How Realtors Can Increase Their Volume with Investor Clients

As a realtor, it can be easy to let your vision be clouded with helping homeowners live their dream. This isn’t a bad thing—often, this typical real estate approach yields positive results for everyone involved—but it can prevent you from seeing opportunities for increased production and profits.

Investors often buy and sell multiple properties every year, where homeowner/occupants only buy and sell once every several years. This perspective should open your eyes to the tremendous potential associated with working with investors, but the question remains—how can I increase my volume by working with investor clients? I'm here to answer that question, so read on to find out!

 Get Connected

It’s hard—heck, it’s impossible—to work with investor clients if you don’t know any investors! The first step to increasing your business in this manner, then, is to get connected with the right people. Being an investor myself, and representing investor clients, I've had many years of wins and losses to elaborate on this topic. This can be done in multiple ways, but the key to each is to be proactive. 

 Nearly every city has local investment meetings and associations where like-minded people come together to connect with each other. This provides you the opportunity to meet potential investors in person and form face-to-face relationships that could lead to a business partnership.

You can also get onto multiple wholesale buyers lists to receive information about off-market inventory. These lists can usually be found online quite easily with a simple Google search. Just use keywords such as “we buy houses in (your city)” and other similar phrases. Once you find their website, there should be a tab to get added to their buyers list. Be sure to op-in to their email list to receive opportunities on houses.

 Show Me the Money

Before you partner with an investor and start writing offers, you need to properly vet them to ensure that they have the ability to get the money to the table. Accredited investors are typically a safe bet but asking for a bank statement to show "proof of funds" when submitting an offer is always a good idea.

If they are planning to get financing, reach out to their lender, have a professional conversation, and again, ask for a bank statement as proof that they have the funds to cover their “cash at closing.”

 Be Educated

The last thing you want to be (or appear to be) is an inexperienced agent. It’s vital that you take the time and make the effort to get educated on investment properties before going down the investment client path. You may even want to buy a property yourself, renovate it, and resell it to familiarize yourself with the entire process. Such experience is truly invaluable, especially when trying to connect with investors!

 Expanding your business by working with investors is a fantastic option to increase your sales volume in the years to come.

If you want more information on the process of buying-renovating and reselling properties, don't hesitate to reach out and connect with us. We're an experienced team and looking for more to help along the way!

Ian Flannigan