Working As An Investment Property Real Estate Agent: What Realtors Need to Be Successful

In-Depth Market Knowledge

It doesn’t matter what real estate niche you focus on — successful real estate agents must possess in-depth knowledge of the real estate market.

Recent sales, average days on market, list prices, sold data, and so on. Knowing what’s happening in the market at any given time is a requirement. 

Working with real estate investors requires that same knowledge and more. Investment property agents also need to know about …

• Construction projects
• Land development
• Zoning
• Urban planning
• Demographic projections
• Vacancy rates
• Rental rates
• Tenant history
• And so on

Connections

A robust network is always an asset in real estate. If you plan to work as an agent for real estate investors, even more so.

Investors are constantly on the hunt for opportunities. If you can be the person who brings them those opportunities before anyone else gets to them, you’ll set yourself up for repeat business.

Getting first crack at those opportunities is all about knowing the right people. Developers, members of local government, prominent business people, and so on. The more of the right people you know, the better positioned you are.

Need to beef up your network? Get out there. Diversify the types of events you go to, introduce yourself, invite someone for coffee, patronize local businesses and attend local government town halls. 

Then, with connections in place, it’s about establishing reciprocity. In other words, what you’ll give in exchange for receiving a heads’ up or first shot at sharing an investment opportunity with clients.

Proactivity

Once you have a deal under your belt, don’t wait for your real estate investor to come to you. Search out opportunities and bring them to the investor.

Proactivity is essential to establishing yourself as a successful investment property real estate agent.

Researching, digging around and mining your network is one part of it. The other part is staying connected with your investor clients.

You want to always be in the know when it comes to their investment goals (more on this next) and their current portfolio. The more you understand your investor, the better equipped you are to find the most suitable properties. 

Don’t wait until you have a potential property to be in touch with your client. A regular touchpoint will keep you in the loop and make sure you’re top of mind for them.

Commitment to Understanding Investor Objectives

Before you can bring an investor client any opportunities, you need to clearly understand their unique objectives.

The better you understand their goals, the better you can serve them. It’s pretty simple when it comes to buyers looking for their next home. It’s more complex when it comes to real estate as an investment. 

Not every real estate investor is the same. Some are looking to generate rental income. Some are looking to purchase real estate that will appreciate in a short timeframe. Others are looking to diversify their portfolio. And sometimes it’s a combination of goals.

There are other factors you’ll need to understand as well. What’s their timeline (how soon do they need their investment to appreciate or to become cash-flow positive)? What’s their risk tolerance?

To successfully work as an investment property real estate agent, you need to be committed to understanding all of the above about every investor client you pursue.

Expert Understanding of Financing

Financing a home purchase and financing an investment property purchase are different animals. 

If you have expert-level knowledge of the various types of financing options that real estate investors take advantage of, you’ll stand out. Do they have partners? Private financing or a bank loan? Are they selling off a property to finance a new purchase?

It shows your investor clients that you understand their business and it enables you to even better assess the suitability of possible investment opportunities.

Ability to Perform Analysis

If you can make yourself indispensable to a busy real estate investor, you’ll be their go-to agent for future transactions. 

The best way to make yourself indispensable is to do as much of the required investment homework yourself. That homework is plenty of analysis.

When you bring an investment opportunity to your investor client, you should be prepared with the following (depending on the property type):

• Comparative market analysis
• Cash flow
• Rate of return
• Capitalization rate 
• Total return on investment
• Development risk
• Vacancy risk

Your client will likely still want to do their own assessments but the legwork you do for them is what will help convince them to look at a property in earnest.