How do I start to talk to real estate agents in my area?

[William Kelly]

Below is the email I have sent to 3 different real estate agents to see what they say. None of them have responded to me and it's been almost 2 days. Am I being too upfront? Do they know I'm inexperienced? Please help me critique what I should do or How I say things. Anything will help thanks. (Granite at this moment I am out of town so I found these point of contacts online in my area and have emailed them) I will be back in town in 2 weeks to hopefully meet with them. ACTUAL EMAIL: I have sent you the criteria that I am looking for and was hoping there is some way you can setup automatic updates. I have a few questions that I'm hoping you can answer. 1. Can you set me up with automatic alerts so that whenever homes in my criteria comes up I get an automatic email? 2. Do you have a comp spreadsheet of all types of homes so that I will be able to come up with an ARV on my own and not have to bother you with looking up comps? 3. If so I will be back state side in two weeks and was wondering if you could show me fairly quickly how to read comps and compare using the spreadsheet/data. 4. What other good options besides the VA loan are available? 5. Do I need a pre approval letter before we sit down and make offers on properties? I am looking to purchase my first investment property within the next 90 days as long as all the numbers work. Here is the criteria of the homes I am currently seeking for. Town: Hope mills/Fayetteville (the good parts) Neighborhood: Any with a great amount of potential Property Size: 800sqft-1400sqft Lot Size: Any Property Conditions: Ready to rent/Light rehab Number of Units: SFH/Duplex/Triplex/4-Plex Cap Rate: 12% Price Range: 30k-100k A little background about me: I have lived in Fayetteville for the past 5 years and am actively seeking to get invested in real estate. My goal is to obtain a property in the next 90 days as long as the numbers seem fitting. This will be my first purchase and I plan on purchasing more in the future. I am military so I have access to the VA loan. Although I am still learning the ropes I have done my homework on real estate investing. I look forward to listening to your sound advice on what you think I should do. I will have to finance the property so I am hoping you can show me the best route. I look forward to sitting down with you in a couple weeks to discuss further. Very respectfully,

[David Hanson]

As an agent myself, when a young person approaches me with an email like this I will follow up, but I am not excited. This sounds like someone that just went to one of those free seminars on how to invest in real estate and they are excited but don't really know what they are doing.
No offense of course, but as a realtor this sounds like a headache.
Realtors want buyers that are serious!
They want to know your property credentials, timeline, price point, features, and must haves. Unless you have cash I would strongly recommend you speak with a good lender and then ask your realtor to recommend their lender of choice to you and speak with them too. When purchasing a car you always shop around for the best deal and compare prices. All realtors have lenders in their back pocket that they recommend to all their clients. This is because they have great rates, are easy to get a hold of, and have a strong relationship with the realtor. A realtor has general knowledge on lending options for you in his area but these are lender questions and a good agent will give you some questions to ask your lender then refer you to them. When making an offer a preapproval or prequal letter is huge. At least in my market where it's a big time sellers market. You need to move fast and have all of your ducks in a row.
I would avoid mentioning cap rate and investment.
I would say something like, "I am looking to purchase ANOTHER rental property in the area.
Even if it's your first. You can ask any questions that you think are dumb questions on here and not in your initial emails to your realtor. In business you always dress for the job you want and not the job you have. You talk like you are already in the job you want and not the job you have. So you use words like we instead of I and another instead of first.
Have a realtor pull comps for certain neighborhoods that you are interested in around the price range that you want. We can definitely set you up on auto email alerts but we can't specify on light renovation or cap rates. And running cap rates on every property takes a lot of valuable time, but you should run the cap rates on every property we send you to get better at it and you will start to learn the areas better this way. So when we are out looking at 5 properties together you can start knowing in your head these figures. Practice makes perfect.
Realtors love experienced investors but experienced agents try to avoid shiny new investors because they are a lot of work. But if the agent is good and has experience with rentals and investment property than they can usually coach you along and help you get your first hoping you will list it with them and buy your next with them. Hope this helps.