Real estate investing in a seller’s market: Are you ready to take advantage of Working with Realtors®?
A seller’s market will sell 90% of what is on the market very quickly. But that leaves 10% of the market that “retail buyers” are not going to want. These are sellers with problems that conventional solutions won’t solve – problems that most realtors don’t know how to solve.
Creative investors make a killing in the remaining 10% of a seller’s market!
Just a few of the benefits that realtors offer to sandwich lease option investors are building your brand in the local retail market, strong negotiating skills, and relationships so that you get the first shot at the 10% of deals that become available for sandwich lease options.
How Working With Realtors® Helps Your Investment Business
Working with realtors enables you to regularly pinpoint unusual investment opportunities, off-market properties, provides unique insights into desirable neighborhoods, and close sometimes tricky deals.
As a creative investor, you need to know a lot more than what the MLS tells you about days on market and year-over-year appreciation in the area. You need a bona fide expert in your local market and sub-markets.
Working with realtors brings in experts with a passion for real estate. Experts that have both a 30,000-foot view of the industry and proficiency at the ground level in your local market. The big view keeps you up to date on housing statistics, regional economic news, and policies.
At street level, a good realtor knows about upcoming development projects, zoning ordinance changes, as well as amenities and attractions in the area.
Working with realtors gives you a second set of eyes and ears tuned into the area’s major employers, local schools, the newest shopping/dining areas, and public transportation. The best realtors know the sub-markets such as the next neighborhood that is likely to pop for investors because they research your market block by block for information like the highest rent-to-value ratio that adds true value to your sandwich lease option business.
Working with realtors strengthens your investment business by bringing in another set of strong negotiating skills regardless of what types of clients they work with. They negotiate with the knowledge that you will not be living in the property – it’s strictly a business and a source of income. They negotiate to get the best possible deal. They will not be shy about pushing through tough negotiations. They understand that some will be “low-ball” offers that don’t go through and they will be OK with that. It takes a thick skin to put together creative real estate deals.
You need to be working with realtors who understand the concept of sandwich lease options and will help their sellers understand lease options.
How Working With You Helps the Realtor’s® Business
A catchphrase that you should use several times when meeting and getting to know realtors is:
“As an investor, I am always a potential buyer, so keep me in mind.”
Point out what should be obvious (but isn’t always), that you’ll be scooping up multiple properties every year, close fast, and won’t drag the realtor to open houses every Sunday. Of course, there is more to it than that. As a skilled investor working with realtors, you also help them expand their knowledge base.
Every realtor should know how to do some basic investing research – but some don’t have this skill set yet. By working with you as a creative option investor, realtors quickly develop the ability to estimate the cash flow and cash-on-cash return of investment deals. This works for both of you (win-win). The realtor learns a new skill and they’ll soon be able to filter out the deals that won’t go anywhere to only bring you the deals with the most profit potential for both of you.
As a sandwich lease option investor, you bring unique skills and opportunities that very few realtors have an opportunity to work with…
- Close deals that otherwise aren’t selling!
- Help sellers that need debt relief!
- Help sellers that have very little equity!
- Help sellers that will immediately benefit from a fast lease!
- Help sellers that don’t want or need all their cash right away!
- Help sellers that need to turn a vacant house into an income-producing house fast!
- Help sellers wanting to sell a house in need of some renovations!
That is only the shortlist, but it highlights the unique proposition that you bring to the realtor that other buyers do not. For instance, a seller needing debt relief may have two mortgages on two houses that they are falling behind on. A sandwich lease option instantly has a tenant-buyer paying one of the mortgages. Or, a seller that needs an immediate lease is the seller that tells your realtor, “if you don’t sell the house soon, I’ll have to rent it out.” That is when the realtor calls you to place a tenant-buyer in the house next week that will both rent and buy the house – that is one of the best WIN-WIN-WIN deals that either one of you will ever find. You and the realtor put together a great deal that was about to fall apart! One of the 10% of deals that don’t have a solution even in a seller’s market. Soon, other realtors are coming to you to save deals that they are about to lose!
As a sandwich lease option investor, you want realtors bringing you the difficult to deal with properties.
You want realtors to bring you off-market properties like pre-foreclosures, bankruptcies, and inherited or vacant homes. These deals are everywhere even in a seller’s market!
Finding the Right Realtor to Work With as an Investor
Realtors interested in investment properties hang out at the same places as investors do. These aren’t the open houses showcasing the most polished house in a neighborhood. However, it can be worth your time checking out realtors who specialize in the types of houses and neighborhoods that you invest in. Drive through these neighborhoods looking for “For Sale” signs. Also, call on listings in marketing brochures. But remember they need to want to speak your investor lingo.
Great venues for finding agents knowledgeable in working with investors are any of the thousands of real estate investor groups across the country. Most of these groups welcome real estate professionals as members. Realtors join these groups because they want to work with investors. Even if he or she is new to the group and not yet up to speed, you know you are working with someone interested in the creative investment world. You will find local groups on websites such as REIclub.com and NationalREIA.com. You also want to check out local investing networking events, seminars, and Meetup.com.
Working with Realtors® as an investor is a two-way street.
The more you educate a realtor about your unique advantage using sandwich lease options, the more you will both benefit.
There is true value for both of you when the realtor gains a repeat client, and you have a realtor working with you who is schooled in lease options. The course comes with a complete and customizable slide show and all of the materials you need to take this exciting step in your creative real estate career!
I want to help you continue your journey to becoming the best real estate investor you can be!
- Working with Realtors.
- Your Wealth Building Arsenal.
- Advanced strategies for Buying and Selling with Lease Options.
- Investing In Real Estate with Lease Options.
- Add Personalized Coaching.
- Cooperative Lease Options.
- Expand to Get the Deed “Subject To.”
By Wendy Patton
For more than 30 years, I’ve used the Sandwich Lease Option System to earn myself and my students millions of dollars. From my experience, I know there is plenty of room and opportunity in the real estate investment market for everyone wanting to participate to find profitable deals. It’s because of that fact and my personal success that I share the Sandwich Lease Option System with others.
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