What Qualities should your agent have?

The ability to sell, and more importantly to listen. I am selling a property as we speak and the agent I had first listed the property with had decided to shotgun everyone and anyone through the doors in the hopes of getting a contract. to the extent that he took a mother and son through who wanted a two storey house with self contained downstairs living unit (granny flat) through and then wondered why i delisted the proeprty with him?

Basically if you cant listen to the customers you sure as hell cant listen to your clients. therefore no deal…

Stuart Milne

To have a clue about what the words “investment property” mean!

I am an investor that had to get an agent’s license to do what I have always been doing. Before I got a license, I thought that I knew alot more about investing than the average agent. Now I’m absolutely sure of it!!!

The general consensus agent’s have is that investment properties are those things purchased by “rich” people because “they can afford them”

Investors are rich because they were born that way, someone came and gave them money to buy properties with.

They have no concept of leverage!

They advertise that they will find you a good tenant that will “look after your home”
No concept of risk management or vacancy control, might as well offer to wrap the “home:” in cotton wool to protect it from those bad tenants that just want to put marks in the walls!!!

I see them and deal with them every day and as an investor agents just FRUSTRATE THE HELL OUT OF ME!!!!!!

We are looking for staff for our business at the moment, I can very easily walk into the real estate institute and ask for suitable candidates, but they will give me agents trained by agents. I would rather take an investor and train them to list, sell or property manage rather than take an agent and expect them to grow some kind of intelligence!!!!

Investment Property Management
http://www.adprop.com.au

Dr X

I totally agree with you, about the majority of real estate agents, they dont see the picture from the investors eyes. I dont know how many times i asked questions of them, and they have had no idea about property investing.

To have a clue about what the words “investment property” mean!

I am an investor that had to get an agent’s license to do what I have always been doing. Before I got a license, I thought that I knew alot more about investing than the average agent. Now I’m absolutely sure of it!!!

I have been an investor for the last ten years, and have joined the ranks of being a real estate agent myself in the last 12 months. I was offered the position when the local agent discovered i was moving into one of the properties that they were managing. Property Investing was something that i have a passion for, and seen it as a natural progression of my investing in property.

In the small town that i live and work, i would predict that 50% of them are investors. I get a kick out of hearing successful stories and admire those that are in the process of buying and building there portfolios.

An agent could easily increase his sales by asking vendors to supply a depreciation schedule, or just simply have the information that investors want to hear at hand, return on investment, capital and rental growth over set period. People expect and deserve to hear back from agents on the same day, even if they are unable to get the O&A signed, or just dont have the information, they want to be kept informed and treated as if there enquries or concerns are important.

Often people sell there home when they dont have to, the equity that they have, can enable them to still hold on to there home as an investment property and still be able to relocate or buy elsewhere. Often i will let clients know that there is other options, and have missed out on sales, but i know that a good turn will be eventually repaid in the future, and when they are ready to buy a property in my area, that they will most likely give me a call.

I only work part time, 2 days a week, and it certaintly is a job that has its draw backs, low income, unable to borrow to continue investing, despite heaps of equity. It is not a job that i would even consider doing in the city, as it is a very cut throat industry, where people easily lose their values of integrity, loyalty and trust in exchange for financial self gain.

Regards

Wayne

I don’t know the answer to how you combat ‘listing buying’. It is endemic in the industry – it’s very difficult to get a listing without doing it unfortunately. Having said that, I know some very successful (and truthful) agents. It took a long time and lots of hard times, but the people in their neighborhood know and respect them and they get the business.

On getting educated; do what we have all done;
read lots and lots of books on investing, learn all the strategies, terms and words associated with investing and get out there and buy one or two I.P properties yourself to get some hands on experience.

If you have been in the r/e industry for a while you should have a good head-start on it, but investors want to know the ‘nuts and bolts’ side of the equations – not just that it has 3 beds and a new walk in robe in the master bedroom.

Things we like to know about are;
what is the rent return, rental vacancy rate, depreciation, interest rates, outgoings on the property such as rates, water, body corp fees, stamp duty, landlord insurance, management fees, proximity to amenities such as schools, parks, shops, transport.
The size of the building, when it was built, land size, zoning, future plans by the local council which may affect the neighborhood.
Local and (more importantly – reliable) pest/building inspectors and tradesman.
These are just a few aspects.

Cheers,
Marc.
[email protected]

I agree with most of the above.

One thing about handing low balling offers to the vendors. You as the agent have a reponsibility to submit all offers. That does not mean that you should not tell your clients what you think about the offer and advise them strongly against signing. Alternatively you can send signals to the buyer indicating that the buyer definetly will not look at any offer below asking price, or that the property has generated quite a bit of interest, so low balling will not be successful. But the experienced buyers will know it that is one of your standard lines or if you are genuine.

One mistake I think a lot of agents do is that they think because I am working for the vendor I cannot build up a good relationship with the buyers/investors. Take them serious as well.
Listen, listen, listen. Ask questions to find out more what they are after. I generally appreciate if the agent makes a pre selection on his/her list and lets me know why he thinks this property may suit my needs.

Find out if investors are looking to subdivide, renovate, just sit and hold. If you think what possibilities of value adding a property has, you can also suggest this to potential buyers and get them interested because you give them ideas. If you have the time, a few phone calls to the relevant authorities may give you leverage.

All these ideas above are basically value adding. Compare yourself to a sales person in a hardware shop. If he/she is a tradesperson, has used the products before and is able to give the buyers help in completing their project, he will be successful without having to buy his/her business with super specials. But be careful, you don’t want to tell a tradie how to do his job.

Another area that will improve your leverage is to be in good contact with your property manager and know for each of your property what it would get in rent, what the current vacancy rates are, median rents (current and past). You may want to introduce potential buyers to your property manager. If he/she is good, the investor may come back and let you manage the property, even so you did not have a suitable property to buy. This way your company gets some business out of the investor and a good chance of a later sale.

I would also read diffent books about property investing to understand different philosophies. Steve’s followers are mainly looking to create cashflow positive deals. Other investors concentrate on other strategies. If you know how the buyer thinks, you are better able to help him/her.

If you have the time/inclination, you may even want to do some investing yourself. I would do this outside your normal area. Apart from making some money along the way, it would open your eyes to what investors are looking for.

Good luck

Contrarian,

Have we had one too many bad experiences with real estate agents?

Finding the right agent can be a useful investing tool in your journey to building your investment portfolio.

Wayne

You should be able to relate to your agent, just plain comfortable with who they are!

http://www.goals2gether.com
Commit your goals to the entire community! Find a partner and achieve your goals together! Goals2gether.com is the place to find real help from people who have and are achieving the same goals as you!

“The truth was that the vendor would have accepted a lower offer, we knew it and the other agent knew it, however, that information should be kept confidential, not for purchasers to know EVER!!! “

I think there is a fine line between keeping this information confidential and also getting the sale. If the vendor is desparate and somebody is obviously not putting in an offer at the asking price, I do not think it is against the vendors interest to indicate to the buyer that a lower offer may be accepted. There is certainly an art to it. And the agent should only give the buyer information that does not ‘hurt’ the vendor.
In your example enticing an offer of $25,000 below asking price may be a win-win. The buyer thinks he gets a bargain and the vendor still gets $25,000 more that his minimum sale price.
This is were a good agent also knows his market.