What defines an investor friendly real estate agent?

Question

What is the definition of an "investor friendly" real estate agent to you?

As a real estate agent, investors like to ask me if I'm "investor friendly".  I'm curious, what does "investor friendly" mean to you?  What does your preferred real estate agent do for you that makes him/her special?  Thanks for your feedback!

Daria B. · Answer

@Rich Spaulding I like the term investor-centric but all the same. For me, it's an agent that understands I'm not buying the property to live in but to have as a rental. Home buyers look for different things than investors. It also means, for me, the RE agent understands what I'm talking about when I say it has to meet my numbers and can run down the list themselves if need be. I have one that does understand this. This may vary for a lot of people but I think in part there are similarities that we can all agreeupon.

Stanley Parsley · Answer

in my book a real estate agent who is not all about the commission

sayin

they get paid and sometimes they make a little more than there commission depending on the deal

you ever heard the term bread and butter or cream puff agents?

these are folks that just work for commission- so if the property is a 45k property verses the 1.2 m property they work harder on the big commission

I need folks that work just as hard on the 45-95k properties as they would on the 245k properties

that's my book

anyone can fill out a boiler plate contract and can file all the right forms into tittle

some realtors will only mls properties at a certain monetary level- kind of like redlining which is illegal but most of all unethical

it still happens so in my book- a hard working realtor is a person who looks at all avenues of getting the deal done no matter what the circumstances and or the commission base

enjoy

Nick C. · Answer

To many investors being "investor friendly" means you will put in dozens upon dozens of hopeless offers and if one is ever accepted you will resell it at a discounted rate. The thought of an agent expecting to make money from their services is offensive.

The best "investor friendly" agent would be yourself. It doesn't make sense to not be licensed while investing, no one cares about your investments as much as you do.

Brandon L. · Answer

@Rich Spaulding I wrote a blog post that gives my opinion on this subject. Click the link to give it a read and share your thoughts in the comments :)

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/5868/52724-im-...

Lloyd Lind · Answer

@Stanley Parsley, as a Realtor, no we don't make more than stated commission sometimes... at least in my state the laws say that any and all bonuses MUST  BE DISCLOSED TO ALL PARTIES INVOLVED IN THE TRANSACTION so I have no idea what reference you made was to... sometimes there are bonuses offered, very rare, but it is all disclosed.

And you have wrong definition of "red-lining" or "steering" which is illegal. The definition of those terms are trying to place buyers in areas based on discrimination against the 7 protected classes as defined by Federal Fair Housing laws.

If an agent only takes on big money listings, that is their prerogative if that is way they chose to do their business. Does that mean you don't like capitalism? You sure seem to like capitalism if you are an investor, so what is wrong with an agent practicing same principle? As a RE agent, you actually usually spend more time on the lower priced properties than you do on higher priced properties which results in less $/hour to agent. Would you work like that? I don't think so?

Am I going to work more and harder on the $2.8 million house I am about to list as opposed to your 45K investment rental you use as an example? Hell yeah! I'll get professional photography, catered open houses, staging, etc. at my expense. That costs me 100's of $'s with no guarantee i will ever be compensated.

Now you would like any wise investor would do, break down the numbers and see what you would do... are you willing to follow the numbers, very simple? To do all the things I mentioned earlier will cost me between $300-$500 for each property respectively. Using 6% commission rate, fairly standard in most areas of the country, my portion after I split with other broker and then my own broker takes 50% of the other half of the commission, I am left with 1.5% of sales price in my pocket minus expenses.

So that being said, on your 45K property selling at full price I make $675, that's pre-tax so portion of that goes to government and then you subtract my $300 of expenses and I am not even clearing $250 in my pocket...

Now the 2.8 million property breaks down commission wise to me this way... $42K in commission to me, wow almost the sales price of the other! Now subtracting $500 for my expenses for marketing, which is conservative, and subtracting taxes, I should clear around 30K...

So, @Stanley Parsley, which of these two listings would you REALLY like to invest your time and money in as an investor? Just asking...

BTW, In my 17+ years as a RE agent, I have sold properties from a low of  $26,200 to as high as $1,650,000 and I have treated all of them the same. Oh and so you know I am not a "bread and butter or cream puff" agent, as I am listing two rentals today. Not luxury ones, but just regular that a working class person could afford rentals and I will work just as hard on those as I would anything I would list for sale if not harder as these landlords need a tenant for their cash flow... so we are not all bad.

What defines an investor friendly real estate agent?

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