Picking a Real Estate Agent

[Toni Annis]

How do you pick a Real Estate Agent? There are a lot of agents in my area but I have no idea which ones are investing savvy. I have my suspicions based on my online research and what little bit of interactions I have had but I don't know for sure. I am looking at buying another property in the new future and it looks like I might be on a time crunch with a potential 1031 exchange so I'm trying to get a jump start and looking at my options now. Do I...

A.) Find the properties on my own and just call the listing agents?

B.) Pick an agent and just hope I pick the right one. OR...

C.) Type up an email explaining our goals, strategies, and property criteria to send to the ones I think are investor friendly and know about property analysis and see who responds and what they bring me?

Also, if I do hire a buyers agent but then find a FSBO property do I still need to use my agent or can I go forward on my own with such a property.

If there are any investors on here from Casper, WY, or the surrounding areas, that knows anything about the real estate professionals in our area (agents, Lawyers, CPA's, etc...) I would love to talk to you and get your input!

[Jennifer Beadles]

@Toni Annis finding investor savvy agents is really difficult. I've had to personally interview a ton of agents when I was building my out of state investment teams and it took a ton of time. I found a few tactics that seemed to work the best:

1. I called property managers and asked which agent they work with the most that is also investor friendly - this seemed to work the best in multiple areas

2. Biggerpockets has been good for finding agents too, I always ask them to send me the last great deal they found to see if they really know how to find deals. This weeds out a lot

3. Asking hard money lenders works well too, especially the ones that do BRRR financing. Most all hard money lenders have good agents that they work with to refer you

4. Once I find an agent I ask them questions to see if they have a good idea of rental rates, how many investment properties they've sold in the last year (if they go quiet or say none they're not an investment type agent) and then an example of the last deal they found. 

Hope this helps, I don't know anyone in your area but I'm sure there are good ones out there.