Agents not working diligently??

[Arlu Tejada]

Hey everyone.
Right now, I am currently throwing as much spaghetti offers on properties that I have pre-qualified as a good investment. Now, I'm starting to have a problem. Some of the listing agents that I talk to are pre-judging my offers.
They say "Oh this offers too low, the banks not going to accept this." or "we can't do assignments"
I had a couple of stubborn agents that have said that to me and my answer was simply, "Hey look, I am a real estate investor. I throw 30-40 offers like these all the time. What I need you to do is I need you to Send my offers to the bank and not pre-qualify them. The acceptance is not up to you. I hope you can work with that." Idk. If i was being rude or unprofessional, but the agent stopped emailing me. (or at least stalling). And I know that the "assignment clause" is definitely negotiable. Is it not?

My question is... Should I send all my offers on different houses directly through the listing agent or no?? Also, Am I making them work too much Because When I call, I tell them what I do (Investor) and what I do with the properties. I also ask them to email me more pictures, sold comparables, the story of the property and what needs to be done(rehab).
Now Am I asking too much??? Prior to offering/getting the property under contract??

[Jon Holdman]

This is a hands on business. I know some people invest out of their area, but they don't do it hands off like this.

You learn the values in an area by looking inside and out at 100 houses. You drive up and down every street. You look at the houses, the folks walking around, the streets, the stores. There's no shortcut.

Get out from behind the computer and get out in the real world. I've heard claims of doing "virtual wholesaling" and no doubt there are a few people who actually do it. But IMHO, its all BS.

What if the house looks find and seem like a good deal, but the house next door is a crack house? Are you going to have the listing agent take pictures of the house next door? All up and down the street? I can guarantee if you ask the agent to do this your offers are going in the trash.

If you're determined to do this, pick a city and get on a plane. Go there, spend a week getting hands on. Learn the values. Look at houses. Meet people. Find some people you can trust. Don't think you can find people you can trust in a week? Maybe not, but more likely than finding them by email and phone.

Find someone who can be your hands on person. Pay them. Pay them to go take pictures and talk to you on the phone about the properties. Pay them to get contractors to give you estimates.

What are you going to do if you get an accepted offer? Without someone local, you have no place but to buy a short notice ticket and fly there.

If this is in driving distance, its much easier, but the same advice applies.

If you really want a very hands off approach, then find someone who sells turnkey investments in the area. You won't get a great deal, because you're paying for all the local work in the price of the property. But you may be able to find a good deal. And probably a better deal than you're going to find the way you're going.

Its only a matter of time before someone figures out what you're trying to do and really screws you. They send you pictures of a nice house, when the one you're trying to buy is a dump. They feed you some cherry picked comps. You buy a deal only to discover you're stuck with a house at a horrible price and they've gotten rid of a crap deal.