Utilizing Real Estate Brokers To Find Great Deals

[MultiplyMyIncome]

There are so many different deals out there in any real estate market.

How can you find the best deals? How can you properly prescreen potential deals? The best use of your time as an investor is actually screening properties and not getting totally bogged down trying to gather information that a licensed broker can and should do for you. In other words, you do what you're best at and let them do what their best at.

Brokers clearly earn their commissions by making it easier for investors and other prospective buyers to purchase properties on the market. Part of their job is to collect whatever information the investors and buyers will need to complete a potential purchase.

Some things you can ask brokers to do for you to get your pipe line built up:
1. Gather comparables for any property they bring you. I suggest gathering at least 3-6 comparables for the value as is today and 3-6 comparables for the value after any developments and repairs.
2. Aerial photos of the property clearly outlined so you can get a good idea of it's boundaries.
3. Plot plan for the land only deals or plot plan and existing structure shown for buildings with improvements already on there
4. Are Town or City utilities at the site: water, sewer, electric, gas.
5. Amount of road frontage
6. Current Zoning.
7. Highest and best use zoning if they're suggesting a zoning change.
8. Any wetlands or flood plains on or near the property.
After receiving all this data, it's still good for you to confirm some or all of it by calling the city officials and or other contacts for the related info.

[fractional-homes]

Brokers clearly earn their commissions by making it easier for investors and other prospective buyers to purchase properties on the market. Part of their job is to collect whatever information the investors and buyers will need to complete a potential purchase.

Thanks for the great info! We have done something similar and had some great success. We do fractional ownership of luxury vacation homes around the world. We often partner with local brokers at a certain destinations that we have strong interest. They help us identify the properties that meet our criteria.

[Codythebest]

Well, I tend to disagree in regards of using a broker for an investor.
The day a broker will bring a super deal on the table for an investor is not tomorrow. Once all numbers are compiled by the broker, who can see the potential, he'll buy for himself. It happens on a daily basis and it even happened twice for me that the broker told me, as investor, that the deal was so good, searching for me, that he bought the place instead of telling me!!
That's exactly why I passed my license 8 years ago...

[Orlando MLS]

I'm always amazed at why investors travel so far for investments.

Get to know one area and farm it. In five square miles you'll most likely find more deals that you could ever possibly handle on your own.

Understand one area exclusively. Pretty soon you'll be the goto guy/girl. You won't need appraisals or CMA's, cause you'll know the value of homes just by looking at the neighborhood, condition of the house, sq. footage etc. In other words, you'll know a steal when you see one.

Do this and partner with a few area specialists and work with these realtors in conjunction with your own farming.

[portland real estate]

Yes, all of that is valuable information, and it can be time consuming to gather it together.

I also agree that real estate is local, and their are a lot of benefits to getting to know a local market if you plan to do any investing. There are so many nuances to an area, and when you really know an area well, you don't even think about adding them into your valuations.

[jessiesc]

I agree, real estate is local and IMO using a local expert is always preferable to going it alone.

Also, I tend to disagree that when a broker finds a good deal they purchase it themselves.

Not all brokers/agents invest in real estate for themselves. If they do, their investment strategy may be quite different then that of their clients.

Brokers and agents continue to be prosperous by finding good deals for investors, getting referrals and helping investors make money.

Best of luck.

[Malok]

I agree, real estate is local and IMO using a local expert is always preferable to going it alone.

Also, I tend to disagree that when a broker finds a good deal they purchase it themselves.

Not all brokers/agents invest in real estate for themselves. If they do, their investment strategy may be quite different then that of their clients.

Brokers and agents continue to be prosperous by finding good deals for investors, getting referrals and helping investors make money.

Best of luck.

Great post Jessie.

Yes, there are absolutely a lot of scumbags out there.

But there are some decent persons as well.

The first question that gets asked by many skeptics is: "If its such a great opportunity, why doesn't the agent do the deal themselves?"


The answer can be lots of reasons: Perhaps they are leveraged on other investments. Perhaps it doesn't fit into their investment portfolio (i.e. they are buy and hold people, and its a fix & flip deal). etc etc

The list goes on and on.



The key is finding a competent & honest agent that has their client's best interests in mind. :)

[FlipItBig]

My agents have NEVER brought me a good deal. I believe that once a property hits the MLS it is not a deal. You gotta find em before that. If you are using an agent to find deals for you your wasting your time.

[Codythebest]

My agents have NEVER brought me a good deal. I believe that once a property hits the MLS it is not a deal. You gotta find em before that. If you are using an agent to find deals for you your wasting your time.

I agree. Once on the MLS, it is not what we can call a 'deal'.
That tends to confirm what I was saying regarding agent buying the 'deals' before they hit the MLS...

[jessiesc]

Investment agents do not rely completely on the MLS.

There are many ways for an agent to find and suggest investment opportunities.

Perhaps these agents that have not provided good investment opportunities, haven't had the means to offer anything other then MLS properties?

Once in awhile there are some good investments on a MLS, but that is rare and they move very quickly.

When searching for an investment agent, it is prudent to work with one that has experience as an investor, as well as experience with investment properties that match the investors strategy.

It's similar in nature to residential agents that "can" sell commercial real estate because they "are" licensed a real estate agent.

This doesn't necessarily mean they are qualified.

[brianlaughlin]

In my 17 years in real estate and investing I would say that is just not true. I can only speak for the California and Hawaii markets with specific examples, but I know of other investors that have done extremely well in other states where properties were listed on the MLS.

The keys to finding a good deal that I see tend to be: clarity of what a good deal means to the investor, deal setup, timing, negotiation and execution.

Having properties from the MLS + others only expands the pool of properties that you can find good deals.

I think the best way to prove an agents competence is meet with them and have them show you on the spot good deals. Either they know what they are doing or not and you can determine that at the time.

Most investors actually don't have a clue what a good deal means and when you tie that together with an agent who doesn't have investment experience then the outcome is usually disaster.

Regards,

Brian Laughlin