Good real estate agents are a vital part of your investing team. Finding and training them on how to effectively work with investors, is extremely important. Many agents will have predominantly worked with retail buyer and sellers and may need more guidelines as to how they should fit into your team. Even if you are already an agent, you should still be working with other agents to send you leads. No one person can look at everything and you want an army of people local agent association meeting local agent association meeting and networking events can be another source. Just getting out there, looking at open house, looking at deals, talking to people in the business you will run into agents. Be excited about what you do, investing in real estate, and have that come through with everyone you talk to.
Once you have located agents, you then need to effectively communicate to them how you will work together. Here is a great list of talking points that you can adapt to fit your own personality;
1. We work with multiple agents but if they send you the lead first, that you do buy or make money with, you will honor that relationship and make sure they get paid.
2. When they send a property lead, they need to include MLS comps, active, pending and sold, all within 3 months and a ½ mile to 1 mile of subject property (if applicable)
3. This business is about speed and volume. Deals do not last long so the faster we communicate, the more money we can both make.
4. I do what I say I will do and expect you to do the same. I will not waste your time, so do not waste mine. If I can’t trust you I can’t use you.
You will not work long term with every agent you meet, that is just a fact. You only need a few really good agents to help fill your pipeline of deals. Remember, they do not get paid until you close on a deal. So you will always need to monitor them and keep their motivation level high. Good agents can mean good deals and more profits!
