James’s Exact Criteria for Finding High-Return, Overlooked Deals in 2026

On The Market

BiggerPockets

Investing, Education, Business, News

4.8 • 859 Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

More and more Americans are feeling confused about the housing market. Home prices are coming down, and mortgage rates are jumping back up. One day, everyone wants one type of property; the next, it’s being sold at a discount. If you get stuck in the herd mentality, you’ll miss what’s right in front of your eyes—profitable real estate deals 99% of investors are passing over. Don’t believe us? Today, the most active investor we know, James Dainard, is sharing how he’s scoring a 95% projected return real estate deal, found in May 2026 (that’s right!). James does more deals than anyone we know, making him the perfect person to give his take on how to win in this housing market. In James’s view, investors are overlooking many solid real estate deals—and this is where the real money is made. But how do you find opportunities when the market changes every few weeks? James breaks down exactly what he does to find the hidden gems that turn into outsized returns—including one with a huge potential payoff. In This Episode We Cover How to find real estate deals even in a quickly changing housing market Buy what others ignore: the profitable properties most investors are sleeping on Ask your real estate agent/broker THIS to spot the hidden gems in your market How James turned a sub-par renovation project into a 95% projected return house flip The vendors you need to get in contact with now to be ready to strike And So Much More! Links from the Show Join the Future of Real Estate Investing with Fundrise Join BiggerPockets for FREE Join us at the BiggerPockets Conference October 2-4 in Orlando. Buy tickets Sign Up for the On the Market Newsletter Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area BiggerPockets Real Estate 1278 - Homes Sit on Market for Longest in Years | May 2026 Housing Market Update Dave's BiggerPockets Profile James' BiggerPockets Profile Grab James’ Book, The House Flipping Framework Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/on-the-market-428. Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	How do you spot deals in a confusing market?
0:03.2	How do you find opportunity when there's a lot of negative sentiment about real estate?
0:09.8	These are the questions that every investor is asking themselves right now.
0:14.0	And today on the show, we're going to help you answer it.
0:17.4	If you listen to the show, you already know James Dainard.
0:20.7	He's a regular on our panel
0:22.4	episodes, a friend of mine, and one of the most active operators I know he's done pretty much
0:28.5	every kind of investing there is. And when the market is shifting, he's one of the people I turn to.
0:34.5	I always want to hear what he's seeing on the graph, not just in the data,
0:39.8	but in the real deals he's doing, the real negotiations he's doing, and the real numbers that
0:45.4	he's earning. I'm Dave Meyer, and today on the market, James is back for an open check-in on
0:51.5	the housing market, his portfolio, and how he spots opportunities that no one
0:57.6	else sees. And he's also going to teach all of us how you can do the exact same thing.
1:04.3	This is on the market. Let's get to it.
1:15.3	You know, James has obviously been co-hosts the show forever.
1:17.7	Four years now we've been doing this show.
1:19.7	But there are new people listening all the time.
1:23.6	So can you just give us a little bit of background on yourself and your involvement in real estate before we start talking about our topic for today, which is going to be about
1:27.0	how you're navigating the current market. But tell us about your history.
1:31.3	My partner, Will Heaton and I, we've been full-time real estate investors since 2005.
1:36.2	You know, I got in the business when I was in college, started wholesaling.
1:39.9	Then we started flipping throughout the recession.
	...

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