Tips for Real Estate Agents Working with Investors

[Joshua Dorkin]

Hey All --
I wanted to see if we could put together some great tips for real estate agents who want to work with investors. What are your best bits of advice for real estate agents would would want to get more investor clients? What should they know? How can they better serve the investor segment of the market?

[Joel Owens]

Define the type of investor you are wanting to work with and find out what their needs are and where the other broker/agents are failing them.

My niche is on the triple net leasing and multifamily apartment buildings for working with investors. The investors I work with are typically very different from residential investors and transactions. The investors typically have higher net worth and are more sophisticated in their analysis and knowledge levels of analyzing and buying properties.

Start farming properties as a listing broker/agent to control the inventory. If you hold inventory or know of off market deals with your contacts the buyers will seek you out.

Investigate a partnership with an investor just as hard as they are looking at you. Look at how realistic they are, if they have actual funds they control, how many transactions they will conduct each year (book of business for the time invested). No investors shouldn't just be a transaction or a number but have to be quantified for the time and return invested.

My clients do not take offense to the analysis and respect the fact that I value my time as a broker and investor myself for the return I am seeking. I look at a long term relationship and prefer to bring quality deals to a circle of trusted investors I work with. It's better to have an ongoing relationship than one off deals.