How Busy is Your Real Estate Agent?
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If you boil down all the slick marketing, the websites, the bus benches and the business cards with their 
pictures on them, Real Estate agents are just sales people. [Any real estate agent reading this, don't throw things at me]. We get paid by producing. Plain and simple.
Just like any sale profession, the better the agent is at their craft [selling real estate], the busier they should be, and therefore the more successful they should be. In this market, if your real estate agent is not working his tail off just to keep his head above water with the volume of transactions, well then, I suspect he one of the following:
- Worthless. S/he is either too new in the business or has not developed enough experience to find solid investors.
- Not an investment property agent. The average real estate agent is not doing great (that is why so many have left the business). Listing standard owner occupant houses is rough. Most will be overpriced and stay on the market for months. Investors on the other hand are out in full force and in some areas (like North Minneapolis) it is like a feeding frenzy.
I am not sure who I am writing this post to (agents or customers). I guess maybe both. As an investor, I would be cautious of the agent that is just sitting around in this market looking for business. As an agent, I would work hard to pick up some investor clients and light the world on fire.
Scott Ficek owns and manages almost 30 investment property units from single family to multi-family. Find his website at www.minnesotainvestmentrealestate.com or receive his blog via your RSS Feed or in your Email. He is also a Minnesota Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage Plus in Minneapolis and helps new and seasoned investors buy and own Investment Property.
Great post Scott. Finding a top realtor to work with when buying investment property really is crucial.
Finding an agent that actually works hard and will represent your best interest in this market is so crucial for long term success.
So true, I actually built a niche business out of the realities your describe. I looked at the numbers and found that out of over 20,000 licensed real estate agents in Minnesota that over 75% of them hadn’t even sold a single property in the last year and of the remaining 25% most hadn’t sold more than a one or two. Now I focus on connecting buyers and sellers with proven real estate professionals. In fact I recently has the opportunity to refer a buyer to Scott.