In this brief market update, Chris Prefontaine highlights two contrasting real‑estate opportunity pools for 2024. He notes that the share of U.S. homes owned free‑and‑clear has risen from 34.3% a decade ago to 39.3% today, creating a sizable list of financially stable owners that can be targeted for acquisitions ranging from single‑family homes to multi‑unit and office properties. Conversely, he points out that roughly 5 million U.S. homes are delinquent on mortgage payments, with about 1 million behind six months or more, representing a distressed‑owner segment ripe for creative deals. Prefontaine stresses the importance of integrating these “free‑and‑clear” and “distressed” lists into lead‑generation systems (e.g., My Plus, expired listings, FSBO/FRBO) and encourages investors to position themselves aggressively for a strong 2024, using his own experience as proof of concept.
Chapters
All right, guys, I want to just give you sort of a very, very brief market update. And yes, you can see outside the window is one of my furry friends came to visit today during the snowstorm. I don't know if you can see him eating out there. All right. So 2 things I looked at that I wanted to share with you guys that I jotted down. One is I was on a podcast and the guy said, yeah, you always say that, or I've heard you say, Chris, that a third of the properties are free and clear in the United States. And he said, I wonder with the rates going down— he was almost challenging me, but doing it in a very nice way on his podcast— I wonder if with rates going down, those numbers have gone down, meaning less properties free and clear because the money was so cheap. I said, I know, I'll take a peek. Now, here's what's good news for us in the last decade. Okay, let's go back 10 years. Here we are, new year 2024. Free and clear homes went from 34.3%. I was saying about a third, so I was accurate. to 39.3%. They're almost 40% of the properties in the United States are free and clear. Is that not a big pond for you to fish in? That's an awesome pond for you to fish in. So if you're in your marketplace and you and your My Plus leads are giving you enough leads for your expired, your for sale by owner, your for rent by owner, and you're, you're content, it's going to reach your goals, you're fine. But if you're looking to add lists, this continues to— this is and continues to be one of my favorite lists, free and clear. We've done it with single families. Side note, we've done it to build up portfolios and done it with a 4 and a 6 unit we purchased. You can have a field day with this free and clear list. When I sold the office building in Rhode Island, I said to Sue, hey, pull a list of all free and clear office buildings. And I gave her specific areas because I want to find another one someday. Right. Okay. So that's one stat. It's important for you to know as far as what the, what the market's doing. Okay. Second stat, complete opposite end of the spectrum. So you have free and clear, people are financially set up pretty well. Opposite end of the spectrum, 5 million US homes. I just Googled it and took a snapshot and did some research. 5 million US homes are behind in their mortgage payments. And here's the kick I wrote down. 1 million of those are 6 months or more behind. Now, is that not a good pool for you to fish in? You don't have to fish in it. They're going to— those things will surface. That's a lot of homes in the United States. So are you guys not feeling like you're positioned in 2024 to have the most amazing year? You should. You are poised in creative real estate to have the most amazing 2024. Know that, settle into it, immerse yourself into it, become the best in it, and go out there and do some harvesting.
