Are there advantages to having your own realtor working with the sellers agent? Or just having the one agent…any good realtor in the houston area??
Advantages to using ‘your own’ R.E. agent?
Gunner asked, “Are there advantages to having your own realtor working with the sellers agent? Or just having the one agent…any good realtor in the houston area?”
IMHO, opinions will vary, as will each deal. Sometimes I feel like, if I am able to deal with the listing agent directly, it is an advantage. Even though their rules say they can’t give an unfair advantage to one buyer over another, the reality I have seen at times, is that an agent may ‘nudge’ a buyer dealing with them as opposed to a buyer dealing with another agent - ‘I have a feeling this might go about XX amount higher than your current offer’, - because let’s face it - they can double their commission if they sell it themselves. I have had that happen many times, and a few times verified it (later found out who the other buyer was and what they had offered; I know a lot of investors in my area). Also, if deal is complex, relaying information from buyer to agent, to listing agent, to seller, back to listing agent, to agent, back to buyer, can “dilute” answers at times.
On the other hand, if your regular agent is a good one, they can be easier to deal with than the occasional ‘pain in the butt’ listing agent. They can help smooth a transaction that might hit personality issues, work out things with listing agents that you might not be able to (or even realize). I am a Type A person - i.e. - not a lot of patience, and occasionally I might fire off a “less than kind” response - my most regular use agent will sometimes soften it, and when she tells me afterwards what she said, I reflect back and am usually glad she did (although once in a great while I think someone might need to hear that they are a backwards pain in the butt with a lack of common sense - lol). The agent(s) I use tend to be good at what they do, people persons, who understand me and what I am trying to accomplish. They will sometimes feed me deals that fit my criteria, point out details of a house/deal/etc. that I might miss, and so forth.
Which way is better? IMHO, personal preference, and using ‘your own’ agent mostly only benefits you if they are really good.
Hope that helps.
Best wishes,
Chris in FL
On the other
I guess my next question is, would it be worth my effort to get licensed as a real estate broker? In my future, I’d like to quit my regular job and get into property rentals and flips…wouldn’t it be wise to cut out the middleman?? I don’t see myself as getting into selling as much as having exposure to the “deals”!!
If you are a realtor only working your own deals you won’t have any insight on deals that you would miss out on without being a realtor. Those deals are seen by the people really working it and making their living listing and selling properties.
As for saving the commission, you won’t. You will do so little business that the split to the broker in charge will be high enough that you won’t cover the expenses of having a license with what you get to keep. You would be better off hiring a flat fee company to put your deals in the MLS.
In regards to having more than one realtor, I would caution against it. Just a year ago there were no buyers other than investors and if you were buying it was nothing to have two or three realtors sending you deals. Now that there are buyers on every street corner realtors are going to want to see some loyalty to send you deals.
Getting your license won’t help you with flipping. It will actually work against you since you have to disclose all that. You only need a license if you plan on selling someone else’s property. If you do want to sell other people’s homes, then you need a license for that. Brokers and agents are not middlemen. They are there to protect your interest in buying or selling, and they are professionals. That’s like saying you will not hire a plumber to fix a broken pipe, and you’ll do it yourself. As long as the broker/agent discloses that they are representing both the buyer and seller, there is nothing wrong with that.
Should flippers have R.E. license?
AZNGunner,
IMHO, don’t bother getting a license… Main reason - you said “in my future” I plan to flip houses, etc. Let me suggest you skip the licensing, and just set out to do what you plan to do. If you get active enough, you will have more insight, and then you can evaluate better whether it will benefit you or not, how much it will cost versus what it will save/earn you, etc.
In the mean time, most realtors, if you offer to do your buying/offers through them, will be happy to set you up with automated e-mail that show you anything and everything that happens on MLS within whatever parameters you want to set. I get an e-mail every day (once per day) from an investor/agent/friend that shows me everything under $100K in Lakeland, FL that gets listed, has price change, etc. I can see addresses, pictures, price, size, etc. He doesn’t want to act as a realtor - just has license for his own purposes (investing/flipping). I have a second realtor, at least for now, where I get similar e-mails, but immediately every time something happens on MLS, that show everything active on MLS within my parameters. I use her for most of my offers and buying. I have a few other agents that are either friends, or that I have bought houses from in the past, that contact me from time to time when they come across something they think I might be interested in. By being active in R.E., you can easily access all of the information you could possibly want, without ever having a R.E. license.
Hope that helps.
Best wishes,
Chris in FL