Working with the right realtor

You are absolutely right. The realtor should do what is asked to do. I am in the process to find another, she was overhelmed with 9 offers a day. I guess she does not want to make money.

Robert,

Your (former) RE Agt is partially right; you 'get paid' when you sell, but as an Investor you make money 'when you buy' {a property right}.

How many properties were you looking at with your RE Agent? Were you looking at the properties BEFORE you put in your offers? That just might burn out an Agent. Dean's method is to put our offers, and then to only look (i.e. inspect as part of your due diligence) at properties where you are essentially 'in contract'.

Now to be sure, make sure you have at least one (1) good contingency to allow you to get out of the contract in a reasonable amount of time if you find something out about the property that you cannot resolve through additional negotiations with the Seller (e.g. the Seller indicated the property only needed interior painting and upon your inspection you find it needs paint, flooring and has foundation issues).

At this point I would try to re-negotiate a lower price with the Seller based upon the necessary repairs. If the Seller won't accept, then you use your Contingency and back out of the contract during the allotted time and everyone goes their separate ways; no harm, no foul.

So in this scenario you might put in 25 offers, get 2 or 3 accepted, go inspect all 3 right away within the allotted time, re-negotiate where you can and then close on the best of the deals backing out on the others (*IF* you cannot handle 3 deals at one time). This way you are putting in 25 offers (maybe 5 a day??), and only actually inspecting 3 properties a week (all in the same day??). That shouldn't be too much of a burden on a decent RE Agt, I would think.

Does this sound reasonable Robert?? Good luck. I fully understand that finding a decent RE Agt can be tough; been through a few myself.

--Walter

If it is to be, it is up to me. -unk

Here are a couple of tips to get agents to work with you (not for you!!!!)

1. Don't tell them you will be assigning contracts.
2. Don't tell them you use the 25 to 1 strategy.
3. Don't ask them for Buyers. This lets them know your strategy and that you don't already have the where with-all to close.
4. Don't make silly offers at a percentage off list on non investor properties. Offering low ball offers on properties that are move in ready usually does not work.
5. Don't lie, just don't reveal TMI!!!!!
6. Think, present yourself and operate like an entrepreneur. Not a clone!

I guarantee I could have any of you working with at least 4 agents in two weeks. Then as you go you have to "train" your agents most of the time. Once you have done a deal or two, you can ask them for anything and let them know your exit strategies in advance. They won't get rid of you at this point because you have PRODUCED!!

Remember, with most people that work for a living, talk is cheap. Only producing matters. They don't get paid to train US!!

So think outside the box and put yourself in the agents shoes. Think what you would want to see and hear from some one that says they are an "investor". What would make you want to work with an investor. Some one that says work with me, I'll make you a ton of money and then puts out 25 ridiculous offers?

Michael Mangham
Mentoring/Team Building Nationwide
MD Home Acquisitions LLC

Thank you Michael.

This is good information. We were careful not to reveal our exit strategy of starting with wholesaling, however when she asked about offers being lower than she expected we got the impression that she had not worked with investors or at the very least only those who were buying and holding only.

How would you handle a situation when they tell you your offer needs to be within $20,000 of asking price? Since these would have been our first deals we were following the offer range of the buyers we have. We also were told that you do not subtract the repairs needed from the FMV. That it is just your cost of doing business. Any thoughts?

Robert

We found a few great investor friendly realtors at our meetup.com meeting and on trulia.com. Hope this helps.

Thank you for your great response. We are members of our local investment club and the realtors we have met there are still very much old school, but maybe we just missed the ones that work well with wholesaling investors.

We are new investors in taking action but not to the vocabulary. We are looking to begin wholesaling and eventually buy, fix and hold. Do you any suggestions of increasing the flow of properties that make sense to invest in? We would love to hear from you.
Robert

I do this all the time and have my students do this. I tell the agent if they show me how I will make money I will offer what they suggest. Let them work the numbers. They will come up with some silly number. I then tell them I will have x amount of remodel cost, commissions, closing costs etc. SURE this is a cost of doing business but I have to make money after all expenses. My cost of doing business still has to allow me to make a profit. Even the most stubborn retail owner/occupant sellers agent will have a light go off. They may not want to work in our arena but at least they will understand. This is how YOU control the conversation with your agent. Not them running all over you. My best agents, I had to teach this way. Now THEY come with accurate offer numbers!! They also know that some deals will NEVER go to an investor. I don't offer on those. I DON"T OFFER ON PROPERTIES THAT WILL GO TO AN OWNER/OCCUPANT!!

What if the seller only has $25,000 in equity and the agent tells you they won't take any more than a $20,000 reduction. Is that agent a idiot that knows nothing? Or is that a property your offer WILL NOT work on? If the property is bank owned and the asset manager tells the listing agent they WILL NOT take any less than $20,000 off their price is your agent an idiot?
Make your offer, track it, resubmit it and in time the bank MAY get motivated. The seller with $25,000 in equity will not reduce his price. This is a deal that won't work as a wholesale or fix/flip. Move on!! If the seller does not need or want to cash out and will take payments it could be a L/O.

Michael Mangham
Mentoring/Team Building Nationwide
MD Home Acquisitions LLC

This site is packed with realtors, what's your experience with working with them?

I'm about to start working with another realtor. So far every realtor I have tried has not worked out and I haven't even made many offers. They send me listings I ask for comps, then to look at the some of the properties. Some of them I have told I'm looking for properties for cash buyers other i didn't and said I wanted to buy fix and flip. Ive had realtors wanting to work with me then speak to there brokers and told not work with me that it wont work. This last one I was sure was gonna be awesome, we sat down and made a contract with 25days my due diligence and everything and then every time I try to contact her its a week before I get a response.
I, not gonna give up though I guess its like Dean says Im learning what not to do or say next time.

Well good luck

I decided to make it my goal to find the right one. We have had practice looking at properties, writing offers, putting in counter-offers and applying the step of determining repairs. All these items will work in our favor as we get closer to our first deal. We have put in 23 offers and we know the success is right around the corner. We will not stop and we can not be defeated. Thanks for your well wishes and see you at the success top!

Find Investor-friendly realtors, preferably ones that are investors themselves.
You will find them at REI club meetings. Interview 100 of them if you must.
Till you find one who 'gets it.'
Check out how Matt Larson interviewed his potential agents when he first started.
Refer to Dean's books.

If it's true that for every 20 "NOs" you get 1 "YES" then...
1 out of 20, 2 out of 40, 3 out of 60, 4 out 80, 5 out of 100 = 5 REAs

Make a list, have a plan, and call them! Matt has a script to follow.
Remember you're a cash investor looking to buy a lot of properties to make $20-25K per deal...not someone with no money.

PS. Parallel to this: Fill up your investor/buyers "bucket" then you will have the money to do the deals.