Working with realtors on lease options provides tremendous opportunities to develop a long list of strong leads of motivated sellers needing to generate cash flow when their house is slow to sell. Just for starts, I’m confident saying that realtors have access to between 80% and 90% of all residential listings through the MLS.
Lease Options are Highly Creative Real Estate Investing Strategies for Win-Win-Win-Win Outcomes!
Why Realtors Will Work With You on Lease Options
Craigslist, PennySavers, local newspapers, and similar sources for leads are great and absolutely deliver results. But without realtors, you are limiting your potential market to about 10% or 20% of the total out there. Working with realtors on lease options is key to opening up your full market.
But you probably instinctively think that realtors won’t want to work with you because they only make a commission when the house sells. And in a realtor’s world, that is true. But lease options are all about creativity and flexibility. One of your first steps to getting started working with realtors on lease options is demonstrating how that creatively and flexibility can work in their favor. After all, the whole point of lease options is for the tenant/buyer to purchase the home – just not right away. There are many opportunities to work with realtors and one of the ripest times is when a realtor hears from a seller the dreaded words:
“If you don’t sell my house in the next week, I’ll have to rent it out!”
When he or she hears those words, without your help the realtor is almost certain to get nothing or almost nothing despite having put a lot of work in the listing. On the other hand, when you are working with realtors on lease options, the realtor can still earn the listing commission and might even be able to increase that to include part of the selling commission.
You will make the realtor very happy. You will get the seller out of a bad situation. You will make a tenant/buyer happy. You will be very happy. Now, you’ve created a 4-way win-win-win-win result. Over time, that realtor might bring you 50 or 100 deals.
Work With Realtors Specializing in Listing Properties
You can work with any realtor but it makes the most sense to work with realtors that specialize in listing houses for sale. That’s because sandwich lease investors typically put the most effort into finding motivated sellers. But if you do need to quickly find a tenant/buyer, realtors that specialize in working with buyers always have a few buyers that are having trouble qualifying for a mortgage.
Ultimately, working with realtors on lease options supports both sides of your sandwich lease option business!
A benefit that you provide to listing realtors is that they don’t have to immediately take the listing off the sales market. They can continue marketing the house until you find a tenant/buyer for the sandwich lease option. But as full disclosure to the listing realtor, you should let them know this usually only takes two or four days, a week at the most – the seller did say they had to put a renter in if it didn’t sell in the next week.
By working with realtors on lease options, you can help a lot of people but you can’t help every single distressed seller. Here is what you do and do not want to pursue in the MLS when working with realtors:
- Do not pursue short sales (nothing upside down or underwater).
- Do not pursue bank-owned properties (REO).
- Say “yes” to properties on the market for 90 days.
- Look for properties on the market for more than 90 days (especially over 180 days).
- Know your median price point to work in the most active market.
- Generally, avoid neighborhoods that are dominantly renter neighborhoods (you want owner-occupied neighborhoods).
- You prefer vacant houses but an occupied house is not a deal-breaker (the owner would need to move upon sale anyway).
- Know what is going on with HOAs. You need to know how tenants are qualified and if they are allowed (realtors can screen this for you).
- Be open to other possibilities that realtors suggest.
How to Get Realtors Offering You Their Listings
Begin with an understanding that many realtors are reluctant to work with investors because realtors have a perception that investors will look at hundreds of properties but only make low-ball offers once in a blue moon. Very fortunately, that is NOT what working with realtors on lease options is about at all. What this is all about is everyone in the deal coming out a winner.
You only need to take a few actions to get the word out about what you offer realtors using lease options. The first thing you do is organize the benefits for realtors into a short and condensed set of bullet points. Right away, you want to tell them what is in it for them. You don’t want to get off into the weeds with a bunch of contract details in the beginning – that will come over time and based on specific circumstances.
Generally, you need both a short PowerPoint presentation and a telephone script. Both contain the same information but are used for different communication methods. Here are your options for sharing the win-win lease option proposal:
- A PowerPoint presentation to an office of realtors if you’re comfortable talking to a crowd. Keep the presentation to 10 or 15 minutes with additional time for Q&A.
- Same PowerPoint presentation on a laptop that you can share with individual realtors over a cup of coffee.
- A short script that you share in a telephone conversation. Have an even shorter version to leave as a recorded message.
- Your shortest script can be used as an “elevator speech” whenever you bump into a realtor at an investor meeting, open house, hardware store, or anywhere else.
- Have your laptop PowerPoint presentation ready when you visit open houses that have a lull in visitors.
- Your script or presentation can be used anywhere and anytime you engage with realtors.
Your Next Level of Success Begins With a Short, Well Prepare Script and Presentation for Realtors!
Through my blogs, articles, webpage, YouTube, Facebook, and other sources, I’ll keep sharing the tips and techniques you need towards your success with lease options. Better yet, for your full education, go through it all step-by-step by clicking the links below:
- Investing In Real Estate with Lease Options.
- Advanced strategies for Buying and Selling with Lease Options.
- Your Wealth Building Arsenal.
- Add Personalized Coaching.
- Cooperative Lease Options.
- Expand to Get the Deed “Subject To.”
- Round it all out by Working with Realtors.
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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