If you know anything about us or read our stuff you'll know we’re DEFINITELY not saying this is the ONLY way to get started...but it is A way...and it does work...

When you first get started, you need massive movement. So search every where for real estate deals.
I would:

Get 3-5 brokers looking for property for you.

Call all the I Buy Houses ads in the paper and on road signs- find out what they're looking for

Go to http://www.realtor.com and look for property yourself. You can search using various criteria.

Check out http://www.netronline.com (court house on line--foreclosures) and http://www.hud.gov for foreclosure properties.

Meet every agent/broker, mortgage officer, CPA and RE attorney you can find

Tap a group of professional investors for investments (like HIS Network I work with).

Join investor REIAs and network with people there.

Place a gold mine ad. "I buy property any price, shape, and condition".

Get biz cards done, and distribute, use vistaprint.com if you have to get very cheap.

Let your friends and family know. You know about 300 people. Some one is looking for a house, and someone is selling one. They are more likely to do a deal with you than anyone.

Keep your motivation high. The first few weeks, and months are the tough ones as you build your power team of professionals and network.

do you tell each of the 3-5 agents that you are working with up to 4 other agents?

hisrealestate,

if you dont feel comfortable answering this on an open forum could you send me a pm?

Investing is an entirely different ball game from residential sales.

Real Estate Agents tend to think in terms of "owning" a client be they a seller or buyer.

Experienced investors don't care or want an agency relationship. They want a deal that makes sense to them, where ever it comes from.

I buy 3-5 properties a year and am trying to increase that amount to 3-7 per month. Most realtors want to show me retail houses and retail houses don't work for my investing.

I have 1 Realtor who understands my investing needs. He pitches 1-2 properties a YEAR, most are not listed, but when he calls or Emails, I know it is a deal and not a retail property disguised as a bargain by some fluffy language or a 5% discount.

You can find a lot of properties with a much more than 5% discount in MLS, but MLS is not the only source foe investment properties.

Viktor,

In my area, there are few "deals" on the MLS. Some but not many and they tend to be borderline. It all depends on what an investor considers a "deal"

I need a 15-20% equity position after all repairs/costs etc plus $150/month cashflow for a keeper rental.

For a rehab property, I need a 20% profit after ALL costs including purchase costs, repairs, holding costs, selling costs.
That means I typically have to buy at 60% of retail or much lower.

Most of my investor buyers that I wholesale properties to have the similar requirements give or take a few %. That means for me to get a spread on an assignment, I have to get the property even cheaper.

When the market turns around and we start having appreciation again, my margins can get a little leaner. For now, with prices stagnant or sagging, I need plenty of cushion to keep from getting an alligator.

I got sidetracked but it might still be beneficial for newbie investors.

My initial point is that most of the RE agents who want to work with investors don't understand our needs and send us properties that are not even close to working for our business model. When you find one that does, they are like gold!

Well there is nothing wrong with your business model except you won't get EXPERIENCED brokers-agents who are investors to go along with it.

What you want is for an agent to shotgun offers all over town finding that one motivated seller that meets you criteria.From a cost standpoint most agents would be better off representing homebuyers looking at foreclosures.The banks will much more likely take a 15 to 20 percent hit than a 50 percent hit and the homebuyers will be happy with the little equity they get.

I see it all the time new investors wanting a house with alittle carpet and paint and at 50 percent to 60 percent value.Most of the time it's not going to happen folks.Assett managers for banks now the ones with just a little cosmetic work they can sell to retial buyers for 85 to 90 percent of the bpo-appraisal.The banks do dump properties for 50 cents on the dollar when they have foundation issues,mold problems,electrical etc.The profit is made getting the repairs performed for less than retail when you purchase for CASH.Some pre-foreclosures will allow assignments but most banks won't now.


If I work on a short sale or find a great deal but my plate is full I am not going to get a crappy say 2k commission on it.The investor WILL pay a 10k assignment fee or commission increase before the property is shown.

I understand how investors work because I am one and new agents will go shotgunning stuff all over the place for a pittance but they don't know what they are doing either.

Brokers-agents if you want to get paid CONTROL the property!Either through listing it or having it under assignment in the contract.If they want the deal they won't be able to screw you for there greed they will have to play fair on your terms or they won't get the property.

Most investors aren't investors but wannabes who have read a book,have no credit,no cash (gave it to the hucking guru's what little they had and want you to perform the impossible)

Brokers just remember the cash return for the time invested.There are many avenues where the time invested will be shorter and the cash return greater.

Super Realtor,

Exactly my point. The one agent who understands my needs as an investor "keeps an eye open" for me. He is not shot gunning me a bunch of junk off the MLS. When he comes across a deal that does not meet his investment model, he contacts his preferred buyers list and either acts as an agent and gets a commission with almost zero work (cash deal, quick close, no contingencies) or he will tie up the property and assign the contract.
I am not his client and he is not my agent.

He retails a bunch of houses as a "traditional agent" He buys a few himself as an investor, and he "flips" a few each year through assignments.

Unless an agent has a source of discounted properties, investors are not a very good fit. We usually need too big of a discount for listed properties to make sense.

I look at it this way. A listing agents job is to get as much as possible for a listing. An investor needs to get a property for as little as possible to have a profit on the back end when they sell so agents in general are working opposite the investor.

As an agent who needs to move property to get paid, who would you rather deal with, a retail seller/buyer who NEEDS to sell/buy or an investor who WANTS to buy a needle in a haystack deal?