Real Estate Agent - Specific to Investors?

[Jon Del Duca]

Hello BiggerPockets Forum, 

This is my first ever forum post. After living at my mother-in-laws and amassing a sizeable savings, I am willing and able to begin the process of my first purchase. I have read several resources, including books written by BiggerPockets, the forums, articles, etc., which have given me the benefit of understanding concepts, which I will now seek to employ. 

The first purchase, to me, will serve as a stepping stone and I want to make wise decisions. As a background, I am looking for either a single-family home, which requires a bit of rehab work that I can perform over a period of a few years, OR a duplex. In either scenario, I feel that I would benefit. In the single-family home scenario, I could create some forced appreciation validating higher rents, and could do a cash out refinance to invest in the next property. With the duplex option, I would at least hope to have the the tenant cover the majority of the mortgage payment, enabling me to save enough during the time living in the duplex to invest in another property, move out to that property, and have an income producing property that cash flows at the end of the day. This all assumes low crime, decent taxes (by NJ standards), decent school system, etc.

With this idea, I am unsure where to go next in terms of finding a real estate agent/broker. I know it is imperative to have a good real estate agent in your corner, and I reached out to someone from Redfin (my friend mentioned that they are paid salary, which reduces conflicts of interest). I am wondering whether this was a good idea (we have a call on Thursday), or if should find someone who specializes in the area of real estate investing in the area I'm interested in. With a general real estate agent, I'm curious as to whether they'll understand these objectives/concepts and would want to work with someone like me - I'd like to make sure its not a waste of time for both of us. I don't have any real estate connections with people in the area I'm interested in, so any insight or sharing your own experiences would be greatly appreciated!