7 tips for eliminating houses from listings

I often receive large batches of listings from the sources we use to acquire houses. There are far too many to see individually so I need to use a heavy hand to whittle down the stack to a manageable group that we can go and see. These 7 tips, particularly #5, may not be as helpful to those of you who have lots of resources to use in bidding wars and list price offers but to bargain hunters who have to keep prices very low like me, these tips have saved a lot of time.

1) Where you can see the “Days on Market” or DOM, the property should have been on the market at least 60 days. The more DOM, the better for negotiating.

2) If the house is listed over $80,000, it should have been on the market for at least 90 days (I have made some exceptions for listings over $80K that are fabulous, but I am only asking the agent to keep his eye on them to see if they go down).

3) If you are getting overwhelmed by 3 beds/2bths, start looking for larger houses and pick only very cheap 3/2s.

4) No properties with HOA fees.

5) Approach every listing with extreme disdain. Does the listing have the smell of desperation? This scent is becoming more and more faint as the market improves, but still if there is no hint of a willingness to negotiate, keep moving.

6) Size (less than 1200 sq ft and more than 2250 sq ft). The smaller properties are hard to sell; the larger properties are crazy expensive to renovate.

7) Wood siding. More times than not, it all has to be replaced and the return on the investment is low.