I done my fair share of interviewing real estate agents to work with over the years that I’ve been investing, but over the last 10 days as I am actively looking for agents in many markets at the same time I have had what I consider a massive increase in experience that I’d like to share with you.
First, before I get started, I have a very extensive resource on both How To Select A Real Estate Agent (links on this page are to exclusive resources for our Real Estate Investor Bronze Members) to work with as well as Real Estate Agent Interview Questions that cover those steps. Now that I’ve got that out of the way, here’s some insight based on having 614 real estate agents request to work with my in the last couple of weeks.
It may not surprise you, but I admit that even though I expected it, I was still a bit surprised to see just how different agents are. I’ve seen everything from an outright desperate real estate agent that told me (in the first e-mail) that I needed to buy a house from him that week because he absolutely needed the money to an agent that within 2 e-mails was using extremely inappropriate racial slurs to describe something I was asking about. I’ve seen agents that told me they should work with me because the investors that bought houses from them seemed happy to people giving me hard numbers about I find deals that are 50% of value that can be sold quickly for at least $10K in profit.
There were agents that were amazing and that I am really excited to work with and ones that I cringed to even reply to their initial e-mail because I could just tell it was not going to be pleasant. I found agents making demands before we even communicated and agents that I felt would do anything to be of service. I found ones that aggressively tried to call me (before I was ready to be called in the screening process) and ones that I felt would never call me even I called them ten times.
In conclusion, the couple weeks and several hundred agents have proven to me that there are some amazing agents out there that really will help you make money and make your life as an investor easier and more profitable and then there are management nightmares that will drain your energy and put you in any property to make a commission. Take your time and interview several until you find the right one that works for you and what you are looking to do.
Until my next post,
James
