state law. The trustee must auction off the property on the county courthouse steps. The mortgage holder, usually the bank, place the minimum bid which is the amount of payoff for the mortgage. The bank will then place these homes with an asset manager and sell them with an agent or online auction. The auction on the courthouse steps is your opportunity to purchase the property before it becomes a home for sale in Hunt County! You will only be bidding against other investors as the bank will not place a second bid.

Tax sales:

Tax sales can be quite tricky, but there are a lot of investors who make their money here. You can get homes and land often for 1/2 the price BUT these homes are subject to a redemption period by the homeowner, might have clouds on their titles, and may not be able to have a title policy for 2 years. But if you do your research and team up with a great title company you could make some good money specializing in tax sales. We also recommend having an attorney you trust to look things over to ensure you’re covering your assets!

Auctions:

After a mortgage holder gets a home back from foreclosure they will often list them for sale on auction web sites before listing with an agent to the general public. These homes for sale in Hunt County are placed on these websites with a reserve bid and if it doesn’t sell in the allotted time it will usually get listed by a real estate agent. Here are a couple websites where you could find auction homes for sale in hunt county not yet with an agent HudsonandMarshall.com, Hubzu, HudHomeStore, RealtyTrac, and many many more. In fact, there are HUNDREDS of real estate auction websites.

Driving for dollars:

A lot of newer investors start out driving for dollars to find their first few homes and grow their portfolio. It’s a time-consuming way to find homes. It entails driving the neighborhoods you want to invest in, writing down addresses for homes that look vacant or distressed, getting on your computer and researching ownership, sending a letter, calling, knocking, etc… and trying to reach the owner to see if they want to sell.

Bandit signs:

Do you ever see those signs on the side of the road saying “we buy houses”? Those are called bandit signs and a lot of wholesalers use this technique to get the phone ringing. The signs are cheap and if you put out 100’s or 1000’s out in your target neighborhood just one home purchased could be worth the time and investment.

Using a Realtor is still the number one way to find homes for sale in Hunt County, even for investors, according to the National Association of Realtors. These are just a few examples of how to find homes for sale in Hunt County that are distressed and ready for an investor that may not have made their way to the MLS just yet.