22 Questions to Ask a Realtor When No One is Looking

One of the challenges of working with Realtors is making sure that we are on the same page. Most Realtors are in the business of selling homes to retail end user buyers. This type of Realtor generally is not experienced in working with investors and may have been told by other agents or their broker not to bother with investors as we are to much trouble. Other agents are investor friendly and generate a large percent of their business through investors. These folks can be an asset to our business.

A good investor friendly agent can help you in the following areas:

They can provide a Competitive Market Analysis “CMA”. A “CMA” will tell you Average time on the market for properties in the immediate local market. They will indicate the completive listed properties and how long they have been on the market. Also the expired listings and withdrawn listings are reported in the CMA.

They can bring you “deals”. Active agents are talking to buyers and sellers on a regular basis. They can help you with buyers, sellers, renters, lease option “buyers” etc. Active Investor Friendly Agents know other like minded agents, other investors, funding sources as well as other investor resources such as appraiser’s attorneys, title companies contractors etc.

So how do you locate and qualify an investor friendly agent? Ask other investors, meet them at REIA Meetings (like Atlanta REIA), contact them in your travels etc. I occasionally drop in to small brokerage firms and ask the “duty agent” if they have any properties that meet my criteria.

I have a list of 22 questions to ask the Agent. This is from my Farming Class and is titled:

22 Questions to ask the Realtor when no one is looking.

Do you run into people who:

1. Can not qualify for a mortgage?
2. Have houses with little or no equity?
3. Know a seller that needs an offer?
4. Have houses that are tired?
5. Have houses that don’t show well?
6. Have houses that need repairs and they aren’t willing or able to make repairs?
7. Are distressed sellers?
8. Are sellers with lots of equity and don’t need the money right away?
9. Have estate situations?
10. Are embarrassed to show?
11. Are sellers with personal issues?
12. Are sellers who are about to louse their house through foreclosure or bankruptcy?
13. Are out of state sellers?
14. Are burned out landlords?
15. Are involved in a bad divorce?
16. Have title problems?
17. Have partnership problems?
18. Need to dispose of multiple properties?
19. Have a compelling reason to sell?
20. Own two houses?
21. Have a vacant house?
22. Do you personally invest in real estate?