Finding Great Deals Through Real Estate Agents

In your search for great deals, you are probably utilizing all of the resources that you know of to find the next deal worthy of your investment time and money. This probably includes scouring craigslist ads, calling on FSBOs, and following up on your own marketing if you have any out. You may also be using a real estate agent as a source for deals. As the number of bank owned properties on the market increases, real estate agents are especially useful as sources to find and negotiate these types of deals.

However, you may need to train your real estate agent to cater to your particular needs as an investor. While there are some great investor friendly real estate agents out there, there are also many agents with little experience dealing with investing or dealing with investors. These agents can still hook you up to good deals, but

Follow up:

you will need to explain to them the types of things that you, as an investor, need to see in a deal. That way they can stop wasting your time by putting you on a drip campaign that emails you every new 3 bed, 2 bath property that gets entered into the MLS.

Specifically, you should let them know that you, as a real estate investor, require one or more of the following things in a deal before you will even take the time to look at it:

Significantly below market price

Make sure that it is below current market price, not just last year's sale price. Let them know what you need to make on a deal and request that they only show you houses that meet or are close to meeting your criteria.

Positive cash flow

If you are looking for properties with positive cash flow, let your agent know that. Explain to them how you calculate your cash flow (yes, people calculate this different ways). Let them know what your criteria is in regards to cash flow and have them only show you those.

Motivated seller

A motivated seller means that the price and/or the terms should be negotiable. Even a full price deal with little else to recommend it could become attractive if you, as the investor, are able to negotiate really good price and/or terms because of motivation. Motivation opens the door to negotiate so you want to explore properties where the seller has showed signs of motivation.

Owner Financing

Owner financing can often be negotiated with a motivated seller, so, frequently signs of motivation may indicate that this is a possibility to be explored. A word of caution though: make sure that your agent knows that sellers who advertise in the MLS that they are offering owner financing are frequently other investors themselves. These are not the deals that you want, so make sure that your agent knows the difference.

All in all, agents can be excellent sources for deals, and many of them have lots of experience with investing that you can benefit from. That said, make sure that they know what your criteria as an investor is to make it easier for you to sift through the pre-screened deals that they bring to you.