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

John Parks asked:


There’s no doubt about it, people use real estate agents to sell and buy property all the time. On the other hand, some people, choose not to use a real estate agent and in turn, buy and sell their own properties. This often leaves many wondering if real estate agents are truly worth their fees. The answer is, “it depends on your lifestyle and the time in your life that the real estate transaction is completed.” That is, each person’s circumstances will dictate the answer to this mind-boggling question. We will now discuss this in further detail.

First, of all, let’s discuss why some people employ an agent. Many people employ an agent simply because they don’t have the time or the energy to sell the property themselves. Take me for instance, when I employed a real estate agent to sell my residential property, I was working a full time job, caring for children, my husband and my home. We were both very busy and simply didn’t have the time or the energy to take care of the details to get our property sold. We had too much going on and we simply needed to get the property sold quickly so that we wouldn’t loose out on our “dream home.” In this instance, conducting the entire deal ourselves simply would not have been a wise decision. Instead, we hired a professional real estate agent and we paid her 4% of the selling price. Although this may seem like a lot, it actually wasn’t. Our real estate agent closed the deal quickly and got us 10% more than we thought the property was worth. She really knew her stuff and we were smart to hire her.

Second, let’s discuss why some people might choose to conduct their own real estate transaction. There are many reasons but the most common is that they have the time and energy to handle the deal and they don’t want to share the profits with the agent. Let me use myself again as an example. Once I became an empty nester and started looking for additional income, I decided to play the real estate investing game by selling a piece of property that I already owned. As an empty nester, I listed the property in the paper, showed it, and handled contract negotiations. As a result, we received a nice offer for the sale and when it closed, we received a hefty profit due to the fact that we didn’t use an agent. In this case, an agent simply didn’t make good financial sense.

In conclusion, I’ve learned that real estate agents can be worth their fees however it depends on your personal situation. If you don’t have the time to sell or buy property yourself, for whatever reason, it pays to use an agent. If you have time and energy, then using an agent makes no sense at all. So, do what works for you and enjoy your profits – either way, you earned them!There’s no doubt about it, people use real estate agents to sell and buy property all the time. On the other hand, some people, choose not to use a real esate agent and in turn, buy and sell their own properties. This often leaves many wondering if real estate agents are truly worth their fees. The answer is, “it depends on your lifestyle and the time in your life that the real estate transaction is completed.” That is, each person’s circumstances will dictate the answer to this mind-boggling question. Let’s now discuss this in further detail.

For more information on real estate, visit http://www.acquisitionlocation.com/



Oscar

John Parks asked:


There’s no doubt about it, people use real estate agents to sell and buy property all the time. On the other hand, some people, choose not to use a real estate agent and in turn, buy and sell their own properties. This often leaves many wondering if real estate agents are truly worth their fees. The answer is, “it depends on your lifestyle and the time in your life that the real estate transaction is completed.” That is, each person’s circumstances will dictate the answer to this mind-boggling question. We will now discuss this in further detail.

First, of all, let’s discuss why some people employ an agent. Many people employ an agent simply because they don’t have the time or the energy to sell the property themselves. Take me for instance, when I employed a real estate agent to sell my residential property, I was working a full time job, caring for children, my husband and my home. We were both very busy and simply didn’t have the time or the energy to take care of the details to get our property sold. We had too much going on and we simply needed to get the property sold quickly so that we wouldn’t loose out on our “dream home.” In this instance, conducting the entire deal ourselves simply would not have been a wise decision. Instead, we hired a professional real estate agent and we paid her 4% of the selling price. Although this may seem like a lot, it actually wasn’t. Our real estate agent closed the deal quickly and got us 10% more than we thought the property was worth. She really knew her stuff and we were smart to hire her.

Second, let’s discuss why some people might choose to conduct their own real estate transaction. There are many reasons but the most common is that they have the time and energy to handle the deal and they don’t want to share the profits with the agent. Let me use myself again as an example. Once I became an empty nester and started looking for additional income, I decided to play the real estate investing game by selling a piece of property that I already owned. As an empty nester, I listed the property in the paper, showed it, and handled contract negotiations. As a result, we received a nice offer for the sale and when it closed, we received a hefty profit due to the fact that we didn’t use an agent. In this case, an agent simply didn’t make good financial sense.

In conclusion, I’ve learned that real estate agents can be worth their fees however it depends on your personal situation. If you don’t have the time to sell or buy property yourself, for whatever reason, it pays to use an agent. If you have time and energy, then using an agent makes no sense at all. So, do what works for you and enjoy your profits – either way, you earned them!There’s no doubt about it, people use real estate agents to sell and buy property all the time. On the other hand, some people, choose not to use a real esate agent and in turn, buy and sell their own properties. This often leaves many wondering if real estate agents are truly worth their fees. The answer is, “it depends on your lifestyle and the time in your life that the real estate transaction is completed.” That is, each person’s circumstances will dictate the answer to this mind-boggling question. Let’s now discuss this in further detail.



Jesus