honesty when dealing with realitors

Hi Siana, I have posted the same exact ad in Dean's book and got no serious response from it- serious meaning SOMEONE WHO IS READY, WILLING AND ABLE TO THREAD the journey with us. Most of the calls we got are from CURT , ARROGANT, RE BRokers who wants to SEE the money ,before they work for us.

I may try to go about how u intend to do it- meaning just stating that we are newbies- but i feel that Iam going to be eaten alive by these people.....

I hear you on that one! I feel the same way but what I keep telling myself is, 'you have looked a fool before and it didn't destroy you so if you look or feel a fool again oh well keep going only one way to get this done is to keep forging ahead.' I say that to myself so many times a day I don't even know how many.

When I come up with another way to word this I will be sure to post it here.

That said I am off to work on it.

OK I sat down and read and re-read the letter straight from the book and started changing every I to WE because it isn't just me in this I have a team member in my boyfriend. While doing this I started seeing how some things could be changed to better fit exactly what we are looking for. I mean the whole thing is to serve that purpose isn't it? We are advertising for a real estate agent who is willing to meet our needs so why not just ask for that out right?

Below is how I took that letter in PFRERN and changed it for what we are looking for. Any thoughts or opinions on it would be welcome.

Hi! We are Real Estate Investors in THE LOCAL AREA and are looking for a Real Estate Agent to represent us and be a part of our Power Team we are building in order to take advantage of the unique economic conditions real estate is facing right now!

We have set the goal to buy one hundred properties within the next 12-18 months. Some of these properties we will buy and hold ourselves, some of them we will sell to other investors and some we will buy, fix up and flip for ourselves. Regardless of the strategy we use on each property, we need to be very aggressive on the price we pay for the property, especially in the current market.

The agent we choose must be willing to 'think outside the box' as we use several strategies in order to buy and sell properties quickly, including making verbal offers when permitted. We will also look at a lot of properties and buy only a few. So an aggressive work schedule will be required.

The agent that we choose cannot be afraid to offend other agents with low offers. The agent we choose must have strong marketing skills, have dependable contacts with mortgage brokers, and property attorneys. The agent we choose must be willing to work in a team environment that is dedicated to building a real estate investment corporation.

The upside for the agent who gets accepted will be lots of commission. We will close on properties every month. We will pull in the agent on For Sale By Owner deals and any other deals we make. At times we will write additional commission into the contract when we ramp up to full speed.

All that aside, we are professionals and we expect to work with a professional. We want to make money and we want the agent to make money. Here are the type of properties we are looking to buy.

Single and Multiple Family Homes
1-4 bedroom,
1-2 baths at lease 600 sq. feet.
Trailers only with acreage and none built before 1985
no empty lots or acreage
If you have properties that fit this description or would like to represent us please email us at

That is what I just came up with. Any other ideas would probably help a lot of others struggling with this.

Our head line I am thinking should be
REAL ESTATE INVESTORS LOOKING FOR AN AGENT WILLING TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!

I dunno about that though because it might be a bit too strong.

hey, there are a lot of agents out there that don't like what your doing.So don't give up! Just keep trying until you get one that is open to learning new strategies.
If not, you can try FSBO, I found that to be the best way since you don't need an agent , you can deal with the owner directly. just look for homes that fit your buyers criteria and then try to lock them up and pass the deal to your buyer.
good luck
Richie.

I like your letter. I would suggest that you leave out the part on the subjest headline about thinking outside the box. Your letter explains your intentions well. You don't need to scare away agents before they read your letter.

Wish you success, Al

I really like your revised letter. I think it projects confidence in what you are doing. Thanks for sharing it with us all.

Bruce

Siana,

I totally agree with you about being upfront and honest. I commend you for wanting to do so. It may be harder and even take more time to find the right agent, but when you do you will be starting off on the right foot.
I am thinking long term so finding the right one is important to me, also. One I can build a long term relationship with that will be beneficial for all parties. One idea you should keep in mind. Find an agent or agents to get started with, but don't stop looking for the right agent. I expect I will have to work with others at first until I find the right one, which may take considerable time. You may find an agent that you can train to be the right agent, also. One that will learn from you etc.
I mentioned my ideas because it's sounds like you and your team has basically the same idea in mind.
Be honest with your headline also. You want something that will be an attention grabber. The body of the letter explains details. So short and to the point for a headline. I am thinking of something like 'REI team looking for an honest REA', or 'REI building long term honest team'.
They might wonder why you are building a team now. Did you have problems with a prior team? Are you a new begginner? Be prepared for questions like these, or even better answer them before they are asked.

Stick to your guns about your honesty. Don't lower your own personal standards make others raise thiers. If they don't, won't or can't then they are not good enough for your team.

Thank you for setting the right example with your beliefs on being honest.

Scott

Hello Siana,
I think that the rewrite on the letter is good. In fact I probably will use your idea as well.
It does say in the book that you should customize yhe letter to better fit your needs.
Another way that I will be using to "get my feet wet" in REI is this:
I have found some investors that will pay a bird dog fee for finding them properties. I will use this experience to learn and hopefully find buyers.
I have been concentrting on my buyers list because once you have buyers you have money, any agent that will not deal with someone that has money is not worth your time.
just my thoughts.
Bob

Taking a break from advertising I decided to check back in here. There are a lot of places to advertise FREE! I have noticed that some places will only allow you to place 250 characters when my original ad is 2124!!!! Getting it down to 250 took some crafty word arrangement let me tell ya!

StudentScott: Thank you for the headline tips! I actually used them! I hope that is OK with you.

I cannot tell you all how excited I am about getting some ads out there!! Anyone with any more ideas on this subject please post! Sometimes thinking outside the box requires a little assistance!

Thank you for all the great tips and ideas! keep em coming!

I just got off the phone with an agent who does nothing but work with REI's! We have set a face to face meeting for Monday and I am so excited!!!

I asked him to tell me a little about what he does and he said that he works with many different REI's across the country and that one thing he has learned is that every investor is different and uses many different strategies. He is open to any that we want to use and can assist us in using new ones if we are interested.

He knows we have NO MONEY and his response to that was, 'if you are serious in becoming investors and working with me that will not be a problem for long.'

Sounds like we have a winner but let us not count our chickens before they are hatched eh? I was just so excited about it I had to post! If I am correct this agent with his experience already and willingness to work with beginners and the fact that we have NO MONEY didn't even faze him well I believe we are abut to meet the ideal agent for new investors! Yippy!!

Loved the changes, mind if I use it?? BTW where did you advertise?

First off Thank you! Anything I post is fine by me to use as you will. As for where I posted I started with Craigs list and from there I went to Google and typed in Free Ads Online along with my area I used both the county and the town.

After that I just clicked on anything that looked good to post my ad on and posted it.

In addition to creating those ads I made fliers up and well the places you can put those things are limitless!

I took this a step further by going back to Craigs List where I looked up properties for sale by Real Estate Agent or by Broker. I did this because I found out by looking online and using the local yellow pages that no REA's lists their fax number! Well not in my area at any rate. I clicked on every single REA and brokers web site if it was listed and read everything they had on their sites about themselves. I also looked at the properties they had listed and from that information made the decision to contact them or not.

I then used their contact us link and filled out their little form and in the comment box I put:

Hello! We are Real Estate Investors in (your town and state) and are looking for a Real Estate Agent to represent us and be a part of our Power Team we are building in order to take advantage of the unique economic conditions real estate is facing right now!

If you would be interested in representing us or know someone who would please email us at (put your email here)

Thank you for your time,

(your name)

Then I just sat back and waited. I have had several emails and only one appointment with an agent scheduled.

An additional note:

The first response we had said, 'Hi! I saw your ad on craigs list and I would be great for you! call me!' then listed his name and number. I read that and hit DELETE. If he was so great for us he would have said a whole lot more than that! Just keep that in mind. I might be new at investing but if an agent is really going to work out well I believe their response to you should have some detail.

Hope that helps!

Wow, thanks I'm going to use all of your stratagies, I'll let you know how it turns out.

THAT IS FANTASTIC THAT YOU MADE CONTACT WITH A POTENTIAL REAL ESTATE AGENT that may be a WINNER for you.I t sounds like he is a person that will give you the chance to make both of you winners if you are SERIOUS!! these r the agents we need to find.i believe that in his experience with INVESTORS and or an investor himself he knows the potential in YOU!! congratulations
jay

I'm trying to buy a house for myself & finding a great agent is by far the hardest part!!They all say they will help & put you on the e-mail list for new propertys that might interest you.I need one that helps find that REO or such property the second it hits the MLS..Sorry slightly off topic but I needed to VENT!

Using the above method we found an agent who is VERY successful as a REI and as an REA. He is willing to answer any questions we have and will look at and advise us on any properties we are interested in. That is great because in doing this we will have first dibs on any properties we have found. We will also have the opportunity to earn a finders fee for those properties if we decide we cannot move on them but he can. In addition he has offered us to enter into a partnership with us if we can find a deal that he agrees is perfect for us but we cannot come up with all the money for the property.

All that is good, great even. It helps us earn a little bit of money while learning the ropes.

That aside we still need to find an agent who can help us find those properties in addition to working the 25:1 formula with us.

That said we are changing our strategy. Using Reality.com we find houses we are interested in then click on the realtors email for that property (or call) and make an appointment to view the listing. We also are asking to look at other properties like the one we inquired about.

We will then meet the agent and look at the property(s) with them. Going by what we think of the agent we will then make the decision to speak with them about assisting us or not.

Further more by doing this we will be seeing houses in our area and learning more about what is out there on the market. All the while meeting with and getting to know agents in the area.

We hope that in doing this we will find deals and the agent who will work for us in finding more deals.

Any thoughts or opinions on this strategy?

When working with agents, the most important thing you can offer is already having an exit strategy. If you are buying the home for yourself great. If not, build up your buyers list so you have something real to offer them. Your buyers list should include primarily investors along with a few regular home buyers. Having a list of buyers will make you very valuable to any Realtor.

1. Accountants
2. “Adopt a Street” Sign
3. Appraisers
4. Attorneys
5. Bandit Signs
6. Benches
7. Billboards
8. Bulletin Boards
9. Bus Stops
10. Business Cards
11. Car Wash
12. Certified Public Accountants (CPA)
13. Chamber of Commerce
14. Charitable events
15. Charitable Raffles
16. Closing Agents
17. Club Membership Bulletin Board
18. Community Business Organizations
19. Contractors
20. Cooperative (Co-Op) Advertising
21. County Records Employees
22. Craigslist.org
23. Developers
24. Door Hangers
25. Door-to-door Canvassing
26. Escrow Officers
27. Expired MLS Listings
28. Financial Planners
29. Financial/Money Advisors
30. Flower Carts
31. Flyers
32. Free Gift Advertizing
33. Freebie Newspaper Ads
34. FSBO Magazines
35. Grocery Store/Wal-mart Pinup Board
36. Handouts
37. Handymen
38. Hard Money Lenders
39. Hats
40. Home Inspectors
41. Host a Charitable Function
42. Investors
43. Laundromats
44. Legal Newspapers
45. Lenders
46. Local Churches
47. Local Employers
48. Local Landlords
49. Magnetic Vehicle Signs
50. Mail Center
51. Minor Newspaper Ads
52. Mortgage Brokers
53. Movie Theater Ads
54. Newspaper Weekend Edition Ads
55. Online Advertizing
56. Open Houses
57. Paper Signs
58. Postcards
59. Private Money Lenders
60. Promotional Materials: Pens/ Calendars/Note Pads/Magnets
61. Property Brochures
62. Property Management Companies
63. Radio Ads
64. Real Estate Agents
65. Real Estate Auctions
66. Referrals
67. Rent-to-Own Stores
68. Restaurants
69. Restroom Advertising
70. Secondary Lenders
71. Special TV Programming
72. Sponsor an Event
73. Sponsor Sports Team
74. Strip Mall Owners
75. Sub-Contractors
76. Title Companies
77. T-Shirts
78. TV Ads/Commercial
79. TV Guide/Newspapers
80. Vehicles Wraps
81. Walking Billboards
82. Weekly Hotels
83. White Vehicle Lettering
84. Yellow Pages
85. Your Existing Occupants

For Poeple that in MA, when I could not find a realtor to work with me I decided that I will get the licence that way I will work for one of the firm and get the advice that I need it. Just like I plan it that is what happening now I work with a small firm that the owner himself is an investor and own many place he has been a great help for me. that was a suggestion if you can't find a good one that match your plan go for the licence so you can get them contact you.

Anyone in MA can contact me.