What do you expect from an “Investor-Friendly Agent” ?

Question

Do you expect agent to:

•  Find and advise you on a specific deal, or is that the investor’s responsibility, agent simply follows your direction?
•  How many offers do you expect agent to make per day, week, month?
•  How much research should agent do for each offer, run CMA, contact listing agent to get latest info, run property profile, none?
•  Are you willing to provide significant deposit, bank statements, pre-approval  letter ... to make offer stronger?
•  Provide pocket listings, off-market deals, mls listings?
•  Split commission with you and you do all the work, agent simply fires off offers and sits back.

Those are some ideas, what are your thoughts?

Carrie Matuga · Answer

@David C.

I expect an investor-friendly agent to :

* Send me deals that fit my buy box - especially off-market deals

* Have a pulse on path of development and where to invest/not

* Run accurate CMAs and rent projections that lean to the conservative'

* Have connections to contractors and PMs

* Send me terrific videos, pictures and review of property (including key photos of mechanicals).

I do not think it reasonable to ask them to split commission. They are my first set of "boots on the ground". And to make the partnership work, I have my buy box defined and my finances and pre-approvals locked and ready to go.

Sean Hudgins · Answer

David, this will depend on the investor a little bit.

Any of my experienced investor clients would be doing some more groundwork on working out numbers and providing me a more detailed buy box that I can look for. And obviously, I am bringing any off-market deals that I find to my investors first.

But my newer investors tend to need a little more help and guidance. I expect narrowing down their buy box will take a little time. But I would be running the same CMAs and Rent analysis that I would for the experienced investor. The new investor may need some more explanation for those evaluations.

I like what Carrie said about videos. Based on my location, I work with many out-of-state buyers, both investors and military. Still, a thorough video covering all the senses is a great way to help investors avoid potential pitfalls when buying from out of state.

A good agent and investor should be working as a team.