Posted by HR on March 26, 2000 at 08:00:12:
Vic,
Welcome to the best rei site on the web.
I noticed you are from New Orleans; I also am from New Orleans. Are you familiar with our local real estate investing group? Check us out at:
Hope to see you at a meeting some time.
HR
Absolutely Terrific Site - Posted by Vic
Posted by Vic on March 26, 2000 at 05:42:38:
Hi everyone! I just discovered this site & find it to be absolutely fantastic. The knowledge & ideas contained on this site are phenomenal. There seem to be a lot of knowledgeable posters in this news group. This is my first post, but hope to make many more. I’ve read a few of the posts & would like to make some comments.
I am a licensed real estate broker in New Orleans & have been active in the business for 6 years, mostly dealing with the regular single family homes. Although I have bought & sold creatively a few investment properties for myself.
I’ve noticed that many people have problems with real estate brokers & getting cooperation from them. While it is true that there are many real estate agents who really shouldn’t be in this business (just like any other occupation), there are also those who can be very helpful.
Almost all are extremely nice people, but some just have a little more understanding than others.
Over the years I’ve had probably 50 calls or so from investors, yet I chose not to work with any of them. The main reason was because you could tell from the first words out of their mouth that they really had no idea what they were doing & that they had probably just bought a course from TV & were just getting started. The problem that I had in working with these people, as an agent, was that if I was going to work with them, I would have to first teach them how the whole business works, then I’d have to go out & find the properties for them, & then finally negotiate the purchase agreement & get it to an act of sale. Now as an agent, if I was going to do all of that for them, why wouldn’t I just buy the property myself & save all the headaches & phone calls. This I believe is the problem that most new investors have with real estate agents. They come across a complete novice & don’t really have enough knowledge to pull off the deal, so they rely on the agent to do it for them. As agent is not going to waste time teaching someone how to buy a house, when in that same time frame they could be selling 2 or 3 houses to other people. It’s simple economics. So please remember this when dealing with agents. They are not there just to serve you & show you how to do everything. They are there to make money & try to use their time in most efficient manner possible.
I really think that the best thing a new investor can do is to get their license & then do a deal or two with a regular client, just to get a good idea how everything works, then start investing. This does 2 things - first it provides you with the knowledge & confidence you need to pull deals off & second it gives you access to the MLS. Of course, as a licensed agent the commissions can also be very helpful in structuring no money down deals.
By doing this, plus reading the great articles in this site, there is absolutely no reason that a new investor could not begin to pull off deals with or without real estate agents. I am well aware that some agents are better than others, but until you have some experience yourself in doing transactions, how will you ever know, for sure, who the good agents are & who the bad ones are or how to recognize them? How will you know what’s standard proceedure & what’s not? How will you know when you should push & when you should sit back & be patient?
I hope that some of this helps in some way. The funny thing about real estate is that you never stop learining things. So I hope that with so many knowledgeable investors on this site that I can gain some good ideas & tips from you all & perhaps, in return, when needed provide a solution or two to those who need help.
Best of luck,
Vic