Dealing with agents on offers.... - Posted by Charity

Posted by hg on December 03, 2000 at 12:13:53:

Every little bit helps here and there.

Dealing with agents on offers… - Posted by Charity

Posted by Charity on December 02, 2000 at 21:54:51:

I am a real estate agent myself, trying to move from selling to investing. Anyway, I plan on submitting a lot of offers on rehabs this week and I am wondering what is the best way to go about not having to talk to a bunch of agents who are mad at my lowball offers. The idea I had was to submit the offer with a note asking that any counters be in writing only and faxed to me. Does anyone else have ideas? I just don’t want to hear the complaints about the offers if the sellers aren’t interested. I am more interested in submitting as many as I can (that are good deals) and only hearing in person from those who are wanting to work together. Is that reasonable?

Charity

Re: Dealing with agents on offers… - Posted by Lezlie(TN)

Posted by Lezlie(TN) on December 03, 2000 at 05:10:31:

Charity,
I deal with several realtors in my area. My feeling is that if a realtor cries because of your low ball offer, find a new realtor. There are many out there who work with investors and are more than happy to put in your offer. Try to find one and stick with that person. Once you close a deal with one of them, they are usually happy to continue to work with you. Since I put in low offers, my realtor/realtors know that I do all the leg work…etc… I meet the appraiser, I work with my hard money lender if that’s the route i’m going, and I use my own title company. Basically all the realtor does is show me the house and pick up her check.
As far as earnest money is concerned, I find it is usually the realtor and not the seller (REO officer or private seller) that demands the earnest money and the pre approval letter.
I have had one seller to request proof of funds and I told the realtor that I don’t provide my personal business to anyone and if that was necessary I would move onto the next deal. She backed off. Of course I had already done a deal with her and she knew I was good for it.
Just remember if someone is requiring something from you that you can’t provide, move onto the next deal. There are plenty out there who won’t require anything… those are the motivated sellers. Hope this helps.

Re: Dealing with agents on offers… - Posted by Redline

Posted by Redline on December 02, 2000 at 23:47:44:

Well if you’re an agent then you know how RE offices work. If you’re unknown and start making tons of lowball offers, you will not be taken seriously. Realtors, like anybody, want to know when and how much they’re gonna get paid - and lowball offers don’t excite them. They’re a dime a dozen.

Personally I would work only with other realtors whom I knew would understand what I was trying to accomplish . After you put together some deals, you can show your portfolio of deals to new prospective realtors to show you’re for real.

Or, you could do what some experienced investors on here say and avoid realtors altogether.

RL

Re: Dealing with agents on offers… - Posted by Ron (MD)

Posted by Ron (MD) on December 02, 2000 at 23:43:27:

Charity,

I’m a full-time investor and got my license two years ago to support my investment activities.

You seem to want to take a “take it or leave” attitude with listing agents. My approach is different.

Even in a major city like Baltimore, there is a fairly small group of listing agents that handle the large majority of REOs. (You said you want to do rehabs. REOs are, by far, the largest source of multiple listed fixer-uppers.)

I want to establish and maintain strong, long-term relationships with these listing agents. You don’t do that by faxing lowball offers with strict directions regarding how you will accept counter-offers.

What I do is fax a one page letter of intent, rather than a formal contract. The letter of intent spells out the basic terms of my offer (price, deposit, settlement date, transfer split). I attach two things to the letter of intent. Most importantly, I give them a proof of funds showing I am the real deal. They don’t care how much you are offering if they aren’t confident that you are able to close. Most REO sellers will not tie up a property without this proof – they don’t want to give a rookie investor a month to scramble to find a buyer to flip it to, only to have the deal collapse.

The second thing I give is a friendly note to the listing agent. (I keep the letter of intent pretty formal because I assume that it will be faxed to the seller.) The note to the agent says something like: “Dear Joe, I know that this offer is well below the list price. I’m sending along this letter of intent for your review. If you think it has a shot, please present it to your seller. If it has no chance, I’ll defer to your judgment and try again in three or four weeks. Thanks for your help with this.”

This friendly, deferential approach is less likely to antagonize. The listing agent probably knows what the seller will accept. He does want to sell it, but he is unlikely to be grateful for your lowball offer and receptive to your directives for how to respond.

Ron

Got a sample of the letter of intent? - Posted by hg(nyc)

Posted by hg(nyc) on December 02, 2000 at 23:56:46:

Ron,

I agree. It pays to be in their face, if you hide it will not lend any credibility to your endeavors. Take the calls and sweet talk them to get to know them, they will be more inclined to make your deals work.

Any chance you could provide a sample of this “intent letter” off line? I am confused by how you keep it simple but at the same time formal.

tia,
howard

Re: Got a sample of the letter of intent? - Posted by Ron (MD)

Posted by Ron (MD) on December 03, 2000 at 03:35:46:

Howard,

It really is very simple. I emailed one to you.

I says I will give them a formal contract within 48 hours if they agree to the terms. Then it spells out the basic terms in bullet point format.

Ron