All Forum Posts by: Silver A.

Thank you Phillip and Tracy.

You brought out good points.

As an agent I represent the company I work in and they have very traditional views to marketing. On the other hand the know-how and terms are very worth working there. This limits ways I can advertise, creatively. Flyers and such are frowned upon by the company since it might give a wrong image of the company.

I am just looking for something to do that is 100% mine and helps with the leads.

Which business ideas have you come up with that would help to find motivated sellers?

I am always looking for new leads. I believe we all should. Advertising only
helps so much.
I am an agent/investor and I have been thinking about starting my own business on the side that would offer something different. Something that would help me to come in contact with more sellers and by another angle than an investor.

I know one investor who is selling mailboxes for apartment buildings. This helps him to come in contact with the management of the building and results in quality leads regarding people who have fallen behind on their payments or empty apartments in the building.

Another investor in the area has a van and helps people to move their furniture.

I have been thinking about starting a second hand furniture business myself. Sometimes people, who are looking to get rid of the property, might be interested in selling or giving away the furniture before listing the property for sale.

The business idea I am looking for should be profitable enough to pay for itself, but it is just to find more leads and help to bring in more €€ from investing, flipping, renting the property.

I would appreciate your ideas on the subject. Thanks in advance.

Thank you all for your input. I have been calling to the owners and most of them have been very open and helpful, but not ready to sell yet for personal reasons. Just have to keep following up.

Here's the situation:

I have come across quite a few vacant for a long time, in dire need of repairs, or otherwise problematic properties. I know the addresses and the owners details. What would the best way to contact them and find out whether they have thought of selling?

IMHO at first knowing a lot about the property might seem a bit shady for the owner. On the other hand it will show I know what I am talking about and have done my homework.

Should I just give them a call? Or send a letter at first? If a letter, how detailed should it be?

... what has worked for you in situations like this?

Please tell me how would you handle this situation:

A buyer asks me to find something for them. I put an ad into local newspaper (or somewhere else, maybe direct mail). "We buy this in area x, tel 12345"
The seller finds my ad, calls me. I explain I am an agent and I have a buyer. After hearing the details about their property, I know it's not suitable for my client. That leaves me the option of becoming their agent, handling the sale of their property.

Then the sellers tells me they already have an agent, but they have not signed an exclusive contract.

(Basically they have stated someone else is already working on it, and since they stated something once, they start to believe it more and more, and will want to take on another agent even less.)

How could I respond to that, so I could get a chance to meet them at location, and then sell my service to them face-to-face, in order to get that client?

That happened to me last night. I asked how they chose their agent. "Oh, it's just someone I know." I wished them luck with the sale. There has got to be a better way to handle this.

Hello from Estonia. I still read BP every now and then, but not as often as I used to. It is a very valuable community for an investor :)

Last time I checked I couldn't find the way to display my country in the profile, only a state. So, Scott, no worries. :)

A couple of things are different over here, in Estonia.

- MLS as such is widely accessible for everyone. For a small fee everyone, an agent or an owner, can list their property for sale there. There are smaller databases in different real estate companies, only accessible for the employees of the company, and most of the listings there are also available for everyone on the MLS.

- At least 4/5ths of the agents with something listed on the MLS are sellers agents. The seller has agreed to sell the property through them, they list it and show it, sell it. Buyers agents are rare.

- There are no exams or tests to become a realtor. There is a small regulated union of real estate agents, joining which requires passing an exam. Only 3-4% of active real estate agents, if that many.. are members.

Basically you can walk in from the street and present yourself as a real estate agent and plenty of them are doing just that. You can find/bring a client who wants to buy the property and you ask for $2000 USD from the seller because it's your client. After that the agent has to book the time for the sale at public notary, the buyer transfer the money to the escrow, and bang, t's sold.

The difference with an agent like that and the agent presenting a real estate company with good reputation, is that the latter usually goes for an exclusive contract with the owner and advises on selling price, process and sales strategy before listing their property.

Anyway, all the info, regarding statistics of deals and prices, about previous owners of the properties, is available for everyone, for free or for a very small fee. Just on different databases.

I joined a company again as an agent because of the networking opportunities inside the company, if that makes sense.

I also highlighted the main question in your text, Scott, that still remains. I understand things work differently in The States, but I would like to sell the idea to myself this time, that an agent can still be a valuable part of the deal. Maybe BP members can help me with re-framing that idea? :)

Thank you for your replies.

The question was kind of vague on purpose, I wanted to see how you will answer it.

Sheyenne, thank you for clarifying the problem. My problem is more of an inner game thing, I'm just confused. Why do people use an agent when they can list their property FSBO and sell it just as easily. Everything seems easy to me, but only maybe because I have been in this business for years. I'm confused.

What I wanted to know is how can the client, who is not an investor, feel that the agent is worth the % of the sale when the agent finds the client?. And why choose an agent when they could list the ad themselves.

And then get 5 calls a day from different agents who would like to list their property, come to a couple of showings with a client, and pocket a fair amount for little work.

Mike brought up the problem best, "Neither one of us can justify paying $9,000 to fill out the purchase agreement and schedule some showings. Nice to have, but IMO not worth the money."

What would it take to make you feel like the service has been worth the money?

Can not seem to find the edit button. Just clarifying that being an agent and a flipper at the same time has been talked through with the company and there are no ethical or legal problems.

This thread is here, hopefully, to find ideas how an agent could bring more value to the table.