What You Can Do So the Deals Come To You by Samantha Dawson

Flipping houses is not just about being a convincing speaker. It's more of knowing the freshest deals available in your area. If you're the first to know about a fixer upper being sold in your area, you'll be able to check it first - and buy and resell it too. But as competition among rehabbers, investors, and sometimes even owners of fixer uppers is serious, one should wonder: What could I do to be a cut above the rest?

Some people scratch their heads looking for answers. "Can I be the trailblazer by regularly checking local property records? Will it be possible if I knew a lot of homeowners in my county? Will it help if I pay 'informants' who will update me should a house be put for sale in a certain street?"

While all of the above may help, they may not have the same effect as subscribing to web sites that can "control" the flow of the local flipping houses market. Some web sites claim that they could make you the "gatekeeper" of properties ready for rehabbing and investing. One of them appears to indeed have the bragging rights.

RehabList.com, whose mission is "Turning old houses into new homes," describes itself as a vehicle that will tap you right into the middle of the investing action in your town. The web site promises to benefit wholesalers looking to sell more flips, rehabbers looking to find more deals easier, and those who are just getting started in real estate investing.

The system is simple: It gathers all of the real estate investors in a geographic area and allows them to sell to one another, communicate with, and teach each other the tricks of the trade. All available properties in a certain area are listed in a system, which other investors may be able to view. But here's the catch: You could become the official affiliate of RehabList.com in a specific area. If that happens, expect new life to be injected in your otherwise stale investing career.

As the official affiliate for your area, you will "tasked" to approve which properties will appear on the web site. Your approval is also a means of internal quality control and is a way to avoid the site from being abused by spammers.

As a local affiliate, you would be notified automatically of each and every new "pending" deal in your area. You must quickly assess if the deal will likely result in a profit once rehabbed and approve it to be e-mailed to investors in your area. All investors in your area who have a log-in account will be able to view all properties you approve. But take note, only after you approve them.

This puts you in the best position to choose which deals you should pursue and which you should leave to the rest of the pack. This not only makes you he leading investor in your area, it will also give you the reputation as the "Go To" guy when it comes to finding rehabs.