Real Estate Agent Tips for Successfully Working with Investors

[Joseph Scorese]

Real Estate Agent Tips for Successfully Working with Investors
When you look at your target market, do you include investors in the mix? You should.

Working with real estate investors in ongoing business relationships can help you create a steady stream of income without incurring the marketing costs typically associated with customer acquisition. Why? Because successful investors tend to buy and sell multiple properties over the course of a year – and will often work with the same real estate professional on every one of those deals from the purchase through the resale.

Consider some of these tips:
1. Learn the Language. Investors speak an entirely different dialect than the average homebuyer. You do not need to be an expert on these terms in order to work with investors, but you should be conversant.

2. Be an Insider. There are hundreds of real estate investor groups across the country. Most of these groups welcome real estate professionals as members. Joining one of these groups is a great way to find prospective clients, and to learn what investors in your area are looking for in your Market.

3. Understand their Objectives. Unlike traditional homebuyers, investors aren’t looking for places to live or to raise their families – they’re looking for properties they can use to make a profit. So your approach to securing their business shouldn’t be the same as your pitch to those traditional buyers and sellers. You need to understand your client’s investment strategy:

* Buy, fix and flip?
* Buy at wholesale and sell to another investor?
* Buy, rehab and rent?

Know the investment horizon: Is this a long-term hold with a 5-7 year profit window, or does the investor need to sell this property before buying the next one? The more you know about your investor’s objectives, the more useful you can be in tailoring your efforts to help achieve them.

4. Do Your Homework. Once you understand the objectives, your skills as a local market expert come into play;

* Where are the best rental opportunities?
*Which neighborhoods are ‘hot’ right now for sales?
* Where are new jobs being created or new schools being built?

Help identify those opportunities, and present properties for your investor to consider purchasing to take advantage of market conditions.