Can You Buy CREATIVE Real Estate Deals Off the MLS?

Can you buy real estate deals on creative financing off the MLS? It's a question I get asked all the time, especially because of this current market. Now, the simple answer is yes. If you actually just go on Zillow today, you're gonna find out that there's a lot of people out there, including agents, including for sale by owners, that are actually putting in the description either owner financing Is a— is exactly what they want, or owner financing is optional. This has completely changed since the days in which I first started buying creative financing deals over a decade ago. It seems to be that finding these real estate transactions are much more common and much more simple. So that's amazing for you if you're first watching this video and you're just getting involved in creative financing. I'm Zach Beach. I'm the CEO of Smart Real Estate Coaching. Welcome to another Thursday Q&A. Today we're going to dive into where to find these deals on the MLS, what to look for, how to speak with these agents, and how to actually get these deals done. And along the way, we'll go ahead and talk about the pros and cons as well. So go ahead and stick with me here. So can you buy real estate deals off the MLS? Absolutely. And quite frankly, We have been buying them off the MLS for a couple of years now. We've done multiple deals even in the last 12 months, one which was directly purchased from the seller on a subject-to deal off the MLS, and 2 was going directly through an agent where we're actually getting a 0% interest rate on seller financing. So what to look for in these deals? If you're going on the market and you're searching for these types of transactions, look for days on market. Most likely sellers and/or agents are going to be way more open to the creative financing strategies if they've been on the market quite some time. The agent may actually convince the seller to take these types of transactions because what is— what's going to happen if they don't sell it? Well, the property is going to expire, which is Unfortunate for that particular agent because now they're not going to get any type of commissions. Or if there's high days on market, the seller may even know about these types of strategies. So now they go ahead and present to the agent and say, "Hey, if I can get my price, I would be more than open to structuring some sort of seller financing deal." But you also may have to explain this once you get on the phone with them if there is no particular Uh, written language in that description if they have high days on market. Now, of course, if there's seller financing language already written in there, then I would be able to go ahead and reach out to them and find out what type of terms are actually on the table. Now, I've also found that even if they say I'm open to seller financing, their terms could be extremely unrealistic or not even advantageous for anybody like us real estate investors to actually purchase this property. So you need to have that candid conversation. Now, the deal in which I was speaking about where we bought a property with a 0% interest rate actually started out as a very high interest rate that they want on a monthly basis. But I went ahead and gave the best offer that I could make. And weeks later, you know, time, time kind of brings everything to fruition. Weeks later, they then went ahead and accepted that offer, which I know it's at least going to be a 6-figure deal on a $120,000 purchase. You can also, if you're utilizing some of our tools including Real eFlow— so if you go on smartrealestatecoach.com/realeflow, you can actually set some parameters and be notified anytime that there is a very specific type of property or characteristic with that property on market. So What we have actually set to be notified is if there is an active mark— active property on market and, uh, it has a low amount of equity. Why do I do that? We do this because, uh, if the agent puts the property on the market and for whatever reason does not get the asking price that they were hoping for, Well, there's not a lot of room for them to go ahead and lower their price to bring additional buyers to the table. Or if there's any type of negotiation, they don't have a lot of wiggle room. And if there's not a lot of wiggle room, now the seller actually has to come out of pocket to go ahead and sell the property. And most sellers are not gonna wanna do that, quite frankly. So that is a great opportunity to consistently have new prospects and new leads, even on the MLS, come to your email inbox. Now that's just one of many, uh, but utilize that strategy. Go to smartrealestatecoach.com/realeflow and utilize that database to get consistent deals into your email inbox. So now that we know that we can actually buy deals on market and we're able to identify some of these, uh, properties, Now, how do we actually speak with these agents? So we actually have many scripts inside our Quantum Leap System home study course, and I'm gonna refer to a realtor script in there. But really, the realtor script is just more of a direct conversation with the agent to build rapport and then identify what is happening with the property and then be able to offer additional options. that they may not either know of or that they're not exactly sure how to structure. Because quite frankly, even if it does say that owner financing is an option, the agents may not know exactly how those are structured, or it may be one of the first seller financing or subject-to deals that they've ever done before. So you have to guide them through the process. But it's very deliberate to the point, I don't want you wasting time. I wanna identify If they're open to it, what, uh, what are the expectations of the seller? What's most important to the seller? We have what we call our 4 quadrants, uh, when we're actually buying a property on seller financing. Uh, price, down payment, yes or no. Um, is it— is there an interest rate or monthly payment? What's the time frame? Those are the 4 things that we need to identify. And most importantly, we need to identify what is most important to the seller. So that way we can direct our offer based upon that because we won't be able to give them everything, but we can typically direct them to or make an offer that will satisfy the thing that's most important to them. Then also what I would suggest so that way this deal actually goes more smooth is that you ask for a 3-way phone call so that way you can walk the seller and the agent through what type of offers would best fit for this strategy. And most importantly, you're able to build that rapport with the seller as well. So that way it's not like this investor that's out in the ether. Instead, it is Zachary Beach or it is Chris Prefontaine, or it's one of our amazing community members that are actually looking to buy the property, have experience, and know how to get these things to the finish line. That, or worst case scenario, if you're buying properties locally, Then ask for the seller and the agent to be at the appointment. So now you can kind of kill two birds with one stone, and now you're building up that rapport. Now, this is in no way to jump the agent in any way. This is just to make sure that you're now able to satisfy the seller's challenge, the agent's challenge, in order to structure the best deal possible. Well, let's talk about some pros and cons, right? So obviously, some pros are that you can buy real estate deals. More quickly than if you wait for them to go ahead and expire off the market. Now, there is some cons associated with that speed though, because it's very likely that the agent's gonna wanna be paid in some form. I would say, if anything, that the agent is definitely gonna wanna be paid in some form. So how you structure that deal, including the agent's pay, is gonna be important. But it could likely be that you're gonna come out of pocket day one. So if you currently have deals that are coming to fruition, uh, and you have your 3 paydays going— and if you don't know what I mean when I talk about our 3 payday system, go to smartrealestatecoach.com/mastersclass, and Chris, my business partner, will actually walk you through the exact strategies that we've been using for the past decade and above in how we create 3 paydays on every single deal in which we do. So if you don't currently have deal flow coming in and you're unable to utilize those nonrefundable deposits or that cash flow, then of course you're going to need to come out of pocket with these deals. So you need to definitely ensure that these deals are going to be super profitable. So pros, you can get deals done more quickly. Cons, you're going to have to come out of pocket, right? So there's obviously some nuances associated with buying real estate deals on the MLS. But in today's current market, It is an amazing opportunity to actually go out there and structure deals right on the market outside of doing deals direct to seller and off market as well. So if you're looking to make an amazing business in 2025 and beyond and utilizing our 3 payday system, enter into this lead source and start networking, start building rapport with agents out there. If you haven't subscribed to our YouTube channel, make sure you go ahead and click. Subscribe. Every single Thursday we're going to bring you these Q&As along with Motivational Mondays and Deal Structure Sundays. See you next week.