Property Investing Secrets:

What No One Ever Tells You-How Real Estate Agents Size Up Buyers

Here is the most important rule you must know about property investing: present yourself with confidence to the real estate agent. If youre property investing and trying to buy your first property and you have never really dealt with a real estate agent, youre probably not going to get a bargain. Most likely later, after youve made offers and gotten them accepted, will you then get better deals.

You see, the first time up youre going to have to sound the agent out and see how much experience they have. If youre dealing with the young pup in the office that has only been in the business 3 or 4 months, you dont need to know a lot. You can probably even bluff them. But if youre dealing with the principal, the owner of the business, who has been around for 20 years, theyre going to know that youre not experienced property investing or more importantly that youve never bought in their area and then it becomes a real matter of brinkmanship with the real estate agent.

When property investing, you must convince the real estate agent that youre serious. You can say, Look Im only in town for a couple of days. (Even if you live locally, have flown in or driven from out of town.) Ive got to make a decision in a couple of days. Im looking at a property in the $250,000-$290,000 price bracket.

If you say, I just want to buy a house, I dont care where it is and I want a bargain. The agent thinks this buyer has no idea. But the wise person who is property investing will say. I want to buy in this price range, I want this rent and I want the property in this particular area. The real estate agent will think, okay this buyer has done their homework. They know what theyre looking for. You can also say, Look, I dont pay full retail price, I expect a bit of a discount. What is the best property youve got that fits my criteria in that area?

Ive found when property investing, the more confident and specific you can be with a real estate agent by telling them what youre looking for, the more the agent will give you credibility as having done your research and not wasting their time.