Using Realtors To Find Leads For Your Real Estate Investing Business

There are several ways to use a Realtor to help you find good quality leads for your real estate investing business. If you have not already added a good Realtor or Realtors as a part of your real estate investing dream team, now would be a good time to do so. There are many types of leads your Realtor can generate for you so let’s discuss them one at a time.

The first service your Realtor should provide for you as a real estate investor is to e-mail you the expired listings on a regular basis. You will need to set up a way for your Realtor to be paid for providing these leads. One of the ways I provide payment to the Realtor I work with is to re-list some of these properties with the Realtor once I am ready to sell them. You see the Realtors I work with sees the “bigger picture” and you need to find someone willing to work with you on a long-term basis.

You need to take the time to find a Realtor who is very creative in the way they provide leads and sell properties for real estate investors, just as I have done in my own business. And you should be working with multiple Realtors in your business in order to find a variety of leads.

In addition, with as many pre-foreclosures as there have been in our current market, I have my Realtor provide me with pre-foreclosure leads. These are sellers who are simply willing to walk away from the property and who are at least two months behind on payments. These are ideal short sale leads you should be working. Your Realtor’s commission is figured into the closing costs. If you get a short sale with significant discounts, you can resell these homes for retail significantly under their retail value to move them quickly. Or you can simply add these properties to your portfolio of rental or lease/option properties and sell them later.

Another service your Realtor needs to provide is to send you MLS listings with “key words” in them as soon as they show up on the MLS. For example, they should be looking for listings that would stand out for a real estate investor. Some key words in the listing might be “seller motivated”, “needs TLC”, “handyman special”, “in foreclosure”, “creative financing available”, “bring all offers”, “fixer upper”, etc. These key words in a listing let the Realtor and the investor know that these sellers are motivated to sell properties quickly and they may be open to creative offers. I usually buy one to two properties a month just from MLS listings.

I recently purchased a property where the listing said “fire sale”. What the Realtor was trying to convey was that the seller needed to sell quickly. Unfortunately the message the Realtor conveyed was the property had burned, which it hadn’t. Many investors were put off by that listing, but my  Realtor did a little homework and found out that the seller really needed to sell. I got a really great deal on that property. So make sure that as a Real Estate Investor you are working with a Realtor who is going to work diligently for you.

Another way for your Realtor to find really good leads for your real estate investing business is to provide you with old MLS listings. These are the ones that are almost expired, but not quite. These are the sellers who are not only tired of having prospective buyers trounce through their property, they are ready to sell!! These are very good leads for the real estate investor.

Your Realtor can provide you with daily lists of new listings within certain parameters that you set up so you can customize the listings that you are getting daily. So in my business, not only am I looking for daily listings of single family homes within certain parameters, I am also looking for multi-family properties. So you can customize the listings that your Realtor sends you each day by the types of properties you want in your business.

When you have Realtors in your business who work with you regularly, you will also end up buying properties that never hit the MLS for whatever reason. I bought a house just this month where the seller contacted one of our Realtors and needed his house sold quickly even though it was in terrible condition. My Realtor called me and we put the deal together immediately. So there are lots of great ways Realtors can be a real asset to your business.

For more information on locating motivated sellers for your real estate investing business and working with Realtors in your business, visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at www.marketingmagiclady.com.