To make any sort of real estate transaction, whether you’re looking to invest in luxury real estate, buy your dream home, sell your commercial property, or rent an oceanfront condo you’re going to want to find yourself an excellent real estate agent. A top quality agent will save you massive amounts of time in your searches, save you money when you’re buying, find the optimal listing price, market your property for a quick sale, and bring passive income producing real estate investment property directly to you – saving you big headaches and netting you big profits.
Finding Your Realtor
Let’s say you’re investing in real estate and you know of a particular neighborhood you’ve targeted for investment purposes – this is your target area. One simple way of selecting a real estate agent to work with you is by just driving around the area and looking at the For Sale signs that are up. Find out which agent has the most listings in the area and choose that Realtor. Another way to find a Realtor is by asking a friend that’s used a particular real estate agent and that’s had a positive experience. Another way to find an agent is by using your favorite internet search engine. For example, if you’re looking at buying or selling a small business you may want to do a Google search for small business real estate agent.
Once you find a real estate agent you’re interested in working with, send an email to this Realtor with a declaration that you are looking to purchase investment real estate property in that particular neighborhood or area. Be specific. If you would like fixer-upper homes, mention that in your email. If you want to flip homes (by purchasing, renovating, and then reselling) then make sure to write that in your email. Once the agent receives your email, it’s now understood by the agent that not only are you interested in purchasing investment property, you are also interested in then selling these properties once fixed up. This means double the profit for the agent – the buying commission plus the listing commission.
If the agent has a land address (whether the office or a p.o. box) you may want to print out this email and send directly. Include a business card with the letter. My suggestion is that you purchase a magnet business card. This is a business card that has a magnetized back so the real estate agent can put this card on the refrigerator or any metal surface. This magnet should contain information as to the particular neighborhoods and homes you’re looking to purchase. You might put a tagline such as, “Interested in flipping fixer-upper homes in the Little Havana neighborhood”. Make sure to put all your contact information, including phone number, full name, email address, and postal address. If you do not send this magnet to the agent via postal snail mail, then at your first meeting with the agent make sure to give this to the agent in person.
To show your professionalism, make sure to attach a letter from your mortgage broker that states that you are already prequalified to purchase homes in the average price range of the area you’re interested in. Either put it in your envelope if using postal mail or scan it and include it as an attachment if emailing. You may also want to allow the mortgage broker to put some advertising about his brokerage in the paperwork. This will not be hard to do as mortgage brokers will love to do this for you – the reason being is that this means future business for them! At the same time you’re giving the impression to the real estate agent that you’re really serious about investing and that you can really close a deal, anytime, anyplace.
Whenever you buy or sell a property, be sure to let this target real estate agent know with an email. In the email make sure to let this agent know you’re still interested in finding investment properties in your target area. This will show the agent that you’re serious about what you do in the investment world and will move you up higher in the priority order.
Hook your target agent by listing with them. Let’s say you’re looking to sell a property, you find a real estate agent that’s an expert in a particular neighborhood you’re looking to expand your investments into, and you don’t have a reason to list with another agent. Give this listing to the target agent. There’s no better way to get the attention of a target agent than this! Even if you think the house would sell FSBO (For Sale By Owner) you list with this agent in order to establish a business relationship. After all, if this agent brings you bigtime investments in your future, isn’t it worth giving them the commission? It’s worth it in the long run.
Give the real estate agent a list of your preferred local outsourcing people. Let’s say you a great painter, carpenter, and handyman in the local area. Give a list of these people with full contact information to the agent. Tell the agent that you’ve used these people in the past and that you personally recommend them. Tell the agent to mention your name if the agent uses them. This is useful to the agent because properties listed by sellers often need work done and a quality repairman is often needed last minute. This is useful to you because the people you’re referring will become very loyal to you due to the referrals. Let’s say they got a phone call about a house needing a repair from a first-time caller. But then you call a few minutes later and you say you need work done also. You’re going to be getting preferential treatment because of all the great referrals you’re giving them. On top of this, they’re very likely to give you a preferred rate and will go out of their way to please you by doing an excellent job.
Now, you don’t want to do all of this with every single Realtor you come across. These steps I’ve given you are to be done with a select few of agents, perhaps a handful, that you would like to be a part of your investment team going forward. They’re committed to your success, and in the same way, you’re helping them succeed as well.