Working with Realtors

[Ashlee Andrews]

Hello community! New investor here. I am looking for my first investment property and I have seen a few with a realtor who happens to be a good friend of mine. I reached out to another realtor because she owns 20 rental properties and her knowledge and experience is what I need especially at the beginning. She agreed to help me along the way and said she will set up properties to walk through. While I was waiting on her to respond to my email (2 weeks ago), my realtor/friend contacted me about a duplex, set up a showing and I put in an offer. I told the investor/realtor about my offer and she became offended and stopped responding to me. I was open with her from the start that I have seen 3 properties already so she knew I was working with someone. My question is; is it frowned upon to work with more than one realtor or is this normal behavior in the real estate world? 

[James Dainard]

Quote from @Ashlee Andrews:

Hello community! New investor here. I am looking for my first investment property and I have seen a few with a realtor who happens to be a good friend of mine. I reached out to another realtor because she owns 20 rental properties and her knowledge and experience is what I need especially at the beginning. She agreed to help me along the way and said she will set up properties to walk through. While I was waiting on her to respond to my email (2 weeks ago), my realtor/friend contacted me about a duplex, set up a showing and I put in an offer. I told the investor/realtor about my offer and she became offended and stopped responding to me. I was open with her from the start that I have seen 3 properties already so she knew I was working with someone. My question is; is it frowned upon to work with more than one realtor or is this normal behavior in the real estate world? 

 Hey Ashlee,

This is a great question and one that comes up every now and then on the forums.

It is totally normal for an investor to work with multiple agents. That being said communication is paramount. You want to make sure that each agent understands what your criteria for buying are as well as what criteria they're responsible for searching.

If you have a ton of overlapping agents you end up creating a ton of extra work that all but one agent don't get paid for.

You want to be very clear that you are ready to purchase and will purchase the deal from the agents that sent it to you first. Be aware that communicating this will weed out agents that already have a large buyer pool may make them walk away but that's ok because you're building your team and want team members who are going to have your best interests in mind!

Hope that helps!