QUOTE (investmart @ Oct 1 2009, 10:06 AM)
* To be honest RE agents working with me have the easiest job in the world. Other than the above I do not expect much. bring me a superb deal and I`m putting an offer within 24 hours.
Good luck.
A common perception by investor buyers out there... for what it`s worth my investor clients are much more work than my regular home buyers. Having little emotional connection to a property and being all about the money makes the agent`s job much more difficult. Also the properties investors buy typically have a lot more issues than owner-occupied property which jacks up the post-offer work for the agent.
Regarding the original posters question.. I own a brokerage in Calgary. We do sales, mortgages and management. Investors make up about half our business so while we are not exclusively working with investors I do have a pretty good idea of how to keep them happy (or how to p*ss them off in a couple unfortunate instances) so here are my thoughts:
1. Investors `needs` vary greatly. Some want to be very involved some don`t want to lift a finger. Your success will depend on your ability to gauge this for each client and deliver your service accordingly. Do not assume they are all the same or follow the same process before buying. Your clients will like you when they think you are doing a great job... but each investors definition of `your job` is different. You`ll see this with other answers to this thread. This gets much easier with experience.
2. When you find a `hot deal` you will have multiple clients that may want the same property. You need a system for dealing with this. I tell my clients that the first person to call me ready to write an offer gets my representation, the next gets a more than capable associate etc.
3. Most importantly - you need to know your numbers. Financing, rents and repair/replacement expenses are paramount to a sound investment and if you are telling your client`s "I`ll get back to you" on these numbers every time they won`t be impressed. This is the reason we do sales and financing and management. It has enabled us to provide a very niche level of service to our clients and I can rattle off numbers from the drivers seat as we go from property to property. If you are only doing sales you`d be well served to get connected with one of the mortgage brokers on this forum!
4. Investors need a lot of pre-buying service. Just remember that doing a great job makes the second deal much smoother so be patient and treat each client like one of your own investments... as they may give you a greater return than any property you own