Asking an Agent to Run Comps

[Casey Waters]

I'm getting started in flipping and am just starting to look for my first property. I will be marketing for my own deals, and I don't expect to find many/any deals on the MLS, so I won't really be using an agent to help me find deals. However, I will be utilizing an agent to help me sell the houses after I rehab them. My question is this: is it polite to ask my listing agent to run comps for me on properties that I am looking at buying, and if so, how many comps per week would it be polite to ask them to analyze? Also, in order to not overburden any one agent asking them to run tons of comps and calculate tons of ARVs, do you think it's okay to ask several different agents to run comps in the process of buying a single property? My concern doing this is how would I make it worth it to all of them, since I can only use one of them to sell the house? Let me know if I need to add more details to clarify this question.

[Cassi Justiz]

I don't mind running the occasional comp, but I would consider more than a few (2-3) a week excessive if you are not using that agent to actually purchase the properties. I can ball-park comps fairly quickly, but to do accurate compsit's going to take at least 20+ minutes per property. Significantly longer if it's a weird property or an area where the values aren't consistent. 

I have a few wholesalers that I work with that will essentially have me "fact check" their comps. I don't mind doing this at all because I know they are only asking for help because it's a weird property/area. I wouldn't do this if they sent me every house they were looking at and asked me to do comps on it.  

Run your own comps first and utilize one agent to help you only if you can't get to an ARV on your own. Do not utilize multiple agents as you will essentially be wasting their time since you will only work with one agent in the end. Also, since agents only get paid when they list or sell a property make sure you are doing something to add value in the meantime the agent doing your comps. (Buy them lunch, get them a starbucks gift card, etc.)