BiggerPockets

Well, let me ask you this, you are a person too, right? So, why has stopped you from doing this sooner? Why haven't you put together the money, resources, etc to go get involved?

The same questions can be asked by the Realtor. As you said, they are people. People all have their different, wants, desires and risk levels.

Some Realtors really just love being a realtor, others might be investors, but even as an investor we are always looking for new paths and resources. You might be bringing those to the table for the Realtor as well.

A realtor is only a " FOE" if treated as a foe or allowed to act like a FOE. There will always be people wanting to copy you, thinking than can do it better, trying to imitate what you have done successfully. Having been in business for many years, not just REI, it isn't just " REALTORS" . In all walks of life there are people that will be " sneaky" try to do better, then when they fail, of course they will blame you.

SO what do you do? You keep trusting people, you keep doing the things you need to do to be reach the goals you have set for yourself. You can not let these people keep you from your dreams and aspirations.

I have said before, my agent is excellent and does everything I ask her to do. Now with that said, she looks at a horrible roof and says, " Hey, the roof is in good shape" . Mean while all of the shingles are buckled. She does not have the ability to look at a home and determine whether it's a good buy or what to offer. I find the houses I want to see and she opens the door and then submits the offer. I think she is learning more as we buy more houses, but she is a long way away from being able to get into this business.

Well, I believe that most Realtors have an absolutely different mentality from real estate investors...yes, there are the " 2 percenter" exceptions...but for the most part, they gravitate towards that commission.

I've tried reprogramming many of them. I've been successful on quite a few..others..not so much..:)

Hey...if they want to play bird dog and bring you whopper deals, that's cool. It's similar to an Employee / Boss Relationship. There are many jobs where an individual works for a company for years to take a pay check but could make much more money if they want out on their own..but they don't. Why? Stupidity? No...I think they're just programmed to be " worker bees" . Real Estate investors are hard core entrepeneurs.

As far as my feelings on working with Realtors..Don't Let Them Waste Your Time!! When you're dealing with a Realtor, 9 times out of 10 they're going to show you nice houses, owned by people that are in no urgent rush to sell. I hardly ever deal with Realtors. I'm not saying to completely alienate yourself from them. That would be foolish. Simply network with them, and let them know that if a killer deal comes along, you can close with cash quickly.

Explain what you're looking for and that's when they will call you. I wouldn't go around looking at houses with them. Most Realtors are not trained to look for the types of deals that we're looking for. Actually, they'll probably tell you that it's NOT POSSIBLE to find the kinds of deals that we do.

Rich

I've wondered the same type of thing myself for a long time about different things not just real estate, and found that you could get 100 people and 100 different answers from each, mainly because it's a philosophical question. Everyone has different reasons for doing or not doing something and in my opinion that applies to all industries and all job functions.

It's always a matter of timing in finding a " deal" that's right for you, and this all corrolates directly to luck. I don't mean this from a supersticious standpoint - it's just a matter of putting yourself in situations that will allow you to catch " luck" more often than other people, by researching things on a daily basis and working to be the one to see them first and prepared when one comes along. This way a lot of times before anyone realizes whatever you're working on is a great deal, you already acted on it. Perhaps your broker has a ton of sh!t on his desk and doesn't realize what he's got under his nose.

Whatever the case of why he's not taking it, I know that personally if I felt something was a good deal and had to ask why the broker is not taking it I'd be convinced that I should start acting and right then and there. Especially with real estate, it's not like you're bound to your first instinct, the process allows you to back out in a reasonable amount of time and in the meantime you can see if you're getting yourself into a mess or if you just made a deal that you'll be talking about for a long time.