Finding an out-of-state agent

[Sam Khoshnavaz]

Hello Biggerpockets Community,

I have decided that I would like to start my real estate investing journey by obtaining fix/flip and long-term holds outside of my local market.  Living in san Diego, the numbers along with my financial situation and goals do not line up, and so I have decided that investing back home in St. Louis where I grew up would be a better option.

I do have some connections in St. Louis. My uncle is a real estate investor in St. Louis and has been for the past 15 years.  My father is a GC alongside his best friend who is an electrician, who both alongside my uncle, have good connections for finding people to help me with the rehab of these buildings.

However, I would love to find an agent that I can work with to help me find deals and to assist me with the transaction side of the deal.  So I would like to ask the following questions:

1.  How do you find an agent from out of state?

2. What are three most important questions you ask when building a relationship with the agent?

3. How do you make sure that your interest and that of the agent are alined?

4. How long do you usually wait before you start telling your agent about the types of properties you are looking for?

5. What do you think is the most important trait for finding an investor friendly agent?

Again, I really appreciate everyones time and for making it this far in my post. I hope that everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and a happy holidays!