Hello everyone, I'm just getting into real estate investing. I am specifically interested in buying student rentals near the university where I work. I have been scouring MLS for months, but I just found a great house listed on Kijiji today. I have a meeting set up with a realtor tomorrow who focuses on investment properties and student rentals. If it goes well, should I ask him for help with this property I found? I have no experience (other than buying my own houses), so it seems his help would be useful.
Personally, I would want to know a lot about real estate before I got into being an investor. If you don't know how to look at comps and such yet, maybe you should learn some more before you get into investing. Some realtors are good at that kind of stuff. Many are not. Don't risk your investments to someone else's expertise.
Noob does state that this Realtor has expertise in those types of rentals, which would be nice but is rare.
I got my own real estate license when I decided to seriously invest in real estate, after a few years of small-time stuff (renting out rooms, then one whole house after I moved into another). Most agents are not very conversant with the concerns of cash-flow investors, even the ones who talk a good talk, and too many others (sad to say) just want to upsell for max commission. I recently called up a very successful agent whom I've met in past trips to a particular place that I visit often, who sells craptons of vacation rentals (and whose daughter manages them) about a prospective investment in her area, and she tried to talk me out of it in favor of a "nicer and bigger" one that would earn about 2x the income... at 2.5x the price.
Yes, sadly, too many agents don't like crunching numbers. In my experience, that kind of attitude is the norm, not the exception. Even if you have a good one who is able to look at things from the cash-flow investor's standpoint, I would strongly suggest doing your own research and vetting. Spend time analyzing listings and asking yourself the pros and cons of each one. Work out cash-flow projections after debt service (if applicable), taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities, likely vacancies, etc. Develop a consistent rationale for evaluating each property and don't bite on one till you've gone through this process many times. There will always be opportunities, and you don't want to miss out on a home run because you just sank all your capital into a mediocre money pit.
Also, as far as the FSBO goes, let's be clear that the question of commissions and who pays them is *always* subject to negotiation between client and agent. And you are free to go to that agent and say, "I'd love to buy this house but I need you to negotiate commission with the FSBO seller". Agents are
taught how to handle a situation like that. Many brokers even offer their agents scripts for approaching FSBO sellers and offering to bring in a serious buyer prospect, subject to some kind of commission being paid by seller. The worst that can happen is someone says "no". Nothing lost on your part.