First, let me clarify that I am not out to bash any realtors or the profession. I do not claim to know everything about real estate/ act like some guru. I'm just a noob who is trying to buy his first investment property.
A little background: My wife and I have been learning about RE investing for a few years. We moved to a new area and decided it was time to stop gathering info and jump in. I came here to the BiggerPockets forum and asked for a referral to an investor-friendly agent in our market.
Got a referral, followed up and had a very candid and blunt conversation with the prospective agent. I explained that we were looking for a multifamily property to house-hack and or a property with an in-law suite/ garage apartment to generate rental income. I told him that we wanted to work with an agent who owned investment properties in the area and that would be patient with us as my wife and I wanted to learn as much as we could through the buying process. He explained how hot the market was and that it would be difficult to find a multifamily in our price range. Despite this, he had the utmost confidence that he could "find something that works for us."
He asked me to sign a buyers agreement to get the process started. The guy had a great attitude, he listened to what I had to say and according to the buyer agreement we weren't obligated to work with him if things didn't work out. Good deal. I signed it and the search began.
Our buying window wasn't for a few months, so our realtor suggested we get together to see a few properties just to get a feel for the process. It was great, he was very informative and willing to answer any questions we had. We agreed to meet a few months later when we were ready to buy. Given the scarcity of multi-family properties, I explained that I'd like to keep an eye out for multifamilies hitting the market. He set up a MLS automated search and we parted ways. A few properties popped up over those two months. Most of them well above our price range. It became clear that finding a multifamily that didn't need to be completely renovated was nearly out of the question as the market got hotter and hotter. We reconvened a few months later and he basically told us that we wouldn't be able to find what we were looking for and asked if we would consider buying a SFH. I told him we were only interested if we were able to pick up something relatively inexpensive (our rent payment was crazy high) giving preference to a home with the potential for rental income.
He sets up another search and at this point he falls off the face of the earth. Our only contact is the automated email alerts scraped from the MLS. When a house that fits our price/criteria hits the market we reach out to him for more info, no biggie. He'd send over the MLS report and some notes, and we respond whether we'd like to view the property or not (mostly based on BP Analysis Calculator). When we are out looking at the properties he basically begins trying to upsell us on new build condos at the top of our price range. We remind him that we are committed to finding a good investment property, preferably an older house that needs updating to live and flip. Our criteria were that simple. A small relatively inexpensive house, no frills. We submitted a few offers and were outbid.
Also during that time there were several multifamily properties that hit our custom search. My wife and I purposely wait to initiate with the suspicion that the realtor wasn't even checking in on the search that he set up. I'm not an a** hole. I don't expect an agent to scour the MLS everyday. But we are talking weeks. I literally had to email him and ask him if he even checks the searches that he set up for us. Eventually, it became clear that we were just a nuisance at this point. He said he was very busy and that he was "re-committed" on providing us the best service going forward. We gave him the benefit of the doubt... We took interest in a property 20 minutes away from our original search area and our realtor simply replied: "out of my area." That was the last straw for us. He referred us out to another agent.
We went and viewed the property, an appropriately priced single-family property with a nice garage apartment. Finally, we were in the right market! The new realtor told us that our old agent was very vague when referring us out. We spent a good half hour after the first showing discussing what our criteria were, how we were initially referred, and some of the gripes we had with our last agent. He reassured us that we were not asking too much and he confirmed that we were in the right part of town. He explained that even though they work for the same company he was a buyers agent, so he would have more time to accommodate our search. He suggested we work with him exclusively if we decided to narrow our search to that specific area. We agreed and this is when I learned that the commission was being split three ways. At this point, it all started to make sense for me. We were looking to buy an inexpensive house in a market where people are regularly buying properties 3x and 4x the price and commision was already being split via an initial referral from BP.
Now we are a couple houses in with our new agent. We put in an offer on a house (using the realtors' suggested offer) and were outbid. No biggie, its happened numerous times leading up to this point... The market right? So this evening my wife and I send over a couple houses that hit the MLS this week and ask our realtor to check them over. We already have a showing tomorrow so we ask him to bring the Comps for the house so we can run the numbers. Mind you, I very explicitly explained to him our criteria and even explained to him that our previous realtor simply ignored/ forgot the fact that we were buying a property as an investment and that we did an analysis for every property we considered. In his reply he basically refused to bring the comps and told us that it was his process to run comps only when the buyer was ready to make an offer, that they took 20 minutes to run, and that we were being inconsiderate of his time. Every single property that we have viewed had been located by us. All he does is meet us 5 minutes from his house (30-minute commute for us) to unlock the door and he's complaining about printing out a comp.
I am so turned off by this experience. Before we began searching for a property a real estate investor mentor of mine told us to find a greenhorn agent who would "work hard for us". Man, have I learned my lesson. I've heard about these noob traps. I understand that it was my mistake for not vetting the realtors more. We just want to buy a darn house man. If anyone out there is considering buying their first investment property please get a referral from an investor that you trust. What should be one the most exciting times of our life has become unbelievably stressful and emotionally draining.
TL;DR: Noob looking to purchase first investment property. Referred to realtor through BP who claimed to be investor friendly. Wasn't investor friendly and attempted to upsell. Referred to another agent who is doing the same thing. Terrible experience that is sucking any joy that may be associated with acquiring first home/investment property.
