Help!! Angle in finding a real estate agent to start ASSIGNMENT deals

After looking back for me & what I highly recommend, since I've been through 5 Realtors in the past 10 months is, only use a Realtor who invests themselves & attends REI meetings on a regular basis.
Also, assigning REO's is the hardest route. It can be done, but very few banks accept an assignment.
The easiest properties to assign are through property owners direct.
Key properties are abandon boarded up homes, not bank owned. On these homes you don't need proof of funds & have all these rules.
Going the Realtor route can be difficult, unless you can submit 10 offers a week and re-submit those offers every month. But what I've experienced is, after a month, you start burning your Realtor out if nothing has landed yet. Therefore, having Private Money or Hard Money is key when using a Realtor.
Hope that helps, I'm trying to save you a long road of road blocks.
Go find 30-50 boarded up homes in a month and find the Homeowner, you will have a couple deals right there. Per my Mentor...

Thank you Jason! I appreciate it. Will do on the vacant homes!!

Off to hunt some hard money down

Thanks again for the advice!
Louisa

and said she's an investor and we're meeting tomorrow. Still a bit nervous.

But I'm hopeful she'll see my confidence, and I'm gathering my hard money lender list. I do plan to submit that many offers each week (1o-25 per Matt's 25:1 system), and don't want to burn anyone out, but I'm thinking, just as Matt mentioned you don't have to look at all the houses, just the ones that accept your offers, if you make them contingent upon walk-through, etc...

Matt mentioned it takes his Realtor about an hour a week to submit all the offers, an her assistant actually does the searches for properties....so my goal is to not waste anyone's time, but rather work like this utilizing some automatic searches, and verbal and/or email offers ---cash only (as I find the lenders).

Totally appreciate the advice as I dont' want to burn anyone out! Jason, or anyone out there, have you tried the approach of making lower offers, and not looking at the properties until the offer has been accepted?

I'm trying to also go with the "find the deals and money will follow" and hoping that will be the case! Any thoughts?

As for locking up a deal and the money will follow, Yes it will if the numbers make since. Most Cash Buyers are looking for 65% of the ARV. In San Diego there going up to 70% and higher. So make sure you get properties low enough to be able to assign.
I have not landed a deal through a Realtor without having the financing in place. I have about 70 offers out in the past few months. One problem for me is Buyers in San Diego are going way above there maximum offer & Inventory is low right now. If you do decide to go the Realtor route, you should only be placing offers on properties that are listed 20% below the median price for that area & needs excessive repairs. This way you have a chance of getting that 60% offer accepted. ie, 200k arv x.60=120k - 10k repairs= Max offer of 110k Cash Endbuyer will pay 120k using 65%.

I SOOO appreciate this! Yes, my plan is to make these offers low enough like you mentioned for those types of properties. Thank you for being so specific...that helps me present to the Realtor tomorrow.

Here in Nashville there are actually a lot of opportunities (or so it seems with my daily browsing of the properties out there...I have a spreadsheet going). It seems there is a lot of inventory out here with a competitive wholesale price already (completely keeping in mind the exact percentages you are saying as I've followed that from the book too).

Interesting that you have not had a deal through a Realtor without having financing. It does make absolute sense to me.

So Jason (and/or anyone else!) in going about it, you have had a hard money lender, and his/her specific needs, and then gone to your Realtor and said, this is specifically what we need to find, and I have a person who will close on this property to do an assignment? Is that how you presented it?

What I'm not getting is that people....i.e. Anita mentioned she signs her name,then AND/OR ASSIGNS on every contract for every deal, whether she is the one purchasing it or not....she wants to have that option. I'm sure there has been a trust established with her Realtor which is absolutely awesome. This is my goal!! Just gotta get my foot in the door.

AHHH!!! I am so excited to get all this rolling!! I have all the motivation and discipline in the world to stay at this...I just can't read this entire site fast enough!!

Today, I got a Tweet from T. Harv Ecker's auto-Tweets that said "The only time you are actually growing is when you are uncomfortable." Good timing. Let me tell you, I don't have a fear about talking to anyone or asking any question, but if you look at that letter in "Profit from Real Estate Right Now" from Matt to real estate agents, and you send it out like I did actually stating the ambitious "buying houses" goals you have, and someone calls you to meet...I am definitely uncomfortable! But I guess this just raises the bar for me to study up more for my meeting....keep that "uncomfortable" feeling coming...I'm OK with it. I know I'm getting somewhere!

Jason, thanks for all your honesty with your experience...it really gives me a good perspective walking into the meeting tomorrow, to get my facts and figures straight. I definitely want to be upfront with this strategy, and since the Realtor is an investor too, in our market here in Nashville, I think she could only see that this strategy is worth trying, knowing that the list of properties I have personally seen out there is large enough! I'm hopeful and thinking positive that it can be a win-win for us both if it is the right relationship!!!

Jason,

I just did a search and found a blog on this site finding vacant homes like you mentioned. I will go this route!

My thought is, I still plan to present everything to the Realtor tomorrow. I just want the network connection there if it happens to be the right fit.

I'll also plan to go find vacant homes and look up the records and send letters, etc... If I can lock up several of these deals, I believe I will find more hard money lenders this way too, and therefore, will have more to bring to the table with a Realtor. However, I'm going to try a simultaneous effort (if the Realtor will partner with me). I definitely see how vacant homes are a way to go!

I'm also very interested in sandwich leases, so we'll see where this will all go....just wanted to thank you again for the vacant homes tip!
Louisa

My mentor keeps telling me how important it is to follow up on your offers every month and in the 3rd month your offer will get accepted if the property is still available. Once again, you have to have a Realtor to see that vision. My Realtors couldn't keep up. This last one I had went the longest "6 weeks"
If you get a system down with your Realtor & be upfront that you are going to have a lot of offers going out, it will work. So 10 a week & resubmit every month, if the property is still there, plus the additional 10 new offers.
Your hiring them & absolutely need this done, or you don't want to work with them. GOOD LUCK...

Very helpful...gotcha! Thank you Jason. I meet with her in an hour, and I'm so glad to have read this first!

We'll see how it goes...like you said, I don't need this one...I could interview 5 or 10 more. But since she did respond to my email (which was pretty intense, if I do say so myself!), then I'm hopeful she is up to the task. I did not leave much to the imagination in terms of work, amount of offers, and at the end of the day, closing on houses regularly. I've got some things in the works developing my buyers list.

The continued "follow up" offer is something I hadn't thought about other than REO's ....SUPER HELPFUL!!

Thank you Jason!!!
Louisa

When you use the strategy your talking about, and resubmit on the available properties, are you changing your offer at all, or just submitting the same offer you submitted the month before? Thanks

Cathy

Same offer, unless prices are dropping dramatically.
As for the follow up system, most Investors fail to do this.

Just a thought on resubmission of offers: A seller's motivation can change on a daily basis. When resubmitting the offer the market and the property could indicate whether you should submit the same offer, a lower offer, or a higher offer. In most cases, however, I would consider submitting the same offer or a slightly lower offer. Especially with REOs, banks get motivated every 30 days that tick away with their units being unsold. Most of the time the banks want to make sure that this is actually "your best and final" offer. Good luck to everyone on their deals. Believe and Achieve! - Joe

Cathy, Joe and Jason ----thanks for the questions on feedback on offers placed, follow up offers, etc... All very good to know moving forward!

So my meeting with the agent went surprisingly well...I just went in with low expectations as you mentioned Jason 'I don't need this one', so I was pleasantly surprised when as it turns out, this actually may be the right one!

I spoke about burn out, and getting a system and routine in place that would make this be seamless long term. I have broken my goals down from annually to 6 months to 3 months to one month to weekly to daily, so when she opened up and said she does this with herself and her team to meet her clients needs (without my prompting or mentioning of this), I was very impressed with her strategy and goal-setting and that we were on the same page. She is very direct. I like that.

**She has been investing since she was 20, and gets it.
**Open to doing assignments/wholesaling.
**Is in the process of 2 double-closings.
**Has not previously or currently partnered with another investor consistently making offers like I am presenting.
**Has 2 assistants that are licensed real estate agents, and an automated offer system that would make 10 offers a week go smoothly.
**We talked about her assistants putting daily searches on the MLS that she could email to me, I could review, I could put down offer prices, and she could do the due diligence and make offers if it made sense.

The "if it made sense" part ----I spent a while on this. She didn't mind low balling as long as we could close quickly with a cash buyer. But if it didn't make sense in her due diligence, she didn't want to offer. So we talked about this a bit...Because as you mentioned Jason, we're talking about 60-65% ARV. Matt Larson mentioned he and/or his agent or her assistant doesn't waste time on due diligence looking up tax records and spread on sale price/current loans etc...because it's just 25:1, and spending that kind of time on one that may not accept, isn't worth it ---it's better to throw it at the wall and then spend the time on the property that wants to accept/negotiate with that kind of offer. But this agents' goal is to get a good ratio of acceptance to offers, and if I select 20 properties a week, put down 60-65% ARV as our offer price, she wants to do due diligence (or have her assistants do this), and hopefully offer 10 of them, but maybe only offer 7 of them that prove with a higher chance of accepting.

I realize that one meeting doesn't determine how it will realistically go, but I do get a good gut feeling. My only downside is I'm not sure about the due diligence factor. I see she likes to work smart, but I see both sides (random approach with less work and less accepting and due diligence approach with less offers and more accepting). But I'm willing to give a try in this market with selecting 20 a week and finding out what kind of ratio she's willing to put offers out to once she does the due diligence....it may end up working out just fine. I'm definitely trying to avoid burnout and I reiterated it several times.

Any thoughts on this property due diligence Jason, Joe, or anyone else who has made significant number of offers through an agent? With her two licensed assistant, the workload won't be too much if she can get her closings up long term. She likes to close 4 a month. I hope she'll continue to close 4 and add my 2 a month. That would be my goal!

Obviously my buyers list is paramount at this point, and I'm getting on it! In fact, I won't be working with this or any agent for 3 weeks as I have a vacation worked in there, and in the meantime, will do all I can to develop my buyers list so I'll be ready.

Thanks for any thoughts, advice.
Louisa

Louisa, I love this thread. I am searching for a real estate agent that I can build a lifelong profitable business relationship with and this topic was right on point. I'm going to go back and review that chapter in Profit from RE Right Now. I've been sending out some messages in the online RE groups I'm a part of stating that I am looking for a RE agent and realistically I wouldn't mind sending some letters out as well.

I heard you mention that you sent a letter out and the agent responded. Where were you originally looking when you found her? Thanks for all you insight and God bless you on your journey.