As I have discussed before, it is extremely important to have a Realtor on your dream team. Not only can this person be a huge asset to you in growing your business by bringing you quality leads, they can also be a huge asset to your team by helping you get your houses sold quickly and with the least amount of hassle.
Once you have a Realtor you know and trust helping you sell your houses, this part of your business will also become a “machine” and you will be able to get house after house sold even when your competitors can’t.
There are several things you need to know when pre-qualifying a Realtor to sell houses for you.
1. How long have they been in the business and how familiar are they with your local market ?
2. Are they “hungry”? What I mean is- do they have more listings than they can handle or will they take a personal interest in getting your property sold?
3. In addition to taking a personal interest in your properties, will they give you a discount off their commission for volume of listings? If you are working with a Realtor who is “hungry” and who has foresight they will give you volume or “wholesale’ pricing.
4. Do they understand creative financing options such as lease/option, Lease/purchase, owner-held purchase money mortgages, and interest –only balloon second mortgages and are they will to get creative in their offer making process on your properties. One way to sell properties quickly is to offer creative ways for prospective buyers to purchase them. If they Realtor you ask these questions of gives you a perplexed look, he or she may not be the person you are looking for to sell your properties.
5. If you have luxury properties, are they willing to do extra marketing and have open houses to show your homes? Do they have multiple ways to market these properties such as newspaper, website, and multiple Real Estate books?
6. Does your Realtor have a list of prospective buyers looking to purchase certain types of homes? Any Realtor who has been in the business for a long period of time usually has a list of buyers who are already qualified to purchase homes in certain prices ranges, neighborhoods, or school districts. This is a great way for you to work with your Realtor to put the buyer and the home together.
7. Speaking of pre-qualifying, is your Realtor going to make sure your buyers are pre-qualified before wasting your time and theirs by writing a contract on a buyer who can’t qualify to buy the home? If they don’t pre-qualify your buyers, you end up having your property tied up by a buyer who can’t buy the home. Even when a listing says “back up offers needed”, most buyers will move right onto the next property that actually is available for purchase.
8. Is your Realtor also an Investor? Many times when you meet Realtors at your local real estate club they are also investors. You want to make sure that your Realtor is trustworthy and Ethical. You don’t want a Realtor who is going to try to siphon good deals away from you.
9. Ask the Realtor if they are working for a local company or part of a big franchise. You want to make sure you are working with someone who has decision making power when you are in the heat of negotiations. You want to be working with someone who can negotiate a commission adjustment quickly in order to make a deal come together. If they have to stop to ask the permission of someone in their office, you may lose a good potential sale altogether.
10. Make sure your Realtor or someone in their office is able to work with non-English speaking sellers. This is a whole sector of the market that a lot of Realtors don’t and can’t work with. We just had a closing recently where there were two interpreters involved in the closing because the buyers didn’t speak English.
Many of your competitors don’t consider these details when selecting a Realtor to work with. These are all key issues when choosing someone to sell your properties for you. Usually my Realtor pretty much has the deal all done and in place the way I want it before he even brings the offer to me.
Much of the time, my Realtor will also help prospective buyers get qualified and procure financing to purchase my properties. He also works with other investors and there are times he will bring potential buyers and potential deals to me because he knows we also do hard money lending. So when he sees a deal we may be interested in financing for an investor, he will bring those deals to me to take a look at. You see, older, more experienced Realtors seem to have a knack for locating alternative sources of funding for their buyers. Unfortunately, some of the new Realtors have no clue about various funding source or special programs that might be available for buyers.
So this is another relationship I have with my Realtor that continues to bring me additional income and helps him get properties closed for other clients, once again creating a win-win solution for all parties involved. All of your relationships with your vendors should create win-win situations for all of the parties involved.
Because we have worked together for a long time, he knows exactly what issues are important to me when offers come in and he will contact the seller or the Realtor who is representing a seller to make sure all of my conditions are met before he brings me any offers on my properties. This kind of symmetry comes from a long-term communicative relationship which has developed over time. You don’t need to actually be “friends” with your Realtor, there just needs to be a mutual respect and specific instructions as to the way you want things handled.
My Realtor will also check my properties for me to make sure there are no issues that need to be addressed such as broken windows, cleaning or high grass. He also knows who to contact to get these issues handled for me without me having to be involved at all. This has all come from a mutually profitable, long-term relationship with the Realtor I work with. Make sure you are working with one person exclusively and this relationship will be much easier for you to build.
Also make sure you are working with a Realtor who is going to stay involved all the way through the closing process. Once the deal is concreted, I am usually not involved in the closing process at all until it’s time to get the check. Even then, the Realtor I work with brings it to me. This is just another way to automate systems in your business to get others doing all the work for you so you can concentrate on buying houses or commercial properties or whatever type of real estate deals interest you.
For more information on building your dream team, visit my website at marketingmagiclady.com.