Iman Yusef-Yahya asked:


You don’t have to be in the business of real estate investing for very long before you hear the ongoing controversy – should you work with real estate agents or not? Some will tell you, absolutely not. The reason is that real estate agents are unfamiliar with the real estate investing side of the business; therefore they will not be receptive to creative deals.

While that may be true, the real truth may be that real estate investors have not always shown their best side when working with an agent and therefore have created their own bad reputation. If you approach agents as you would any other business venture and work to build a relationship on trust, in the long run such a relationship could possibly net you thousands of dollars in profits.

Give Value First

Find an agent that has a number of signs up in the neighborhood where you primarily work. Contact that agent and lay the groundwork for a relationship. In your business – if you are marketing correctly – you will be getting leads that aren’t suited for your real estate investing business. Perhaps they are not flexible on terms or price. Pass that contact information on to this agent. If you start out by giving value rather than demanding that this agent bend your direction, you will build trust.

As you get to know one another, explain the types of properties you are looking for. You are looking for the fixer uppers that the agent would be embarrassed to show to any retail buyer. Of course the agent understands now that you are going to resell. If you are the rehabber and will be the one selling to the end-user, you stand to gain if you then list the property with this agent. Even if you could make more by selling it yourself (by owner), in this instance, paying the commission would be a wise investment. Now you have offered the agent two ways to profit on one property. Additionally, you can offer a short closing date. What agent wouldn’t like to close in a ten-day time frame?

Reasonable Earnest Deposit

As a real estate investor, if all you are going to put down as earnest money is a few bucks, don’t bother with an agent. Why take the chance of offending him or her? Be ready to hand over at least $500. Again, if you do business in an ethical and trustworthy manner, that agent will bend over backward to return the favor.

Expired Listings

Ask your agent ally for the information on expired listings. These are properties that didn’t sell but the listing with the agent has now expired. Oftentimes these owners are more motivated because of the long delay with no sale. They are great candidates for you to contact and see if you can put a deal together. There are bargain properties in these listings. If you are able to help that owner get out of the property, then everyone wins.

Information at Your Fingertips

When you are out in the field, you may need property information quickly. If your relationship with this agent is well established, now you will feel at ease in calling and asking for your friend to look it up for you. You might need to know rent prices in the area, or comps of nearby sales. This is a tremendous benefit to your real estate investing business when that kind of information is yours for the asking.

Conclusion

As you can see, working with a real estate agent is no different than any other kind of business relationship that is built on trust. To view real estate agents as your competition, or even as the enemy, is totally self-defeating and can eventually cost you dearly. Essentially you are in the same business and each of you can benefit from the other.

Make it your goal to cultivate a select group of agents with whom you can work closely. After a few years of this type of relationship building, you will look back and see the thousands of dollars worth of deals that have come your way that you would never have found on your own.



Edgar

Brien M. Satzinger asked:


If you like money you might want to become a real estate agent. If you like working for yourself and want to make a break from a corporate life then sure, it might be an option. Let’s take a look at what being a real estate agent really means.

I’m going to assume since you are reading this that you really want to make it, you’d like to be able to afford the good things in life or you have some other benevolent goal in mind. In real estate sales you can make it. It’s possible to realize the sky as your true limit. However, you probably should not do it. You should probably pack up that pipe dream and put it back on the shelf. Here’s the one reason why: discipline.

In this business if you don’t have discipline you’re not going to make it. Being an agent is not about creating wealth through a hobby. If you really want to succeed you have to approach every aspect of it as a business.

Even though it may not be a brick and mortar store front you can see and touch with your hands it has a product and service you have to sell just like a retail store sells goods. Our phrase for getting people into a store to browse is called lead generation. Our inventory is houses that are being sold or about to be. Our service is helping them buy or sell their home.

If we don’t lead generate to get people in the store then the customers won’t use our service to buy or sell a home, we’ll close up shop. If we don’t manage our finances properly then we won’t be able to advertise and get people in the store or service them if they come. If people come in but we can’t service them properly then we’ve wasted our money and bad reputation spreads faster than good. Every one of these areas requires discipline: lead generation, service and managing our finances.

Everyone loves a large pay day but without these foundational disciplines at work they will be few and far between and we’ll more than likely burn our selves out. If these disciplines are at work then we will more than likely be successful and living the life we day dream about.

Lead generation

Lead generation is the lifeblood of any real estate venture. Simply put, a lead is someone who may want to buy or sell a home. It sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Though the real question follows: How do I find people who want to buy or sell a home? It’s actually not a direct approach.

Some agents look at it like they have to meet people and that’s when they’ll either be a lead or not. The real treasure comes when we collect the names, addresses and phone numbers of everyone we know and we stay in constant contact with that person. Keller Williams publishes a statistic that for every 12 people we’ve met and effectively market ourselves to we should be able to generate 2 sales. As an agent we must be disciplined to meet people and market to the ones we know. This is how we generate leads and if we have our skills honed we’ll produce a constant income.

Servicing Our Clients

Do you know what to do to sell someone’s home? If you had a buyer do you know how to consult with them to figure out their needs and the best type of home to show them? As a professional agent we should be able to answer these questions and do them well. We must be disciplined in our studying and learning to develop our skills.

Finances

We must run our business based on a budget. We must be disciplined with money management and with our expenses. If we do not then how can we sustain the growth of our business? It’s imperative we watch every dollar closely especially with marketing and service expenses. As agents we watch our numbers closely. If we don’t then we’re only mediocre and who wants to settle for that? This is a very important key to any successful business.

The broker/company you sign on with as an agent should provide ample training on building your own business and it shouldn’t cost you a lot to get started. When shopping brokers make certain they provide training on how to start and grow your business.

Selling real estate can be a rewarding career. It’s worth the dedication and hard work required to achieve great success. Some agents net over a million dollars a year. Most agents sell a few houses a year and treat it as a hobby. Which one will you be?



Marcus