How to Find a Realtor

[Account Closed]

Hello all.  This post may be slightly (or very, not sure) controversial because I know a lot of people on Bigger Pockets and who invest in real estate are real estate agents themselves.  My intention here is to get advice, not to impugn the realtor community.  Just keep that in mind.

My question is, how do you find a good investment realtor? Let's put aside for this post the question of whether you should be buying off the MLS at all, and just assume that you are a non-agent investor who does want to buy off the MLS.

I've tried out a few realtors, and I haven't found one I click with yet. For one, although I am 100% sure there are very good people who are realtors, I personally find the system that has been set up to be begging for realtors to act contrary to their clients' interest. I'm not going to go into all the reasons why I think this because, again, I'm not trying to offend anyone. But maybe the biggest concern I have is that a realtor will grab the best deals off the MLS either for himself or for friends of his long before they ever reach me, a complete stranger. In fact, there are articles on Bigger Pockets in which realtor/investors talk about how it is very good to be a realtor when investing because you can snatch all the good deals for yourself before anyone else sees them.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are many realtors who simply don't know anything about investing or they're not really on the same page with investors.  They just want to quickly get something purchased, collect their commission, and get on to the next deal, whereas the investor is a lot more particular about finding the right deal.

I know there probably isn't a perfect answer to this question.  It's a matter of networking and just eventually finding someone you like.  But I've been pretty unsuccessful in finding that great realtor that I really feel is working in my interests, and I wanted to get your thoughts on this dilemma.

[Shane Hedeen]

Hey @Account Closed, 

Good post. I think a lot of folks struggle here. Your question in how I read it all comes back to what you are looking for in an agent. Are you expecting them to analyze deals for you? Send you properties? Help your analysis of neighborhoods? Investors have wildly differing expectations of an agent. 

You are exactly right on a few of your comments. First, you absolutely need to just keep on interviewing if you haven't found the right person. What would a company do if they posted a position for CMO, and they hadn't found the right match? They would network with other companies, keep putting it out there, and keep interviewing. You don't need 20 people to match, you need to find one good person. For every agent out there, there are only a few who meet what you're looking for as an investment friendly agent. 

The other thing I notice in your post is a lack of worry and trust. You have read (as I'm sure it happens all over the place) that there are agents out there who take the best deals for themselves and share the scraps. Here's what I would look for if it were me: 

1. Find an agent who invests, has invested, etc. in your niche. 

2. Find one that matches your expectations, and they have similar expectations that are matched for you as a client. 

3. Find one who doesn't invest in the neighborhood you are looking to invest. So, you give up them knowing an investment area perfectly, because they only buy property across town, therefore you won't worry about them snagging a deal for themselves over sharing it with you. 

4. If you really worry about an agent and #3, maybe they shouldn't be your agent and you let them go and head back to #1. 

Overall, sounds like you are looking for knowledge and trust. Keep on asking the right questions, and find one that is a fit. Remember, it's a two way interview. Any good investor friendly agent will also have questions for you, like how serious are you, do you really have access to capital to make this purchase, do you have an investment history, are you really going to act soon.

For every good agent, there are a handful more crappy ones. Similarly, for every real and serious investor, there are 10 that want to kick tires and don't have any sort of realistic expectations or capital and waste time of the agent. Prove to them that you are for real, and you'll find one that has no issue investing the time in you and your search. 

Best of luck Jim! Thanks for sharing.