Real Estate Agent For Wanted

[Oliver Bernardo]

Hi BP Fam,

I am currently looking in the state of Tennessee for my first investment property. I am looking for an experienced Real Estate Agent specialized in Investment Properties to assist me in making this happen! 

Thank you!

[Adrienne Green]

@Oliver Bernardo great idea to reach out here. What investing strategy are you planning to use? What part of Tennessee? The more specific you can be with your goals and plan, the better decisions you can make to get there (and the more others can advise and assist).

[Oliver Bernardo]

@@Adrienne Green

Thank you for your response. Yes, me and my wife definitely have a goal. I will be sending you an email shortly about the details of what I am looking for in TN. 

[Leo R.]

@Oliver Bernardo I'm not an agent, but I've worked with plenty of agents--and I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly. So, here are a few tips for finding a good investor-friendly agent:

An investor friendly agent is an agent with investing experience--but what does that mean? ("investing experience" could mean experience with house hacking, flipping, STRs, syndication, or any of the other many investment strategies). An agent may be a total rockstar when it comes to BRRR'ing, but they may know nothing about STRs. So, you probably want an agent who has experience with the investment strategies you plan to pursue.

Also, IMO, successful investing requires an agent who facilitates a strong due diligence process, and who has the ability to see opportunities that other buyers miss. Because of this, my agents need to be highly experienced in assessing the potential problems of a property (my agents are often as good or better at spotting problems than the inspector!), and my agents also need to be able to envision the value-add opportunities the property presents.

I'll give you an example of each:

First, an example of an agent going all-in on due diligence, and saving me a ton of cash and headache: When I was an inexperienced investor, I found my "dream house", a property that I instantly fell in love with. I was ready to buy that place on the spot. However, while I was succumbing to shiny object syndrome (admiring the fancy new kitchen, new hardware, and beautifully tiled bathrooms), my agent was crawling around in the basement crawlspaces, collecting cobwebs and assessing the plumbing. The basement had some un-finished spaces, but most of the basement had just been beautifully re-finished with a mother in law apartment (which I was going to rent out). I tell my agent to write the offer, and he says "OK, but before we make an offer, you need to understand that the entire house has galvanized steel plumbing, which will fail. It may fail in 5 years, or it may fail in two weeks, but it will fail in the relatively near future. When that plumbing fails, you will need to demolish substantial portions of that brand new basement MIL apartment to replace the plumbing. It will cost you approximately $35k-55k to demolish that fancy new finish work in the basement, re-plumb the house, and then re-finish the basement again. Are you prepared to take that on?" (the answer was no, and although I was incredibly disappointed, we walked). Point being: my agent began the due diligence process the moment we walked into the property. He did not wait for the inspection to begin the due diligence process. ...and it saved me $35k-55k and a massive headache. A NON-investor friendly agent (or an agent looking to make a quick commission) would have said "yes, this house is SO CUTE! LET'S BUY IT!", and I would have ended up with a serious problem. That's the value of an agent who goes hard in the paint on due diligence.

Now, an example of an agent thinking creatively and seeing a value-add opportunity that everyone else missed: There was a house that had been on the market for a long time, and the reason was obvious: it was only a 2 br 1 ba house, and the floorplan was very, very weird, so nobody wanted it...however, my agent spotted that the listing had unusually large Sq footage, so we went to check it out...10 minutes after walking into the house, my agent says "we can turn this loser into a winner". The floorplan was arranged in a way that some non-load bearing walls could easily be removed, some new walls framed, and with about $40k, the house would be transformed from an un-appealing 2/1 that would lose $300/mo as a rental into a very appealing 4/2 that would cashflow about $500/mo (incl. the debt service for the rehab)... We bought the place and executed the plan--not only did it become a solid cashflower, the property value also increased by about $125k. It's critical to understand that the agent who recommended this rehab knew about building code, construction techniques, and the costs associated. For instance, he identified the load bearing walls when we walked the property, he understood where the existing plumbing was, and where new plumbing would need to go, he assessed where HVAC ducts were, and where new ducts would need to be routed, he understood the changes that would need to occur to the electrical system, etc., etc., and he understood the costs of all of those issues. Plenty of people (agents included) can come up with pie-in-the-sky ideas of how to change and improve a house, but few have a real understanding of what that work entails, what challenges will need to be overcome, and how long it will all take and what it will all cost. ...how did this agent know all this info? Because he had personally rehabbed many of his own properties--and had done that work himself, and also via GCs!

We'd all love to buy turn-key, A-grade, cashflowing and appreciating properties, but those properties are almost non-existent. Because we have an extremely challenging market (high prices, increasing rates, limited supply), being able to envision and execute value-add strategies that everyone else misses is often the only way to make a property succeed--so, having an agent who understands value-add strategies is a huge advantage!

Agents with this type of expertise are worth their weight in gold to an investor--especially when the investor is relatively new and inexperienced. This is true in most areas of life--we are most in need of an experienced coach when we're learning something new (particularly if what we're trying to learn is a high-stakes process like RE investing). The less experienced the investor is, the more experienced their team needs to be!

Good luck out there!

[Ruth Blue]

Welcome Oliver

My family lived in Orange County, CA  for about 14 years and do sometimes miss it BUT we LOVE TN. We started with investments in Saint George, UT and Huntsville, AL then moved our investments out here to Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg in 2017. It has been a wonderful journey and we are always working with friends from California. High prices from last year are slowly starting to settle moving forward with interest rates going higher. You can always refinance for lower rates lower purchase prices are where investors save. 

[Oscar Shingledecker]

Hey Oliver, I have a referral partner in the Nashville TN area who loves working with investors. I'd love to connect you two! Please feel free to DM me and I can connect you all.

[Luka Milicevic]

Quote from @Oliver Bernardo:

Hi BP Fam,

I am currently looking in the state of Tennessee for my first investment property. I am looking for an experienced Real Estate Agent specialized in Investment Properties to assist me in making this happen! 

Thank you!

What area of TN are you looking into? I'm in the Nashville area and would be happy to help out. 

[Lawrence Potts]

@Oliver Bernardo, I think Tennessee is a great state to invest in! It’s very important you build a solid team there to help you out since you will not be there physically. If you haven’t read David Green’s book on long distance real estate investing, I highly advice you read it 👍

I would Highly recommend that you find a licensed lender  first that specializes in investment properties in Tennessee. The ones that own real estate are making money, which means they are closing deals, which means they are working with top performing agents. That’s where I would start, that way you get your preapproval and you’re getting referrals from PROVEN agents. A lender won’t recommend an agent that can’t close a deal. @Grant Schroeder can definitely chime in on this.

Hope that helps! Build that team, you’re going to need a solid PM team, they’re going to help with finding contractors 👍 a hood investment friendly agent (one that actually owns real estate) will know good PM’s and contractors and get you connected with them as well. Let me know if you have any other questions, out of state investing can be super rewarding 💪

[Grant Schroeder]

Thank you for the shoutout @Lawrence Potts! Appreciate you! @Oliver Bernardo I am an investor and work with lots of BP investors in TN. I would be glad to hop on a call with you this week and talk strategy if you would like? Let me know what works best for you!

[Bailey Frye]

Hey Oliver!

Me and my team all operate in the Nashville area and specialize in investment properties in the Nashville and surrounding markets. We do approximately $40M+ of business per year across all areas of real estate but with a large portion of that being investment properties, especially multifamily properties. I'd be happy to chat with you and pass along the lenders we use specifically for investment properties. Hope to chat soon!

[Charles Jabaley]

First of all, great choice investing in TN! More than a few good markets here to choose from. I'm in Chattanooga, and have an excellent referral partner in Nashville, so really just depends what market you're most interested in! Feel free to send me details of what your looking for! :)