As I continue to work on the vision for the Real Estate Financial Planner™ brokerage services, I stopped to asked myself what a real estate investor really wants from a investment real estate agent. The following is my list. It is based on three sources.
- My personal wants from my agent
- What I seen from my own investor clients
- What I’ve seen from investors attending my real estate investing seminars
Of course, I would like to hear specifically what you want in the comments below.
The Basics
First, there are the basics. Your real estate agent should be performing the minimum Uniform Duties required by law.
Note: We are a Colorado based company and these are based on Colorado law. Your state may have different Uniform Duties.
Beyond The Basics
Once we’ve agreed that your agent should do the bare minimum required by law, then we start to think about what else investors wants from their agents.
I think what real estate investors want will vary depending on what type of real estate investor they are and then what their goals are (usually based on what Phase of Financial Independence™ they are in).
Here’s a rough list of what I think real estate investors want:
- Return phone calls and emails
- Education
- Properties That Meet Their Needs
- Mentoring
- Help Thinking About and Modeling Their Investing Strategy and Plan
- Help Implementing Their Investing Strategy and Plan
- Tools – Ideally done-for-them tools, but at least examples of tools they can do themselves. Examples might include deal analysis spreadsheets, all the paperwork for screening tenants and managing rental properties.
- Checklists and systems
- Market knowledge, stats and information
- Buying and investing process knowledge
- Referrals to other team members
- Rent comps
- Networking opportunities with other local investors
Quid Pro Quo
Maybe I should make another list for this, but on the flip side, I think real estate agents would want the following from their real estate investor clients:
- The ability to perform (down payment and ability to get financing to buy the houses being shown)
- Loyalty… this is especially true when a real estate agent is doing a lot more than just writing contracts and cashing commission checks. If the agent is providing you education, property screening, mentoring, strategy and modeling help, investing strategy implementation help, tools, checklists and systems, stats and access to their team… they don’t want you to use another agent to buy the next deal.
- Referrals… be an advocate to refer other clients to them… agents are taught to spend up to half their day looking for clients… if an agent chooses instead to focus on adding value and attracting potential clients instead… it makes it easier for the agent to continue to add value by having their clients (who are receiving this extra value) help them find new buyer, seller and investor clients
- Appreciation… I know it goes a long way when a client goes out of their way to show some extra appreciation for the extra-ordinary level of service and value we add.
