This text is introduced by PropStream.
After I first began actual property investing, I believed securing cash for a deal could be the toughest factor. (I imply, it nonetheless isn’t simple.) I rapidly came upon that cash isn’t the issue whenever you discover a slam-dunk deal. Now, discovering that deal is definitely essentially the most difficult a part of the enterprise.
For many years, discovering offers meant driving for {dollars}, poring over courthouse filings, or spending infinite hours cold-calling house owners who might or might not be serious about promoting. In 2026, traders who thrive are those that mix hustle with progressive know-how.
This is the place PropStream adjustments the sport. What as soon as took weeks of guide analysis can now be achieved in minutes.
Traders can stack filters to construct extremely focused lead lists, then run prompt comps to substantiate potential revenue margins. From there, skip tracing offers direct contact data, and automatic mailers or digital campaigns could be triggered proper contained in the system. PropStream consolidates your complete lead era course of right into a single, seamless workflow.
Your predominant query is: How do you uncover properties that truly suit your funding model?
The reply lies in going after the segments of the market the place motivation is already inbuilt. Listed below are 20 distinct lead sorts value focusing on proper now, every paired with sensible steering on learn how to leverage them in your funding technique.
1. Auctions
Foreclosures filings and scheduled gross sales flag public sale properties for traders.
Finest use
Establish properties approaching public sale, assessment official filings, and run comps to set your bidding technique earlier than attending a sale.
2. Financial institution Owned (REO)
If a property fails to promote at public sale, it typically reverts to financial institution possession.
Finest use
Pull REO properties immediately, confirm financial institution or lender possession, and join with asset managers to barter bulk or discounted purchases.
3. Chapter
Energetic chapter filings typically level to distressed house owners.
Finest use
Goal Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcies, and cross-reference with fairness ranges to seek out house owners most probably to promote beneath strain.
4. Money Patrons
These are critical consumers, very best for wholesalers.
Finest use
Construct a listing of latest money transactions, segmented by location, and add these consumers to your most well-liked contact checklist for fast flips.
5. Divorce
Divorces typically require the sale of marital property.
Finest use
Generate lists of divorce-related properties, and attain out with affords designed to supply certainty and pace throughout a sophisticated course of.
6. Failed Listings
Expired MLS listings are a transparent sign of motivation.
Finest use
Strategy sellers whose properties have didn’t promote on the MLS with different options, corresponding to all-cash affords or sooner closing timelines.
7. Flippers
Traders who purchase and relist properties inside two years are thought-about energetic flippers.
Finest use
Observe native flippers to determine traits, pull comps, and discover potential partnerships or wholesale alternatives.
8. Free and Clear Properties
These properties carry no mortgage debt.
Finest use
Deal with free-and-clear house owners who can promote with out lender involvement, making negotiations extra simple and closings sooner.
9. Excessive Fairness
Fairness-rich properties give sellers flexibility.
Finest use
Goal high-equity house owners who might settle for below-market affords or artistic financing choices, as they are going to nonetheless stroll away with a revenue.
10. Liens
Tax and mechanic liens create monetary stress.
Finest use
Prioritize house owners with a number of liens, and supply to alleviate them of the burden with fast money gross sales.
11. On Market
Energetic or contingent MLS listings nonetheless supply alternatives.
Finest use
Monitor listings with prolonged market instances or value reductions and construction artistic affords, corresponding to subject-to financing.
12. Pre-Foreclosures
These are properties in default, however not but up for public sale.
Finest use
Contact house owners as quickly as default notices seem, offering them with choices earlier than they lose the property to foreclosures.
13. Pre-Probate
Possession adjustments because of dying can create distinctive alternatives.
Finest use
Attain heirs early with data-backed affords, emphasizing pace, simplicity, and reduction from the effort of probate.
14. Senior House owners
House owners with many years of possession typically look to downsize.
Finest use
Strategy senior house owners respectfully with options that assist them money out or transition into smaller dwelling preparations.
15. Tax Delinquency
Unpaid taxes are a transparent motivator.
Finest use
Deal with properties with a number of years of unpaid taxes, and current affords earlier than the county initiates lien gross sales or auctions.
16. Drained Landlords
Longtime rental property house owners are sometimes burned out.
Finest use
Spotlight hassle-free exits and 1031 alternate alternatives for landlords prepared to maneuver on from tenant administration.
17. Upside-Down Properties
When debt exceeds worth, house owners are left with a troublesome choice.
Finest use
Pursue brief sale methods or artistic financing preparations to assist house owners underwater on their mortgage.
18. Vacant Properties
Vacant properties deteriorate rapidly and put strain on house owners.
Finest use
Skip-trace absentee house owners and supply fast buy options earlier than the property turns into too pricey to keep up.
19. Vacant Land
Undeveloped parcels can turn into new offers.
Finest use
Analyze zoning, lot measurement, and site to determine parcels with improvement or land- banking potential.
20. Zombie Properties
Vacant + pre-foreclosure = zombie property.
Finest use
Pursue these distinctive alternatives earlier than they’re repossessed and added to bank-owned inventories.
Closing Ideas
Each actual property investor wrestles with the identical basic problem of producing a gentle stream of offers. With out constant deal circulate, there is no such thing as a pipeline to nurture, affords to make, or closings to have fun. Traders who can systematically determine motivated sellers and transfer decisively will all the time keep forward of the competitors.
Information platforms like PropStream get rid of outdated guesswork by turning tens of millions of scattered property information into actionable insights. Meaning extra clever focusing on, sooner evaluations, and extra worthwhile choices—all in much less time.
The very best use of your power shouldn’t be chasing random leads or ready for referrals. It focuses on the precise properties in the precise markets, at exactly the precise time. Grasp that self-discipline, and the deal circulate stops being your greatest problem and turns into your most important benefit.