When Shopping for an Investor Friendly Agent

In the world of residential real estate investing there are a small amount of real estate agents that know the ins and outs of actual investing in real estate. There are a lot of complaints from previous clients of these agents that have frustration in the challenges they faced with the agents they have encountered during their investigation for the right investment. It’s the search for the agent that should take the most amount of time or take longer to get the agent right prior to searching for the investment property. Let’s talk about what it really takes to find those agents that are key to your success in finding the right fit for your investment.

The Way to Find the True Investor Friendly Agents

There are many reasons that people while looking for a residential investment get into hot water while picking the agent to work with to search for their investment. There are some reasons below that illustrate how agents may be a right fit for an investor, and an agent that is not investor friendly would go against these examples.

1. The real estate agent has done or been a part of deals within the criteria you are looking at to buy yourself.
2. The agent works with multiple investors and does on a consistent bases while working as an agent.
3. The agent has single family investments of their own that are not just their first or second home that they rent out (more on this later).
4. An active real estate agent/investor within the field of rentals and flips.

You’ll need to work hard on finding these agents because there are not a lot of them out there; however, there are agents like these in each city.

Find those Who Have Done Deals or Been a Part of Deals

There are a lot agents that say they are investor friendly agents and when it comes down to the numbers and what the investing looks like for that end buyer, the agent does not know the numbers to run. That is because the saying if you do not use it, you lose it, or lead by example work with number one.

Above quotes are perfect because just as in any job you need to keep the skills sharp on the numbers and deals to find on and off market properties. The numbers that are run on these properties depend on the investor looking, however, if you heard numbers like the 2% rule, or 70% rule does not mean anything if the agent is not using them on a daily and weekly basis. That means that the agent is either running their own numbers on properties for other deals for those clients and can run the numbers quickly on your properties, or they have done a lot of due diligence in the backend to be ready for the investor clients.

An Agent working with Multiple Investors

This is a perfect blend of what you need to find if you are searching for a real estate agent to help you in your search for those residential properties. Agents that work with other investors see what the investor sees through the eyes of the investor while they are working with the investors. It takes time and the more repetitions that happen by analyzing more deals creates an eye for deals.

As a prospective client, you need to find these agents, and they can see a deal or a good investment within seconds of looking at the property. It’s that experience of the reps they are putting in with all the other clients they are working with on a daily basis, and not every residential buyer is asking for these “numbers,” so go directly to the agents that work with the investors.

(hack: for finding agents that work with investors a lot check flips that have been sold in your area, then look the agents up online to see what other properties they have sold. If a lot of the properties the agent listed look like remodeled properties, that agent is most likely working with that investor a lot and knows what to look for in a deal.)

The Agent has Single Family Investments of Their Own

Well, agents that have their own flips and rentals are going to know how to dig for deals and come up with some good properties. While you may think that they have their own properties they are looking for which may be true, the agent cannot buy them all themself. It is a great start to seek those that are looking for the deals themselves, and they would be happy to share them since there are more deals out there to be had.

These agents maybe even marketing, or mailing to a specific neighborhoods that they are looking for deals in and could share those deals as off market sales too (I mail to an area and have been contacted off the mailers and have shared investment properties with investors that are looking for flips). The agent may also door knock the area and have insider scoops on what is going on in that market, or they grew up in that city which will get you the deals you are looking for during your search.

The reason I talked about agents not buying one SFR then going to another house and keeping that one house as a rental is because that is not a true investor friendly agent since that person was not actively running the numbers on the home prior to putting in an offer. That is more of a situation where the agent got the house, lived in it for a while then had the capital to buy another home as a “primary residence.” Nothing wrong with this, just more of a tip for confirming they know what they are talking about prior to moving forward on your search.

(Hack: to find an agent with rentals, go to your local tax recorder’s office, search for the LLC/Trusts that have a lot of properties under one entity then search their real name. Once you have their name you can search those people and match them to their profession as an agent then call them about working with them.)

An Active Real Estate Agent within The Field of Flipping and Rentals

This seems to be redundant, however, this one is for the people that are actually doing this work now. There are many agents that may have bought one home for an investor years ago or have been involved with investments in their younger days but not anymore. Just verify and double check everyone. Take the time upfront to save yourself on the backend.

(hack: check their current listings and previous sales to confirm the amount of sales they are doing and what those sales are, then match that with tax records to see what they are doing and with who).

Conclusion

Sometimes the work outweighs the benefit, this is one thing that does not outweigh the benefit. You need to put the time in as you start your search to find that right person/agent for you to help you be successful in your investing career. You do not want to be one of those people that get it wrong on the first deal, lose $10,000 or even more which knocks you out of the game forever. Be the investor that puts in the work, gets the right amount of knowledge, then puts that knowledge and investor friendly agent to work to make you money.