How to Approach a realtor

[Ruth Towouh]

Good morning everyone, this is my first ever post. I'm new to Real Estate and just started working with a residential investment company in Houston Texas. I like working with realtor in regards to off market listing they're working on, I've purchased a few through them. I'm still struggling with finding the best way to make first initial contact and ask them to work together, some of them are open and most already work with a handful of Investor. What's the best approach to contact realtor and build some form of relationship where they're sending you their listing before it hits the market?

[Abel Curiel]

Hello Ruth and welcome to BiggerPockets!

You're in the right place if you're looking to connect with folks to add onto your team of trusted professionals.

With respect to finding Realtors (or any other RE professionals), I'd recommend the following:

1. complete your BP profile - be as detailed and specific as possible when mentioning your goals. This will help people connect with you after determining how their goals, services and resources align with yours.

2. use the 'search' function to find topics, members and areas of interest. Get answers to your questions and find people using this function!

3. Set up keyword alerts so that you can receive notifications once a topic or area of interest in mentioned in one of the forums. Its a great way to stay current!

4. Check out the Events tab at the top to find local and virtual meet ups.

5. Search Zillow, realtor.com, redfin, etc for SOLD homes that match your target areas and/or desired property criteria. Call up these agents beginning with the ones you see most frequently on the sites.

When speaking to the agents:

- Share your RE experience - past and current

- Give them a detailed idea of what you're looking to purchase, how you are funding the deals, and what your plan is long term.

- Lastly, offer to provide proof of funds, pre-approval letters, and any financial information that they can see to verify that you're motivated, serious and qualified.

Best of luck to you moving forward!

Abel