If you’re a part-time investor, you need an investor-friendly agent to save you time and help find your next investment. I lay out why you need one, how to find one, and what to ask when you find them.
If you’re looking for a quick tool to find an agent, try the BiggerPockets Agent Finder here - BiggerPockets Agent Finder
To get a list of my questions for investor friendly agents in Google Docs, send me a DM on Instagram and I’ll shoot them to ya - https://instagram.com/persainvests
Video Transcript
Hey, friends, in this video, I’m going to help you find an investor friendly agent who can bring you potential properties to land your first real estate investment.
My first two real estate investments were purchased with investor friendly agents, and they were crucial in helping me find the right location in these new markets for my budget and for my strategy.
I think this is an awesome strategy for beginners to use because you don’t necessarily know everything yet. And these agents are investors themselves. So they can help you when you are trying to figure out what you’re doing. If you follow the steps that I outline in this video, I think that you’ll be able to find an investor friendly agent and find your first or next property in the next three months.
Let’s get started.
So why do you need an investor friendly agent or what’s the difference? What makes a realtor or a real estate agent investor friendly? Really, the main criteria is that this person is an investor themselves. And the reason that’s important is because they understand how to analyze property the same way that you’re looking at property. So you guys end up speaking the same language.
If you work with a realtor that has never worked with investors before and does not invest in property themselves, it may be difficult to be on the same page about what you’re looking for, what your criteria is, and what neighborhoods won’t work for what you’re trying to do.
Some agents don’t know what types of renovations are worth it for increasing a property’s rental value or its resale value.
If someone is an investor, they’ll be able to identify these types of things with you. As you’re looking at properties together.
Another important factor in having an investor friendly agent or an agent who is an investor themselves is that they understand that it takes a lot of offers to get to that deal. If you’ve got somebody that’s on the same page with you on this, it’ll be easier for you to to work together to get to a point where you’ve got enough offers out there to get the one that’s right for you accepted.
Another great reason to use an investor friendly agent is that since they’re an investor themselves, they’ve had to go through the process of finding lenders, finding contractors and finding neighborhoods where strategies work so you can leverage that. Their experience through going this process and get recommendations on these resources so that you can save time in your process.
A lot of investors are still working day jobs and they don’t have all day long to be researching these things in order to get their first property done.
Every real estate agent has the ability to search the MLS, the multiple listing service for properties that are being advertised for sale through other real estate agents. That’s not unique about real estate investors that are realtors.
The main thing that you’ve got going for you when you’re working with an investor friendly agent is if you’re if you’re clear on your criteria and you know what you’re looking for, if you have a good relationship with this agent, when they come across a property or a family that is listing a property for sale that might fit your criteria, they might bring it to you first before they list it.
This is called the pocket listing. Pocket listings don’t happen all the time, but they often happen for properties that aren’t quite picture perfect to be listed on the MLS. So if part of your criteria is that you’re looking for a house that you can renovate or add value to, this could be an excellent strategy for you to find that house and find it through an investor friendly agent, every real estate agent negotiates on your behalf.
So this next part isn’t unique to investor friendly agents, but investor friendly agents can understand why you want to negotiate a certain way and at what point that negotiation really has to stop because the numbers won’t work for your strategy. I find that this is actually super helpful in helping you pass on deals that won’t work and might be mediocre
another thing that all real estate agents can do for you is look at comparable properties, properties that are similar in your and size and condition. But the thing that investor friendly agents are good at, if they are investors themselves, is understanding what the after repair value of a property might be. So if you’re a real estate investor that’s looking to make additions to a house or looking to upgrade it in order to help bring in better rents or in order to flip a property, an investor friendly agent will be able to better visualize with you what the finished product needs to look like for your strategy and find other
houses within the neighborhood that have gone through similar transformations to determine whether your theory on how well this property will do after you’re done with it will be more proven with true numbers, true comparable properties that have also been fixed up to a similar condition to what you’re planning.
All right. So you’re convinced that you need an investor friendly agent, but how many do you need?
There’s a little bit of a caveat here in that every agent has relationships with many people. So the more real real estate agents that you can work with, the better. One thing to watch out for is that many real estate agents want you to sign an exclusivity agreement with them that says that you can only work with them until you find the property you’re looking for in this town.
My suggestion is to work with this agent and be truthful. Say that, Hey, I’m building relationships with multiple realtors. The reason for that is that I’m looking to find potential properties that have not been listed yet, and I’d like to keep myself open to that opportunity. When we find a property together that you help me identify and you help me negotiate, I’m happy to sign an exclusivity agreement for that property with you.
So this makes sure that the agent doesn’t get cut out of their commission. They work for commissions, and that’s the way that they get paid. Once they find you a property, it would be very unfair for you to take a property somebody has brought to you as a potential deal and take it to another agent to write the offer for you and help you through the process.
So be fair, be real, and this part should be easy. An easy hurdle to get over.
So where do you start to look for an investor friendly agent? Both of the agents that I’ve used in the past to buy investment properties through I have found through bigger pockets. Both of them were in new markets that I had not had connections in, and I wanted to find somebody who I knew was an investor and was engaged as an investor.
This might not be your criteria, so I encourage you to think about what’s important to you, but how I found my search. It was before Bigger Pockets had an agent finder tool, so I was able to just go through the forums, see what who other investors were recommending, and also see if these specific agents were actually posting to the forums themselves.
Does posting to the bigger Pockets forms indicate that somebody is a good real estate agent? Not really, but it helped me see their personality and start to understand who they were before I ever picked up the phone to call them.
So from my point earlier, of working with many is better than working than with one. How many should you start with? Really, I think in the beginning it’s worth calling and talking to three agents just to get a feel for the different styles that people have. If you only speak to one, you might think that that’s the way that all real estate agents are.
And it’d be great for you to get an experience of Who are all these other people? What are their opinions about investing in that market? Because opinions will differ and what are their strategies? Every investor is different and every strategy is slightly different. So I think it’s worth exploring, especially if you haven’t yet honed in on what you’re doing to see what other investors with experience are doing in that market.
if you can try to talk to these three real estate agents in the same day just so that you get some practice. If not, keep it in the same week. That way you don’t forget some of the points you come up with or new questions you have while you talk to the first one or the next one.
I think that’s important for you to start realizing how to have these conversations.
So should you stop with three? I think three is a good start, but it’s a great idea. If you could add a couple more per month, have maybe one conversation per week and add these people to a spreadsheet or your notes and give yourself a reminder to call them back once a month and check in with them. Let them know what you’ve been doing over the last month in real estate, what you’ve been trying to see, what you’ve looked at, if you’ve looked at any properties.
This helps them remember you when they get one of these potential properties to list, because you’ll be talking to them again about your criteria and they may have forgotten it by now. This is much better than just relying on the email sign ups that they give you for property. New property listings that match your criteria.
It’s best to talk to these people on a monthly basis. That way they keep you top of mind when they’ve got properties to list that might fit your criteria.
All right. So you’ve found three to call. Now, what do you do? What do you ask them? I think it’s important to just start with who you are and being honest.
If you’ve never bought a piece of property before, let them know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. What your goal is. Are you trying to buy one property this year or more than one property this year? What kind of financing do you think you can handle? How much property can you afford if you don’t know the answers to these questions yet?
Maybe you can ask them for help on where to look to get that information.
When I talk to these real estate agents, I point out that I’ve found that they’re investors too, and that’s what attracted me to their bigger pockets profile or however I found them. If maybe another investor recommended them, I’ll let them know. People love to know how they’ve been found.
When you’re talking to these real estate agents, it’s important to not just shoot question after question. Try to take some time, take a break. Listen to what they have to say. Often they’ll tell you a lot about what they’re investing in and what part of the market they’re at, what neighborhoods they think are good. Once they hear about what you’re looking for, they’ll probably be excited to share a lot of information with you.
be ready to take notes and try to distill the information that you got after immediately after your conversation, because there is going to be a lot for you to take in.
Some questions I love to ask, even though I’ve answered them for myself by looking them up and finding them through bigger pockets is asking if they do work with investors, how often they work with investors, what they like about working with investors. Some real estate agents love working more with retail homebuyers, but if they love working with real estate investors, they will let you know.
Since you’ve already established that they are an investor themselves, you can ask What have some of your past deals look like? Investors love sharing the details of what they’ve invested in and why and how it’s doing
in any market. Even in a changing market, it’s good to ask this next question.
Have you been able to find deals for investors in the last six months? This should give you an idea of the pulse of that market. If they say no, it might not be a good market to get into if they say no. But I’m seeing some now. Maybe things are changing and it’s still a good time to get in.
Another piece to be clear on is understanding whether they’re willing to write multiple offers. You need to know whether somebody wants to work with an investor the same way that you want to work with a realtor. Writing multiple offers takes time and often has to happen at odd hours of the day. So check with them and make sure that they’re okay with that.
It’s a great time for you to ask also, if they have relationships with mortgage brokers or lenders or insurance companies or even contractors. Any of the resources that you foresee you’re going to need to get this deal done is a good question ask. They might be able to send you an entire email after your conversation with their recommendations, and that’ll be a great place for your next jumping off point.
Once you get to the point of trying to get your first property under contract.
One question I love to ask is How many homes do you think I’ll see before I find one that matches my criteria? This is very similar to asking how many deals you’ve found for investors in the last six months, but it shouldn’t give you a pulse of what your expectation should be. In all honesty, it usually takes over 100 properties analyzed before you find one that works, and that depends on your market.
So be ready to take a look at a lot of properties if you’re not local or if you’re busy working. It’s very important to ask if this real estate agent is willing to take videos and photos of the property for you and go on site to check out if anything needs special help or needs some sort of repairs.
If an agent is willing to walk the property for you when you’re not there, you know that you’ve got somebody who can be on your team to help you find a property when you might be busy with your full time job.
And my favorite question to ask, I ask this whenever I’m learning something new is, is there anything I should have asked you that I didn’t? Or some version of that question Because it opens up the opportunity for them to think through the lens of you as a new or new investor in that market and let you know about any caveats or anything that might be important to you as an investor in that market.
So ask that open ended question and see if they’ve got some more information to offer to you before you’re done with your conversation. Make sure that you get your email address to them and your criteria. If you haven’t yet figured out exactly what type of property or what type of neighborhood you’re looking for, that’s okay. Just make sure to let them know you want to start with a broad search, and once you’ve got that broad search down, you’ll start to take a look at many different kinds of properties and start analyzing deals.
That’s the most important next step.
So you’ve talked to three agents. You’ve asked them these questions. Now it’s time for the next step. They’re likely going to sign you up for emails that match your search criteria. So whenever a new property comes onto the MLS, onto the market, you’re going to get an email update that a new property has matched your criteria. It’s important to take a look at these emails, but sometimes they can be overwhelming.
If they’re if your search is too broad, I recommend that if your search is broad, spend some time over the next week starting to refine what areas you actually want to focus on. Based on the conversations you’ve had with these three investor friendly agents. They’ve probably pointed you to certain neighborhoods or certain parts of town where your strategy is going to work best start narrowing in on those areas so you stop getting as many emails.
The great thing about these is that often these property criterias won’t actually match exactly what you’re looking for, but it’s a good idea to spend some time taking a look at them and maybe on a on a frequent basis, like maybe once a week touch base with the realtor who sent it over your way and ask them questions about the property.
Get familiar with talking about properties, understanding the condition of them, what kind of work might need done, and seeing if this agent is willing to go out and take a look at this property for you. If it starts to match your criteria.
If you spend a couple of weeks taking a look at these property notifications that come to your email and none of the match what you’re looking for. So you haven’t spoken to the agent again, I think it’s a great idea to give them a call once a month. Tell them what you’ve been doing, tell them which properties you’ve looked at and why.
Maybe they didn’t work for you. This will help remind them who you are and what you’re looking for and what you’re not looking for. So they might be able to keep you top of mind next time that someone goes to list a property that might match your criteria a little bit better. That way you might be able to get a chance to look at that property before it hits the market for everybody else to see.
This process does take time, but it’s worth it. I’ve worked with these agents over time and on average, for me, it takes about three months in a new market to find a property that fits my criteria and get it under contract. This is an amazing way to start learning. Start asking questions. Start taking a look at properties and get out of your own way.
For beginner real estate investing, the most important part to remember about real estate is that real estate is actually a people business. It’s about the relationships you build and the people that you get to know
Build and nurture your relationships with people in this business and you’ll be set to get going on your first or next investment property.
If you want to learn more about real estate for beginners or if you have less than five properties and you’re still a beginner, then check out this next video. I’m here to help you learn as I keep learning to thank you and I’ll see you next time.