Should I get another Real Estate Agent?

[Olga Merino]

I've been wanting to invest in Real Estate for a couple of months. I've been listening to the podcasts, and reading articles here in BP while looking and learning more about my market.

At the same time, I contacted the real estate agent that helped my parents started out in real estate investing to see how she could help me. She signed me up for an automatic listing and she also helped me get pre approved for an FHA loan so I can house hack my first investment.

She helped out a lot at the beginning, but when I started to find deals on my own through realtor.com or driving for dollars, something change. She wouldn't reply in a timely matter, and when she did, She would reply I wouldn't qualify for the property under an FHA loan or that it was already contracted .

I feel she's becoming a rock on the road and not really helping anymore to keep moving forward and start making offers or find good deals.

Should I find another realtor that will help me ? Since she helped me get pre-approved with someone she knew, would I need to get another bank to pre-approve me?

[Bill Plymouth]

You wouldn’t HAVE to get pre approved again, but a realtor may ask you to get pre approved again with a lender that they have worked with before.  

To be fair, some owners won't take FHA loans due to their restrictions. Realtor.com and Zillow are also not always updated in a timely manner so you may see them on Zillow or realtor.com as for sale, but they truly may already be under contract.

Most realtors won’t go actively searching for off market deals for their investors.  They will put them on an auto-e-mail list and wait until you see a property that you like.  Most realtors also aren’t “investor friendly”.  They don’t know how to properly analyze a deal.  They leave analyzing to their investor clients and they just negotiate and handle paperwork.  

I would suggest having a conversation with her expressing exactly what your needs are and ask exactly how she can help.  If after that conversation you still don’t feel like she’s the right choice, then move on.