How to find a good real estate agent?

[Gunes K.]

I am a relatively small scale investor from Washington DC and I usually buy condos at class B locations at urban areas at this point in time. I am just trying to build a base structure I can rely on for the next phase. I own 3 properties for now, all cash purchases.

However, I find working with real estate agents is not always the easiest thing. From the start I tell them that I am looking for “investment properties” for “investment purposes” and I have to review a lot of factors as well as numbers instead of just seeing one place and falling in love with it, eyes wide shut.

But I find this analytical approach is a frustrating thing for the real estate agents. They don’t seem to like it. They don’t like to gather numbers for you. They don’t like to find the rental income the location may generate. The just rush rush rush and only try to appeal to the emotional factors, however I am not looking at properties for... ...romance... but for investment purposes only. Apparently the properties should have some good emotional content/emotional appeal so that there will be a solid demand but more often than not, the RE agents are just shortcut people that try to make huge money with the least amount of work.

Also I work as a design engineer but I am being very reasonable. My question is how do you guys handle this issue?