What does baseball have to do with real estate?
Recently a new investor was sharing with me how he can’t anything under contract since he’s in the hot Seattle market. Even when he waives all the contingencies he can’t compete with all cash offers.
The question is, why do you have to?
This scenario reminds me of the movie Moneyball, where the Oakland A’s is trying to figure out how to compete with the New York Yankees and its giant payroll.
The beauty of real estate is that it’s not a one-size-fits-all game. You can think differently to outsmart the competition.
It boils down to the basic elements. To the Oakland A’s, it’s about getting on base. How do you win games? You have to score more runs than your opponent. How do you score runs? You have to get on base. They were also getting players that possess this essential quality at a huge discount because they were overlooked by the other teams used to doing things a set way. Maybe the players were too short, too fat, or have a bit of a behavioral problem, but they get on base.
It’s the same in real estate. Ultimately it boils down to either getting a property under fair market value, or add more value to the property than what it costs.
Why bang your head against the wall competing with retail buyers for the same 3Br/2Ba house? Find properties that have been sitting on the market for one reason or another and put your negotiation skills to work. Sometimes there’s something fundamentally wrong w/ the house we can’t change like right next to a highway. Sometimes it’s simply overpriced and it takes some time for the sellers to come to their senses. Often I also see properties that are not the traditional setup but if you squint a little, do a little work, or utilize ADU regulations, you can turn it into an all-star.
Find your edge.
