What is Most Important When Choosing a Real Estate Agent?

Question

Welcome to our question of the week! We want to help you build your team so you can be efficient. Today we are talking about agents. What is the most important factor for you when choosing an agent? What are your deal-breakers when selecting someone to work with and why? What do you think is least important? Did you learn these from experience, suggestion by others with experience, or something else? Let's get talking!

Luka Milicevic · Answer

I can tell you as an investor-agent myself, when I represent investors the most important thing to them is my own investment experience. Everything else is secondary.

A regular agent that does retail sales is a completely different profession than an investor agent.

I have access to contractors, real estate attorneys, CPAs, property managers, commercial lenders. All of it. A regular agent has none of that, as they don't need it. I know how to analyze deals because I do deals myself, and I can draw on past experience because I have been there myself.

Amy Raye Rogers · Answer

The most important quality: Answers the phone!

But seriously... speed is the key.  A seasoned investor needs an agent that can act fast, negotiate effectively, and has a quality professional network.  A truly excellent agent will only work with investors who can demonstrate they are ready to take action.

Marc Stevenson · Answer

There is a huge difference between a traditional agent helping you find your forever home and an investor agent.  Knowing the difference is essential.  Learn the difference and the right questions to ask.  Know what investment strategy is right for you and then select an agent that is knowledgeable in that specific strategy.  Investor agents will be knowledgeable in many types of investing/financing strategies.  Happy Investing!

Caroline Gerardo · Answer

Has been in the local market and walked through 80% of the houses on preview, sold 90 units of the product (SFR or units) that I want.

Is respected in the market by other agents who pick up their call because they show in their contacts.

Is honest enough to say, "I don't know but I will find out."

Knows what block is better and why.

A good egg.

Sells real estate as their sole income and passion.

Has a network of handymen, contractors, insurance, CPA's, legal... who do they know that can help me?

Smart, excellent negotiator, great people instincts, communicates the way I want.

It does not matter what car they drive, what they look like, or the bells on the website.

Adam Martin · Answer

Someone already touched on it and the closest I found was full time agent.  I need you to be available to look at houses, sometimes on short notice and nights and weekends in hot markets.  My agent gets a lot of business from just answering his phone and clients are genuinely surprised he either answered or called back in a reasonable time during non business hours.  My agent knows very little about rentals but that is my job.  He can tell me about the area, pull comps, and is my key into the door.  When I'm looking he knows I'm going to potentially want to go out every day until I get a house as long as there are new listings and builds that into his schedule.  On the flip side, I've called him up when we weren't looking but I saw something on Zillow I liked and wanted to see same day.  I got prequalified that morning before calling him and we bought it that afternoon which equaled a quick sale for him.

Trevor Naumann · Answer

IMO the most important aspect of a great investor agent is their network. The more investors they know, help and are servicing the more opportunities they will be able to get in front of you. Obviously they need to know the strategies and the more experience they have with investing themselves the better but its unlikely an agent is practicing all of the strategies. On the other hand, a great agent is going to know flippers, multifamily owners of all sizes, short term rental buyers and more. Not to mention contractors, property managers, handymen. A great investor agent should have off market deals, mentors and more at their fingertips for your benefit.

Derek Criscitiello · Answer

I would agree with much of what is said already.  When looking at properties in this market not all will be a good fit for every investment strategy, most agents won't have a clue about finding those deals for investors. For example right now in Wilmington, it is hard to make a SFH cashflow as opposed to when interest rates were lower.  Multi-family homes are a bit harder to find in this market unless you want to build one yourself.  I enjoy analyzing deals for myself anyway so it makes that much easier to look at deals for investors and make sure they are going to work for them.

Having a list of contacts that can be trusted to do any repair work needed is a huge resource as that alone could be a job to find good subcontractors.  Being a good agent doesn't mean just finding a property for someone, it means being a resource in the community that they can rely on when they need help.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

Meh.

When I'm shopping for something, I'm not going to ask the Agent to crunch the numbers on property for me. I'll give them some guidance on what I'm looking for and cast a wide net, then I'll narrow down my search by crunching the numbers myself.

If an agent has investing experience and is actively investing, there's a chance they would compete with me for a good deal.

Alex Bekeza · Answer

@Alicia Marks Just like with Investor RE agents, I think it's valuable to work with LENDERS who actually own rentals and don't just focus on standard own occ home loans.

You don't want to work with an agent on your rentals who does 99% of their business with first time homebuyers.  Exact same issue with your loan officer.  If they actually invest too then you can bet they view your entire situation differently.  You don't want to work with a master of none.  Hyper specialization is important.

What is Most Important When Choosing a Real Estate Agent?

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