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Thanks for the replies. I guess I wasn't clear in my question - I didn't mean to ask why the agent was calling me rather than buying the properties himself, I was just wondering why he was so eager to have me look at them, and I was wondering this specifically because they're short sales, which I haven't worked with, and was wondering if there are any pitfalls I should be looking for.

I was also curious because he's a young guy, fairly green, and he has 10 listings - not bad for a n00b. I've since learned that he's pretty heavily wired into the Hispanic community in this particular area, which is how he's picked up so many listings.

Thanks again.

This (from their web site) set off an alarm bell for me (emphasis mine):

It only takes 43 minutes to learn how to rehab a house?

Where do I sign??

Five years using eFax, no complaints. I get my faxes via e-mail as PDF docs.

I met a real estate agent last week when I was out doing my "home work", looking at houses in my area.

I gave him my standard spiel: I'm an investor interested in undervalued properties, I pay cash and close quickly. We exchanged cards.

He called me today and said that he has a line on 10 short sales and is looking for an investor to submit low bids. He told me that he has an idea of what the bank will take for the houses and is going to send me details via e-mail.

Noob question: Why is he calling me if he has properties that can be bought cheap? Is there an angle he's working? Is he using me to make someone else's offer look good/better/more reasonable?

Any advice on how to proceed?

Thanks for the input, gentlemen. I'm in Southern CA and there are no predefined categories, which is one reason I'm asking.

Any advice on what I should put down for the "type" or "description" of my business on a business license application?

I'll be wholesaling to start off, if that matters.

Thanks for the replies, John and Scott. I've actually come across a few agents recently who at least understand that, when they work with an investor, they can get cash and a fast close for the right deal.

I've been thinking I could approach them about working with me on properties that they generally wouldn't want their sign out front of, but even if they understood what I wanted, I'm sure I'd be the guy by who they'd run everything they didn't want to list, regardless of whether or not it fit my criteria.

However, I've also got a couple of leads on young, hungry, new guys who I think I could train to look for deals - I haven't yet met a Realtor or agent who understands REI.

The buyer's agent route seems like the way to go.

Thanks again.

I'm new to wholesaling and still in the process of researching my market, which means I'm beating the pavement, basically on weekends, seeing as many houses as I can.

I'm learning a lot about the values in my area, and I'm running into a lot of brokers and agents as well. Some of them have started calling me with potential deals - nothing worth pursuing yet, and I'm still educating most of them on what a "deal" is to me, but I'm wondering whether the pros here have experience working with both buyer's agents (someone who can scour the MLS, etc.) and alert you when they find something they think might interest you, and a seller's agents, who will call you when they have a listing they think you might be interested in.

I know there are pluses and minuses with both, but here's what I've heard:

1) If you're going to elicit the assistance of a buyer's agent, you should let that person know if you're also having listing agents call you with deals.

2) The listing agent is likely to be more motivated, since they'll get both ends of the commission, but they'll obviously be calling you *only* with their listings, so it will take time to build up relationships with enough of them to keep any meaningful number of leads coming in.

Opinions?

As a side note, thanks to what I've read here, on a couple of other forums, and in the books and courses I've read, I can stop the "BS" pretty quickly and tell these people what a house should be selling for, what kind of repairs it probably needs (at first glance), and what those repairs will cost. Man, I wish I'd known all this when I bought my house years ago.

danorton,

I'm new to this as well, but I can tell you that John just gave you (and anyone else looking to do any kind of deal--not just RE) some very valuable advice:

"Shut up and listen"

The best thing you can do when trying to find out someone's motivation is to let them talk. In fact, your goal should be to get them to talk.

Ask open-ended questions that start with:

Who
What
When
Where
Why
How

Then listen.

At the company where I once worked we had a client who was notoriously impersonal. The usual chit-chat and rapport building was useless with her. One day I went to lunch with her and one of the top sales reps at my company. By the time our salads came she was laughing and talking about her kids - I couldn't believe it. When we got back to the office I asked the sales rep "How'd you do that?". "Do what?", he answered.
"How did you get her to warm up like that?", I asked. "I've been talking to her for months and she never so much as cracked a smile. What did you say to make her open up like that?"

He told me "I didn't say anything, I just asked her questions and let her talk." I thought back to the conversation and realized he was right - she did almost all the talking. He just asked her about her family, vacation, what she did for fun, etc.

The next day I spoke with the client and it was like we were old friends. Before I hung up she thanked me for the lunch and said she had we should do it again.

I told the sales rep, and he said something I'll never forget:

"Look, all she remembers is that she had a great time, and we were there."

Let your prospects do the talking and you'll be way ahead of the people who do "presentations" and use long-winded scripts without finding out what the people they're "selling to" really want.

Good advice, John and Ryan. I've worked for companies that had "unique" names, and the first part of the conversation with someone always involved repeating, spelling, or explaining the company's name.

Not a productive use of time.