As a real estate agent, you know that landing investor clients can be a huge win for your business because investors potentially buy, and even sell, over and over again.
However, do you know what investors want and expect from their agent? The following five things are likely what investor clients are asking for (even if they aren’t saying it).
1. Give more than automated MLS searches
As a real estate investor myself, I worked with two Realtors before getting my own real estate license. I had an aggressive growth strategy. My aim was to buy a house every two weeks.
Within a year and a half, I acquired 35 properties, so I came fairly close to hitting the mark.
However, despite the amount of business I was bringing each of these agents, they simply put me on auto-pilot by sending me automated emails from MLS and waiting for me to respond.
To keep investors coming back, show them the personal service you show all of your clients.
2. Show more than the obvious
Especially for newer inexperienced investors, being able to point out the not-so-obvious about a property will really help you to add value in the mind of your client.
Here are a few things your investor clients will find beneficial:
- Whether the property is in a flood plain
- Average cost of utilities
- Crime statistics for the area
- Quality of nearby schools
- Whether the seller is motivated
- Property issues noted on seller’s disclosure
- Property taxes
- Estimated rent they can charge
3. Know what your investor clients want
Knowing exactly what people want can be tough. After all, people don’t always know what they want.
However, once you’ve done a few deals with an investor client, you should be developing a fairly keen understanding of what property characteristics they are looking for.
As an investor, it can be frustrating, not to mention time-consuming, to research and tour properties that are not the right fit.
Being able to identify the right deals with great precision, will increase your chances of your investor clients sticking with you for the long haul.
4. Be proactive
Setting up an automated MLS search and walking away is being inactive. Engaging with your client only when they reach out to you is being reactive.
Doing MLS research, pulling CMAs, doing preliminary tours of properties — without the client even asking — are examples of being proactive.
Be the kind of agent you want to be, but if an investor client is bringing you a lot of easy business, he or she likely expects you to be proactive.
After all, if the clients are the ones being proactive, at some point, they might just get their own real estate license and take the commission themselves. Hey — that’s what I did.
5. Sell them
Investors don’t want their agent to just write up the offer, and email it over the listing agent.
Because investor offers tend to be on the low end of the price spectrum, investors expect their agents to pick up the phone, call the listing agent and sell the listing agent (and ultimately the seller) on what a serious investor they are — someone who never backs out of a deal, can pay with cash, can close early, will take the property “as-is” — whatever it may be.
I realize much of this would be stated in the offer, but selling your client will likely increase the chances of you, and your client, landing more deals.
Conclusion
As agents, we all know that real estate is a competitive field, so it’s vital to do all we can to keep our clients happy — especially the ones that bring us repeat business.
It all boils down to our clients seeing the value in what we do. If our clients see that our services add value to their business, they will stick around longer, and that’s good for everyone’s business!
Brandon Jones is a licensed Realtor, real estate investor, and the founder of RealEstateHacks.net. He resides near Springfield, Missouri, with his wife and two sons.
