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I. Why You Need a Real Estate Agent

“The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.”

~ Aristotle

Greek philosopher and scientist

To Become a Millionaire Plus

More millionaires have used real estate to acquire their wealth than any other method. The right agent can be your ticket to financial freedom. A real estate agent knows the correct path that will lead you exactly where you want to go.

This is the same reason you invested in this book. You made this wise investment to save time and money. You decided to learn how to best use an agent to help your real estate investment business. You want to benefit from their time, experience, expertise, and most of all, mistakes, expertise won at the expense of someone else and NOT YOU...

A real estate agent—no, let me rephrase that—the right real estate agent will not only make you rich, he or she will also save you time, minimize headaches, and help you in countless ways. The right real estate agent can save you from investing in the wrong property, a mistake that could drive you out of business. At the very least, the wrong investment puts you and your business on hold by tying up time and funds you could be using for other projects.

One unsalable or even a slow-selling property may not sound like that big a deal, but it can be devastating. Rather than turning a project for a $50,000 profit, you could be tied up for nine months (or more) and barely break even, if you’re lucky. With a ninety-day turnaround you could have made a profit from three projects rather than breaking even (hopefully) with one property.

The right agent can make sure you buy with selling in mind. It’s easy to buy a property. It’s essential to be able to sell it, and that’s not always so easy. The right real estate agent will know if a property will be sellable, at what price, and how long it will take to sell. You want a ninety-day flip, not a 270-day flop.

Time Saver

I’ll never forget my dad’s idea that he was the only person who could do anything right. My father was a skilled veterinarian who felt he had to do everything himself. I couldn’t get him to understand that if he could do just one more surgery a week, he could hire someone else to take care of the books, sweep the floors, and clean the cages. When I wasn’t around to do it, which was at least 75% of the time, he had to do it—a skilled surgeon cleaning feces out of cages!

That is almost how it will be for you if you don’t have an agent. You are a skilled real estate investor. You don’t need to waste your time doing busy paperwork, dealing with lenders, title, escrow, termites, and worst of all, other agents whom you might not enjoy working with.

Like my dad, you could save a little and lose a lot more. My dad may have been too busy cleaning out cages to do a several hundred dollar surgery. A real estate investor could lose out on a $50,000 deal because they are too busy trying to get their paperwork in order, rather than looking for another property.

The right agent has the expertise and know-how to help you. You don’t have the time to meet every inspector and appraiser at the property. Nor do you have the time to stop by the zoning office, escrow company, lenders’ offices, etc.

Your time is valuable. If you hire an agent who knows what they are doing, they can perform these duties and free up your time.

Do You Want to Succeed?

This is not a sarcastic question. Do you or don’t you want to succeed?

Would you want to be a race car driver without a team around you? You might lose a bit of time at the pit stop changing the tires and filling up the gas yourself. You will find it equally bad if you don’t use the services of a real estate agent. If you want to succeed, and I’m sure you do or you wouldn’t be reading this, there is no reason not to take every advantage possible to ensure your success.

In athletics and in business there is a small margin between losing and winning. In real estate there are many different roles the right agent will play for you. Any single job could make the difference concerning your success. The most obvious and important role is to find you the right property at the right price.

To succeed, the number-one criteria is to find and buy a property you can rehab and sell for a profit. The right real estate agent is qualified, experienced, and has the connections to provide that property for you. You might have one or two connections of your own, and you might have some great ideas, which you may have tried and been successful with, but it still might not be enough. The right real estate agent has completed many more transactions and has many more connections to help you. Remember, you can still find the property yourself if you desire. But why not increase your odds of finding the best property for your business?

Don’t Allow Greed to Get in Your Way

Greed shows itself in so many different ways. We can often be cheap with the materials, labor, lenders, title, escrow, advertising, and our agent. Remember, your agent’s main motivation is profit too. What do you do when you are around someone who is greedy? That’s right, you turn and run the other way—fast.

Don’t be a greedy investor. Never be cheap. Don’t cut your agent’s commission. When we decide we can’t be successful unless we are cheap, the first person we decide to be cheap with is our agent. We do that for three reasons:

1.We think of him or her first because we work with them the most.

2.They make the most or biggest chunk of money (other than you, the investor).

3.We think we can get away with it.

Stop it. We are dealing with a person and a professional. We don’t ask our doctor to give us a discount! We don’t say, “Hey, Mr. Vons, my grocery bill is too high. You have to take a 25% discount or I’m not buying your groceries.” As an investor, this is the worst thing we could do. You have heard the expression: “biting the hand that feeds you.” Biting the hand that feeds you is exactly what an investor is doing when they cut their agent’s commission. You are insulting, discouraging, irritating, and alienating the most important ally, asset, and friend to your business.

Your real estate agent (if you follow this book) will be the one person who will make and save you tens of thousands of dollars. Most importantly, the right agent will find you the most important thing for the success of your business: a salable property. Think about it--if someone is cutting your income, how hard are you going to work?

An Investor’s Best Friend

Without a doubt, the right real estate agent is an investor’s best friend. An investor can view property, estimate value, and deal with escrow, title, lenders, termite inspectors and other agents and buyers. An agent will find you the best deals. Do you really want to do all the work that an agent does? (Trust me, it is a lot.) Are you willing to miss the deals that an agent can and will bring you?

The right property at the right price is by far the most important event in the process. If you get that right, everything else will fall into place. If you get it wrong, everything else will be a problem. The point here is that if you have ten things to do to make the deal and your agent only finds you a good deal, THAT WOULD BE ENOUGH!

This can’t be overstated, and this is why the right agent is an investor’s best friend. A real estate agent is full-time in the business of working with buyers and, most importantly, banks. Banks do not want to be in the business of selling real estate. Banks have so many properties they don’t know what to do with them all. That is where you and the right agent come to the bank’s rescue and buy some of their most distressed properties.

Your Personal Real Estate Guru

Imagine how great it would be to have someone you can call, text, or email who has all the answers for all your questions. Most people don’t realize what an asset an agent can be. Not only do they help you find the deals, he or she can supply you with a plethora of information. A real estate agent can also lend you psychological, emotional, and moral support. A good agent will give you motivation and inspire you to go on when you feel like quitting.

In the process of finding, negotiating, and closing a deal, there are inevitably problems, often many of them, that can cause a great deal of distress for even the most seasoned investor. This is when your agent’s skills as a counselor can be a godsend. When I worked as a real estate agent this may have been my greatest and most needed skill. Don’t underestimate the stress that a large financial investment can create.

Even if your agent doesn’t know the answer, he or she has access to finding it. They normally have a manager to turn to, and if they work for one of the major companies, they have access to lawyers and experts. As a member of the state, national, and local associations of realtors, they also have access to legal hotlines where they can get the answer from a real estate attorney to any of your questions.

We all can use motivation at some time, and many of us can use it almost every day. There is a reason sports teams have cheerleaders and coaches. They support us during tough times. They assist us when we are a little down and out. They help us get out of bed when we don’t feel like it. They are instrumental in your making a fortune in real estate.

Insulation Against Liability

Do you work in real estate every day? Have you taken classes, hold a license, belong to associations, and make a small fortune working with other people’s money? I’m guessing the answer to these questions is NO.

On the other hand, your real estate agent can answer YES. As a real estate expert, he or she is held most responsible if something goes wrong. While your real estate agent can’t and won’t insulate you completely, you are much more protected with one, and that is good news for you.

Agents are accustomed to the liability that comes with the real estate business, which is why most aren’t allowed by their brokers to close a transaction without what is called Errors and Emission insurance (also called E and O insurance). It is extremely important to ask about this because you want there to be an insurance policy covering all your transactions. Think of it as an insurance policy you don’t even have to pay for.

This is a day and age where lawsuits are all too common. Many lawsuits are frivolous, but still cost time, aggravation, and money. We must do everything we can to minimize the damage caused by them, which is why having the right agent who carries a hefty E and O insurance is imperative.

A Real Estate Resource

Most real estate trainers (teachers) will have you start your real estate business by surrounding yourself with a team of professionals. This is sound advice and is essential to a real estate investor who is just starting out.

Your agent is the perfect source for you to get started. A real estate agent has already established relationships in the business. They know who does a good job and who doesn't do as well. Your agent knows who is pleasant and easy to work with. They know who gets their work done and who does it quickly. All of these characteristics could make the difference between you having a successful project or a failed one.

There are so many things that can go wrong. All it takes is one small problem personality to ruin a project and cause unnecessary headaches. To give you an idea, a real estate agent can help you find the best available:

1.Title representatives

2.Escrow officers

3.Lenders

4.Termite inspectors

5.Inspection company representatives

6.Property insurance

7.Home protection insurance

8.Lawyers (many have their own or have access through a board of Realtors)

9.Contractors

10.Appraisers

11.Other investors

12.Hard money lenders

13.Credit repair

14.Mold inspectors and repair

15.Roofers

16.Painters

17.Carpet and floor installers

18.Electricians

19.Plumbers

20.Landscapers

21.Trash removers

22.Demolition crews

23.Buyers