This seems obvious – you let all the estate agents know what you’re looking for, you might give some business cards out or post leaflets through doors, perhaps even place an advert in the local paper – all good proactive things to do.
It’s proactive but fairly passive. What will set you apart from the competition is your ability to see a potential deal, package up a strategy & proposal and present it. There is always something else you can be doing to progress your plans or to push a deal forward, when you feel like you are ‘waiting’ you have gone passive again – think “what’s the best thing I can be doing right this minute to either find new deals or progress existing ones to a profitable conclusion?”
When you are not resting or in your leisure time you should be pushing forward, never be waiting for the phone to ring, always alert for potential deals. Look around your area for opportunities; rundown buildings, pieces of overgrown land, unused warehouses, new developments where you might buy near to piggy-back the improvement to the area, local & regional government planning policies which could indicate medium & long term value growth, businesses opening up or closing down – look at everything that can affect your area for good or bad, then think hard how you can benefit from it.
Come up with some bright ideas, casually try them out by talking vaguely to other people to see reactions, visit agents, visit the planning department, talk to architects and surveyors - all the time probing for clues.
Be totally in charge Of your destiny, take control and drive forward
TASK OF THE DAY - Find a map of the location(s) you intend to work in https://www.google.com/maps , identify the various types of properties there are and the "good, bad & ugly" locations. Then start looking at the history of values in the areas you will target & identify/find out what will affect prices going forward.