In this motivational presentation, Chris Prefontaine urges real‑estate professionals to view 2024 as a prime year for creative investing. He highlights two contrasting market segments that together form a substantial opportunity pool. First, the share of free‑and‑clear homes in the United States has risen from 34.3 % a decade ago to 39.3 % today, creating a large “pond” of owners with equity that can be targeted for acquisitions, portfolio building, and multi‑unit purchases. Prefontaine shares personal tactics—using free‑and‑clear lists for single‑family homes, 4‑ and 6‑unit properties, and even office buildings—to illustrate how to harvest this segment. Second, he points to the distress side of the market: roughly 5 million U.S. homes are behind on mortgage payments, with about 1 million delinquent for six months or more. This delinquency pool represents another source of deals as those properties surface. Throughout, he blends data‑driven insights with a call to action, encouraging listeners to adopt these list‑based strategies, stay immersed, and “harvest” the opportunities for a successful 2024.
Chapters
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. 2 things I looked at that I wanted to share with you guys that I jotted down here. 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 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 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 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 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.
