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Team Building: Dealing With Selling Agents

How to be very choosy

In trying to figure out how to choose a Realtor for your investment property searching dealing with sales agentshelp, it is best to choose a reputable local area real estate agent with a broker’s license.  You’re not simply choosing an agent, as I outlined in my last article.  In the great debate over whether to use a real estate broker vs agent, the broker is always the one with the heavier experience, greater state-sponsored real estate education – and experience.  And by reputable, I don’t mean the one with simply the well-known hyper-local reputation for their salesmanship skills.  You know, the one with a plethora of listings, representing many different local sellers.  To the inexperienced eye, one might get the impression that these “local legends” of real estate are the go-to people to represent your interests.

Don’t be deceived

Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Consider these key elements in your analysisdealing with selling agents of who to hire as your agent – be it for buying or, when it comes time to sell, as your personal sales rep.  An agent who has a ton of property listings is going to be very busy, for sure.  Ultimately, how much time can they realistically devote to you as a buyer of investment property?  Also, consider that agents that primarily list properties are known as selling agents.  Temperamentally, they are more suited towards representing sellers, not buyers.  In this same mode, they will be ill-prepared to represent you as a buyer – let alone fully understand your needs as a buyer, and as an investor.

Using their connections

dealing with selling agentsIn addition, consider that primarily listing agents, while being well-connected with large numbers of family and friends within a community (probably an area they may have grown up in to boot) may be thought of as a major plus, but there is a downside…a big downside.  These same listing agents with the great local reputation for taking listings do just that – take listings.  They obtain most of their listings by breathing.  Years of family and friends throwing off sellers for them to represent have created what I call a monster.  The monster of not thinking much, not being able to think creatively, nor the ability to push hard for those they represent.  They are simply used to having listings handed to them.

Beware a stockpile of listings

These same listing agents with their perennial stockpile of listings don’t have to work hard for a living (if you think pushing paper is working hard).  They also tend to bedealing with selling agents removed from the most basic understanding of what they originally had to learn:  namely, their local state real estate law.  For example, I just ran into one Realtor in my area that was representing a seller.  And it has been a very ugly experience.  Items on her listing sheet did not match town records.  (And town hall and the local building department is the first place a proper listing agent needs to go when taking a listing – to ensure, or at least be able to explain, any discrepancy between town records and what is actually in a home.  In my example, she had never checked that town records showed a half-bath in the basement where a full bath actually existed.  When I questioned her about it for my buyer, she got extremely defensive, huffy and irate.  Eventually she came back to me with a statement that she has never met a Realtor who checks town records.  And, naturally, I have never met (until her) a Realtor that did not.

Speed to impress

So be very, very careful when interviewing these “know-it-all” agent types with their large stable of listings.  Instead, ask how they would represent you as your buyer’s dealing with selling agentsagent for investment property.  What exactly will they do for you, and how often?  At the very least, they should rattle of instantly that they will create automatic searches to be delivered daily to your email, of houses matching your criteria you’re looking for.  They should also impress you by their speed at getting back to you in simple communications, and their overall investment property knowledge.  Without a doubt, you must make sure they know how to read a pro forma income statement.  It’s also a good idea to work with someone who regularly works as a buyer’s agent, representing buyers’ interests (whether investor or not).  Buyer’s agents tend to be made up of a very different temperament than seller’s agents.  They tend to bend over backwards to please you, and are really excellent, by and large, at listening to what your needs list is, and make great suggestions as to how to acquire a property that fits your description.

Filling in another piece to your team

If you look more discerningly as you choose your Realtor to represent you, you will be able to fill in another excellent piece to your overall investment property team.  Make sure you ask the right questions, as outlined above.  And never go on a Realtor’s local “reputation” alone.  It could prove very misleading – and costly in the end for you.  This is because you ultimately may miss out on exposure to prime buying opportunities due to their gross incompetence.  Make sure the Realtor you select is proactive, and not used to their old way of doing business as usual.  It’s just one of the keys to investment property success.

 

photos courtesy of  orlando-mortgage.org, cutcaster.com, starproperty.my, redoaktx.org, yourdictionary.com

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Filed Under: Build Your Team, Featured Tagged With: broker’s license, buyer's agent, how to choose a Realtor, investment property, investment property buyer’s agent, investment property sales agent, investment property sales rep, real estate broker license, real estate broker vs agent, sales rep, salesmanship

Investment Property Marketing: Dealing With Selling Agents

Selling yourself or using a rep?

So you’ve made the decision to unload one of your investment properties.  What next?  Try to sell yourself, since you know you have mad salesmanship skills – or, hire a Realtor to market your building.  Let me let you in on a not-so-little secret:  Realtors dealing with selling agentscomprise quite a monopoly in the Unites States.  While you think real estate is much more egalitarian these days, what with easy access to oodles of data from the likes of Realtor.com, Zillow and Trulia, to name just a few sites where real estate information is right at your fingertips, think again.

Sellers of real property in the U.S. who use no representation make up a tiny fraction of the property selling marketplace.  And while you may be able to access tons of data quickly, easily, and at zero cost – beware.  The information you’re receiving is rarely totally accurate, and most importantly, you’re missing the choicest data – information only Realtors can access.  On top of that, if you try to sell yourself, the system is rigged so that Realtors will not show your property to prospective buyers, and you’ll be missing out on most of the buying public…

The Multiple Listing Service

Ultimately, the only way for you to have your property exposed to the full local marketplace of buyers, is to employ the services of a sales rep, namely, your own realdealing with selling agents estate agent.  However, the reality of this monopolized rigged system, is that the commission paid to Realtors is more than made up for by an increased sales price, due to the increase in demand created by the Realtor system of access to properties:  namely every local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in the country, which lists every Realtor-represented property on the market at any given time.

What a Realtor does

dealing with selling agentsA Realtor definition is an agent that represents a seller (or a buyer) in a real estate transaction.  They are trying to obtain the best price and terms for the property they represent.  This is also known as a fiduciary trust.  In effect, as an agent,  they owe allegiance to their seller (or buyer).    (A buyer’s agent  looks to obtain the best deal for his buyer.  And the opposite is true for a seller’s agent.)   All Realtors are licensed by their respective state that they work in.

Real estate broker vs agent

The difference between a real estate broker and an agent is simple:  a higher level of state-sponsored real estate education requirements is completed by the broker compared with a real estate agent.  Thus, to obtain a real estate broker’s license, more training hours are required on a greater breadth of real estate related material than is required for a real estate agent.  Regardless, either is known as a Realtor, and each has the same requirements of fiduciary responsibility to a seller or a buyer.

How to choose a Realtor

The choice of your Realtor to represent you is a key one before marketing your property.  Interview several Realtors, and ask them to generate a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) for you.  The CMA will show several comparable properties that have sold recently in your area, and the Realtor will come up with a market valuation of yourdealijng with selling agents property based on the selling prices on these comparable properties.  Do not choose your Realtor strictly on which one supplies you with the highest market value for your property!  (An asinine trick some unscrupulous Realtors use is to overinflate the market value of your property in hopes of “winning” you as their agent. )

Use logic when choosing your Realtor.  Make sure the comparables he/she  used are truly similar to your property.  If one valuation is so much higher than all the others, be very suspect.  These bad eggs like to “control the listing,” and, once they have you signed up with them,  will eventually get you to knock your price down as time goes on without a sale.  Again – stay away from these devious Realtors!  They give Realtors in general a very bad reputation.

Utilizing common sense

In addition, look for the Realtor that uses the most common sense, and can talk to you easily – and straight.  You’ll want a sales rep that will be in constant contact with you – and one that knows how to re-orient the marketing of your property as showings of it go on, and feedback is retrieved.  A good Realtor knows how to break blunt news about how the buying public is seeing your property to their seller in a very frank way.

 

photos courtesy of denalipm.com, stjoerealtor.com, ericksonsdrying.com

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Filed Under: Featured, Marketing Tagged With: broker’s license, buyer's agent, dealing with selling agents, how to choose a Realtor, real estate broker license, real estate broker vs agent, Realtor definition, sales rep, salesmanship

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