How to become an "investor friendly" realtor

Question

Newly licensed realtor in Texas, with some personal real estate investment background.  I want to start out "investor friendly" before becoming realtor-trained! Any advice on how to develop investor relationships and learning their strategies and goals is greatly appreciated. Looking for baby steps and mentoring at this point, with the ultimate goal of becoming the investor.

John Knisely · Answer

@Jennifer Marshall, it definitely helps if you have investments of your own and have "been there". One thing that surprised me when I initially got my license was how most of the top performing agents in my office didn't also invest. Investors are definitely going to be drawn to someone that understands that cashflow is far more than a rent-mortgage equation too, so education from places like BP is great.Network is huge as an investor friendly agent. If there are any mentors you can link up with at your company then that would be a good start. Also, attend as many possible local REIA meetings to network and develop relationships with the investors in your area. Find out what they need more of in their business and how you can offer that or help them find it. If this is a second job for you, it can be tiring to work an 8 hour day then go right to another few hours of networking events, but it is very important to establish these relationships and nurture them from day 1.

Debra Grumbach · Answer

hmmmm... being a good realtor for an investor would include - UNDERSTANDING WHAT THE INVESTOR IS LOOKING FOR,  not being afraid to negotiate for the investor, not being afraid to write a "low ball" offer, being able to present a low ball offer as a GOOD DEAL to the seller, pointing out listings that have sat on the market for an extended period of time, finding "stinky" properties, really knowing the trends as they are starting (and knowing when they are ending/slowing down/etc), what areas are GETTING hot before the temp really goes up, expired listings (these are listings that never sold) or those that have been listed half a couple of times without selling, and bird dogging when you are doing showings to any client (what houses in the same neighborhood might have FSBO signs or show signs of distress) and simply UNDERSTANDING HOW TO ANALYZE the properties fro cash flow.

Jennifer Marshall · Answer

Thanks for the info! I plan to attend Reia meetings as much as possible, and utilize BiggerPockets resources. Having invested and flipped before, I completely understand the perspective of not needing a realtor to find your deals. But having learned so much recently, realize it can be a huge assistance to investors working with realtors who know how to manipulate the mls to pull potential investment properties.

Michael Plante · Answer

personally in investing in real estate for over 30 years I've never had a real estate agent bring me a deal I've always found my own

As simply following properties for sale is interested in then contacted the listing agent

But not sure that really would be anyway to become investor friendly real estate agent except by listing properties that are attractive to investors

How to become an "investor friendly" realtor

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