Why You Won’t Find A Great Duplex By Looking For A Sign

If you’ve come to the realization it’s a great time to invest in real estate, and want to buy your first duplex, how on earth do you go about finding one to buy?

Should you drive around the neighborhood looking for real estate signs?

Check Craigslist?

Pick up one of those free Real Estate guides or look on Realtor.com?

Since I’m a Realtor, you could argue I’m biased.  And yet, I truly believe if you’re serious about duplex investment, it is the best way to find the right property to buy.

With the limited inventory in today’s Minneapolis duplex market, many buyers working on their own call because they’ve recognized a duplex with my “for sale” sign in the yard, or they saw in an ad, is a great deal.

The trouble is, by the time they’ve “found” the duplex, it’s already sold.

Let’s face it. “Great deals” sell quickly. And the people who find them are usually full time real estate professionals; who then, in turn, sell them to their clients or buy them themselves.

For example, I scan the multiple listing service (MLS) daily, looking for duplexes that have just come on the market or that have had a price reduction, that either look like good investments for my clients, or the type they’ve said they’d like to live in.

Within seconds, minutes or hours, those people who’ve elected to work with me exclusively get an email, phone call or text telling them of the duplex I’ve found.

And on those occasions when we can’t find the right duplex to buy?

I start calling.

I call past clients, duplex owners I know, or even people I’ve never met who own duplexes that match the description my client has given me.

I call other Realtors who might have a past client or friend thinking of selling a duplex.

I call people who I know are trying to sell their Minneapolis duplexes by themselves.

I call duplex owners who once had their property actively for sale, but have decided, for whatever reason, to put it off for a while.

And I even call property owners who purchased their duplex during the boom, who may truly want to sell, but aren’t sure how to go about doing so when their property is no longer worth anywhere near the amount they owe on it.

Odds are, I’ll eventally find a duplex that’s a great deal.

And you won’t have to spend all of that money on gas, looking for a sign.