Learning the agent/investor relationship

[Tyler French]

First as newbie, I have to say I am still blown away and so very grateful for biggerpockets and the endless insight and valuable information I have learned in my few months of scouring the forums/content.  

I recently moved forward with my search for my first multifamily property. The agent i am working with has not worked with investment properties, and so we are finding our way in terms of the process.

As we are both fairly new to this, I want to make sure my expectations are reasonable for it to be successful while also being reasonable for their time. A few things I ran into that I wanted your thoughts:

1. We had a upfront conversation regarding how since I will be aiming to offer 20% below ARV that we would be probably going through multiple offers before closing one. But I'm still curious what do you feel is too many showings/offers for it to be worth an agents time? (Acknowledging that is a blanket question)

2. At what point do usually ask for your agent to provide you with estimated market value on property? We have an MLS setup with criteria, and using the steps i learned here the plan had been to get as many of the key numbers crunched (cash flow, cash flow per unit, estimated offer price,etc) prior to asking for a showing, and just use the showing to confirm repair costs,etc. When i had asked them the estimated market value to finish my analysis, they expressed concern that what was doing might be too much work upfront, and I should get into detail of comps after the showing.

I understand these things depends partially on the relationship of each investor/agent, but i just want to have clear reasonable expectations set for us as we move through this.

Thanks!

[Tyler French]

@Jay Helms Your post was very helpful.  Before reading i actually didn't realize some investors do have their agent analyze potential properties beforehand. Your point about "batting practice" is what hit home for me, as the most valuable thing about this first purchase (besides the investment) has been simply learning to analyze properties myself. 

@Charlie MacPherson - I've been struggling to understand that happy medium in terms of offers but your explanation makes perfect sense regarding understanding the market. In the few properties I have reviewed I have seen it looks like they have been going 10% below list price. From my research, I was planning on always offering 20% below list price again assuming list price is close to market value. If that leads to 500 offers rejected because it is so far out of ballpark for the market it will be not worth my agent's time. I should find a % that still sits well with my investment strategy but close enough to the average to make the effort reasonable for them as well.

Here are the responsibilities i have my agent currently involved with:

1. Set up MLS listing: I think fairly low effort/easily maintained as it has only been changed as our search criteria becomes more refined.

2. Establish value through comps: Where the debate originated. I had been asking for comps prior to a showing to apply the 20% below ARV to my analysis & develop an offer price that could be immediate ready afterwards. I think this may be a new approach for them as they are used to showing and digging deeper afterwards.

3. Setup showings: This is one area I am most concerned with in terms of how diminishing returns from an agent perspective. Granted of the 50 or so I've reviewed we've only visited a few properties thus far. But this seems to be where I would take up the most amount of an agents time besides the offers themselves. 

4. Writing offers: I am going to make sure I review the average % of list price and have a discussion on our approach going forward.