How to find investor friendly real estate agent

Question

Hi all,

I'm looking to purchase my first investment property in my area, North Texas, in the next few months. I can live in the property but do not have to.

My question is, how can I find and gauge weather or not an agent is investment friendly and has access to off market deals?

Would I be okay with a traditional real estate agent?

Thank you,

Sergio

Bruce Lynn · Answer

Off-market deals are really the ones you source yourself.  Realtors typically and are really geared for the most part for ON market deals.

Don't get too caught up I would say with OFF market deals....really this is just a marketing term.   Just means they're not on MLS.  That doesn't mean they're deals.

Typical off market deal in DFW area that will be marketed to you as an OFF market deal....means it is being sent out to 1000 investors, 20-50 show up during a 2 hour period, lets say on a Friday...you put your bid in an envelope to be opened at 3pm and if you're the winner will need $5000 non-refundable deposit...no inspection or due diligence period.  These are typically ugly houses that need work.

UNLESS you are the one sourcing the off market deals.....you buy the list, you call, you door knock, you call again, you send post cards, you call again, you drive for dollars, and you call again...and keep calling....and then make offers directly to the owner.

Hope that makes sense for you.....welcome to Texas...start banking plenty of cash....so you can make strong offers.   There are normally several agents who respond here to posts like this in North Texas and probably most of those seems like strong investor agents....so pick one, go to their office or take them for coffee....do your interview and see what works best for you...maybe do that with 3-4-5 of them.

Janelle K. Eagle · Answer

There’s also a featured agent search here on BP that provides you with investor friendly agents by zip code that have been vetted by BP! Probably a good place to start your search. Best of luck!

Matthew Irish-Jones · Answer

@Sergio Orjuela whether the deal is on or off market an investor focused agent is going to know far more about the numbers than a regular agent.

Regular agents do not calculate CapEx, repairs, rents, project out cash flow and provide maintenance rehab quotes.

They are 2 completely different skill sets.  Most investors focused agents promote themselves as such.  They should not be hard to find.  You could also reach out to a local PM company and see if they have agents on staff.

Tiamo Wright · Answer

Already such amazing advice from the community as usual. Specifically agree with some of the comments about the leg work that you will have to do to source some of the off market deals. A great place to start when you are ready to find an investor friendly real estate agent on BiggerPockets is the Agent Finder. In less than two minutes you can be matched with agents in your market and the best part is you get to read their bios, and reviews and decide who you reach out to. https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

Eliott Elias · Answer

Find the ugliest home on the market and call that listing agent.

Taylor Dasch · Answer

I think this question comes up often here. You can just ask the agent if they have access to off market deals and they should be honest with you- but you can get access to them yourself fairly easily. You would be okay with a traditional real estate agent if you are very familiar with the market that you are investing in and just want them to do the paperwork for you and show you properties. You can also tell them exactly what you want from them and see if they will do it. Ideally, for each property you see, they will have a comps sheet for ARV as well as an estimated market rent for the property. I think any realtor would be fine but they HAVE to be available to at least show you properties and write offers. You will lose deals if your agent is procrastinating on writing the offer. Let me know if you ever think about investing down in the Temple, TX area. I am a realtor and investor here. Thanks!

Dylan Bennett · Answer

Hey Sergio. Investor friendly agents don't necessarily find you all the off market deals. Those typically come from investors via direct mail, or wholesalers. If you are looking strictly for off market deals, a realtor is not going to be your best option. However, that doesn't mean to not use realtors. Realtors are looking at the market and MLS daily and will have an idea of what properties will be best for investments. They will be able to calculate numbers, what to expect in reno costs, cash flow projection, etc.  Great investor friendly realtors will have experience with certain strategies and will know best how to make these strategies work within the market they are in.

Like someone else mentioned in this thread, off market doesn't mean its a good deal. You may have less competition, but the numbers still may not make sense.

Eliott Elias · Answer

I introduce myself, ask if it's a good time to talk, and get to the bottom of the sellers motivation. If the deal isn't right for me I ask if they have anything else coming up.

Rodney Sums · Answer

There's areas on this site where realtors advertise themselves or past posts where other investors can share whom they have worked with.

Keep in mind, investor friendly or not the majority of the work will come from you. An investor friendly realtor won't be in the best position to tell you if each property is a good investment or not for you, analyze your deals, do your cash flow analysis, look up demographics and other relative statistics etc.

The best thing they can usually do is give you insight based on previous transactions, negotiate in your favor accordingly, and give you input about trends in an area.

Off market deals: if it's through your realtor it's typically a pocket listing when they're representing a seller and looking for an opportunity to be a dual agent getting a larger commission not having to split by listing. In today's market where everybody knows their home is worth something this may not be anything special for you rather more special for your realtor and the seller. Any good off market deal left to be had without you being able to pay all cash is going to take investigative work (finding distressed homes, driving for dollars, tax issues, Probate etc).

Stephen Brown · Answer

I would scope out your market and find the agents that have the lisitngs in the rental neighborhoods you're looking in and then ask them what kind of returns an investor could expect in that neighborhood. The agent should know which streets are good, which are bad, and what zip codes are the best performing in price to rent ratio and more. Ask them how their other clients are performing. Ask them how many rentals they own. Ask them the basic questions such as rent and after repair value. If they can't answer these questions easily then they probably aren't investor friendly.

How to find investor friendly real estate agent

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