How to Find Great Real Estate Deals in 2026 (Before Anyone Else) (Rookie Reply)

Real Estate Rookie

BiggerPockets

How To, Education, Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Not knowing the difference between a “good” real estate deal and a “bad” one keeps many rookies on the sidelines. If this is the one hurdle preventing you from buying your first rental property, don’t worry—today’s episode will give you the confidence to find, analyze, and buy a great deal in 2026! Welcome back to another Rookie Reply! We’ve got three new questions from the BiggerPockets Forums, the first of which comes from someone who’s struggling to find the right investment property. As you’re about to hear, a good deal for one person might be a bad deal for another, so the key is pinning down your real estate investing goals. We’ll show you how to do just that and provide you with a few key metrics and rules of thumb to make your decision a little easier! Next, do you need to hire a general contractor when renovating a house, or can you oversee the work yourself? The answer is more nuanced than you probably think. Finally, we’ll tackle every rookie’s million-dollar question: Is now the best time to invest in real estate, or is it safer to wait out 2026? We set the record straight! Looking to invest? Need answers? Ask your question here! In This Episode We Cover How to identify “good” real estate deals (and dodge the “bad” ones!) The number one thing to determine before buying an investment property Key metrics and rules of thumb to use when analyzing rental properties Whether you need to hire a general contractor for your renovation project Whether you should buy a rental property in 2026 (or wait a little longer!) And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-652 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What if the only thing keeping you from your first deal is not knowing what a good deal actually looks like?
0:06.4	Or maybe you've got your first flip lined up, but you can't decide if you really need a general contractor or if you can manage it yourself.
0:12.5	And finally, the million dollar question every rookie is asking is now the right time to buy.
0:18.5	We're answering all three of those questions and helping you make
0:21.4	smarter moves in any market. This is the real estate rookie podcast. I'm Ashley Care. And I'm Tony
0:32.3	Jay Robinson. And with that, let's get into today's first question. Now, this question comes
0:36.7	from Eric in the Bigger Pockets
0:38.1	forms, and his question is, I'm new to real estate investing and just finished reading
0:41.6	Brandon Turner's book on investing with no money down. I found myself particularly interested
0:47.3	in multifamily properties, but I'm struggling to grasp what exactly defines a quote-unquote good
0:53.3	deal. When evaluating listing, should I
0:56.1	primarily focus on properties that seem undervalued? Are there specific market indicators
1:00.9	or property traits that I should be paying attention to? I feel like I'm missing the bigger
1:05.3	picture of what makes a property a great investment. If anyone can share some points or
1:09.6	insights on how to identify a good
1:11.2	deal, I would appreciate it. This is a really good question, right? Like, just how do we know if a deal
1:15.6	is a good deal? And, you know, he asked like a few different data points that he should be
1:20.4	considering, right? You know, property trades or, you know, the value of the property. And I think
1:25.9	the first thing that I'll say is that a good deal to me
1:28.8	could be a bad deal to you and vice versa. And what Ashley looks at as a good deal could be a bad
1:36.6	deal to me. And part of that is because we all invest for different reasons. We all invest
1:43.5	with different inherent skills. and we all invest with different
	...

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