Working with out of state investors

[Eric P.]

Question for all you agents and investors with experience with out of state investing:

Ok, agents want to work with investors who "close deals" - this is said often on BP. But, truthfully, what that means is that agents are incentivized to work with investors who aren't too picky, aren't too analytical, and aren't too discerning - investors who make a lot of mediocre deals.

Bc working with a discerning, analytical investor means a LOT of work for an agent (constantly driving all over the metro area visiting houses) with very few deals actually closed bc most houses aren't a good deal. And no good agent would want to work with this kind of discerning investor (nor can I blame them - if I were an agent, I'd prefer to work with "mediocre investors" who aren't too picky and close a lot of deals).

That said, what can I do, as a discerning, analytical investor, to encourage agents to work with me, even though most of the properties they visit I don't close on? I mean, is there an alternate compensation structure I can use to ensure that agents stay motivated (and fairly compensated) to work with me even though I'm only closing on a small percentage of homes my agent is visiting?

Anyone have experience with this and, if so, how did you solve this?

[Stefen Lee]

Try to put a add on Craigslist for someone to take pictures of the property's you are looking at. I pay 50$ per property 100 pics. From that I get a real time look at the asset. Also don't run my agent around during the rough screening process.