Top 10 Marketing Strategies for Real Estate Investors
Part 4 Win-Win-Win with Realtors
It’s tangible, it’s solid, it’s beautiful.
It’s artistic from my standpoint.
I just love real estate.
Donald Trump
Building relationships with Real Estate agents is vital to any real estate investors success. Why?
They bring you buyers. They bring you sellers. They bring you leads before they hit the market. They present you to other realtors for offers. They teach you how to get your offers accepted. They are one of the most important members of your power team.
Important to work with Winning Agents
The old 80/20 rule applies. 20% of Agents will be handling 80% of the best whole sale properties. Its important that you get out there and meet them! Here are some ideas to get to know who the movers and shakers are in your area:
1.Join Local Realtor Association
2.Call local associations and ask who their REO specialists are
3.Scan The Internet to see who is putting up the best listings. Examples:
www.Realtor.com
www.zillow.com
www.ziprealty.com
Google MLS online in your city to see all properties online
4.Drive the area you are interested investing in. Look for agents who have signs posted in the areas you want to invest in.
What do you need to say when you meet them?
Most importantly do not make the about what they can do for you, make it about what you can do for them!
Get Them On Your Team By Meeting Their Needs.
Ask them questions.
Get to know them.
If you are not comfortable with approaching new contacts, you might think about buying the book by Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People. This is the best book on the logistics of how to do just what the title says.
I am going to focus on 2 specific strategies you can work with Realtors to grow both your businesses.
Realtor Partnership Strategy 1: EXPIRING LISTINGS: This one consists of Realtors Contacting agents holding listings that are about to expire.
This marketing is an easy way to discover untapped discount properties. Do you agree that Realtors and sellers might be much more motivated to accept discounted offers when their listing is about to expire. As you know the Realtor will make no money for all their efforts if this happens. Plus the seller wants to sell the property and it wont be sold.
Steps for working with realtors to contact listings about to expire:
1.Contact Realtors looking for those who you can work to support each others businesses. I follow a script when looking to build these most vital contacts.
2.When you meet Realtors excited to support you, set up a system to do the following:
a.Realtor e-mails you list of all listings expiring in 30 days on a weekly basis. Excel format is best. You just need basic info address, beds/baths/ sq feet/ notes from MLS. Most important info is the listing Realtors name and e-mail address
b.You go through and chose those you would like to make offers on. Make an offer that is sure to include all your costs after buying and make a profit for you. To be sure your offer is where you need it to be, you would want to run the numbers through The Bottom Line Calculator. Either your Realtor OR You will e-mail your purchase agreement to the sellers agent along with a cover letter, proof of funds, and copy of your earnest money check. (Who does it will be up to you both. Its a lot of work so it would be best if you would encourage your Realtor to allow you to do this tedious task.)
This system is a great free and easy way to reach out to motivated sellers.
Here is a Sample email content/cover letter for your Realtor to send on your behalf to Realtor who has expiring listing:
Hello,
My client has asked me to forward the attached purchase agreement (offer). Thank you for discussing with your clients their consideration of it. In making this offer, I represent serious investors who have access to cash that will allow them to close on your sellers property quickly if necessary. Feel free to call me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Your Realtors Signature and Contact Info
Realtor Partnering Strategy 2 – SHORT SALE LEADS The Second way to Partner with a Realtor to help them make double their commissions is handling Short Sales for both your buys and your sales.
This strategy works great with open-minded Realtors who understand the law and see that this is a creative, but perfectly legal strategy that does not break anything inside the Realtors Code of Ethics. You will occasionally hear from unknowing, negative, close-minded people that when a Realtor is representing a seller, they cannot also represent you, the buyer, and also seller for after you buy it. They may say this is not legal. However, as of the time of this writing, as long as proper paperwork is filed and all is disclosed and agreed to by all parties involved, nothing about this strategy is illegal. However, due to new laws coming out every day, be sure and run this strategy by a qualified attorney prior to using it. Keep in mind, they do not have to represent you to find buyers, however if they would like, it is just another way they can profit 3 ways with 1 property. If they are not comfortable helping you to find a buyer for a property not yet closed, you will find buyers in other ways. Have you looked at this incredible online system. www.cashbuyers4flips.com ?
SIDE NOTE: Whenever anyone tells you something is illegal or legal, ask if they can tell you where to find that information in writing. You will run across many nay-sayers in your walk as a real estate investor. Its important you are swayed only by the facts and the law, not by well-meaning, yet unknowing, concerned individuals.
You would want to provide Realtors very easy instructions and explanations to read for how you would want to partner with them on your short sale deals. This information is on my own Easy I Buy Houses Website. (See http://www.tamerabuyshouses.com/ibuyhouses/realtors.php ) BTW! This 17 page website can be customized and used by you too. If you do not have a web presence, go here to get this ready made real estate investors website. (very cheap, hosted and ready to go in minutes). I highly recommend you take a look! (www.EasyIBuyHousesWebsites.com)
Heres How We Work Together to Create A Win/Win/Win/Win/Win/Win Situation!
1. A WIN for the Seller: Relieve overleveraged homeowners from the pain of foreclosure and having their credit report badly damaged. They can now start a new chapter in their life.
2. A WIN for the Lender: When I handle the short sale with the bank, our packets go to the lender in perfect order so that they can process and negotiate the short sale in the most streamlined way possible. A successful short sale brings them greater financial return than the alternatives of an auction or REO.
3. A WIN for the Realtor: Collect a FULL commission and do what you do bestbuying and selling real estate. By using our services you will not get bogged down with the paperwork, phone calls and interactions coming from overwhelmed loss mitigation departments. Plus – If you bring a new buyer to us, you then receive commissions on both the buy and a sell transaction 6%
4. A WIN for Us: We might end up purchasing the home ourselves and making a larger profit margin from a subsequent sale.
5. A WIN for the new Buyer when I sell it: Now that the propertys price has been appropriately discounted for the market, it is much easier to attract a new homeowner when you put it on the market for me to sell.
________________________________________
Here are the steps to make this work:
1.First and most important, sellers, lenders, title companies everyone involved in this transaction, receives full disclosures in writing from the beginning, communicating our intentions to buy and sell this property for a profit should the bank agree to accept our offer.
2.You market to find owners who are behind in payments or in foreclosure and who are interested in a short sale to avoid foreclosure and save their credit.
3.Contact us when you find a solid candidate for the program. If it looks good, we will submit an all cash offer.
4.We will then personally confer with you and the seller to explain the process and coordinate preparation of the required short sale documents. All intentions and plans are disclosed and agreed upon in writing with notary.
5.I , along with my short sale negotiation team, are available to prepare, submit and negotiate the short sale package, driving the entire process for all involved and request they postpone the foreclosure auction if necessary. (If the sellers agent would prefer handling short sale directly with bank instead of my team , that is great as long as they have a track record for success in this area).
6.While the short sale is being worked on, you work with me and my company to find a new end-user buyer. You create listing agreement with me as the seller and re-list house at agreed upon price. Full disclosure of entire process disclosed will be in writing up front to current owner.
7.The lender orders an interior BPO or appraisal to obtain an as is value.
8.We prepare a repair estimate, a terms and descriptions report along with our own comps to give to the lenders BPO agent when we meet with them at property. (As an investor, I can let them in the house to assure BPO agent notes all its flaws)
9.We seek to find out what value the BPO agent gave to the house. We negotiate with the lender to find out their bottom-line price.
10.If the price makes sense, we will negotiate as needed and purchase the property with a 30 day close.
11.If the price does not make sense for me or my company to buy; you, as the Realtor still come out way ahead! The process has given you some very important information in order for you to sell the house to anyone else you choose. By knowing the lenders bottom-line acceptance price, plus some potential buyers you have reached out to for us, you are now in a position to sell the property quickly at an attractive price to those buyers or anyone else on the market at a agreed upon price.
12.However, if the price makes sense for us to buy, or we have an offer from an end buyer, as promised we will purchase the property with quick cash closing as promised. Keep in mind, our purchase contract will stipulate that the lender pays buyers closing cost, seller concessions and full real estate commission. No money is ever requested from the seller.
To close the transaction we use title companies that are familiar with the sometimes more complex title and escrow work in transferring our new property to a new homeowner in a short period of time.
You may enjoy a complimentary video training on this strategy here: www.CoachingU2Profits.com )
Expired listings and short sales are just 2 of the many ways in which a good Realtor and you can support each others businesses. There are many other strategies you may learn as well. I have over 24 exit strategies I teach my students in just one part of my 11 part training and coaching program, in addition to how to scripts to follow when calling every member of your much needed investors power team. If you think you could use a down to earth, step by step plan, to quick profits through real estate investing, go to www.Coachingu2profits.com to see if this is right for you.
In the mean time, the most important thing you can do for your business is Get the Word Out! Marketing yourself is the key to your success.
Spread the news!
Tamera Aragon
Top 10 Marketing Strategies for Real Estate Investors
Part 1 -Aim-Ready-Fire- Talley The Score
Part 2 – Networking
Part 3 -Business Cards