Finding the right realtor proved to be a challenge for us as well. When Castle Rock first started, I quickly realized that the realtors that we were using simply slapped our listing on the MLS, put a lock box on the house, and showed up at the closing to collect their check. What really got my goat was when I saw that the realtors were making more money on our projects than I was.
Enter my wife. Her degree was actually in Interior Design. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the term Interior Designer, that term contrasts with the term Interior Decorator in that a real designer has a formal education in the field. It’s more than just picking paint colors. It’s moving walls, knowing codes, and building a cohesive plan for a renovation or construction project. She joined our company and took over running our construction crews. She was an integral part of the purchase in that she helped us envision what a dilapidated property could become. She worked with the GCs in making the property look amazing while controlling costs. When it became evident that she was the real driver of buyers to the property, I suggested she get her real estate license and take over selling our properties. It was a move that has paid massive dividends.
She’s actually branched out with an equity partner she knew from childhood to create a successful home renovation and flipping business in the Tampa Bay market. The partner was one of her real estate sales clients that wanted to become an investor. After three years of doing this, they now have $10 million in lines to flip or rent homes.
It has been my experience that most realtors bring little value to the table. What Christine was able to do was to work with the investor on the buy side to not only identify properties for purchase, but review properties that were presented by wholesalers in order to ensure that the investor’s minimum return was likely. She worked with the General Contractors to help choose finishes and control costs. When she listed the properties, she brought in a professional photographer and had the properties staged in a way that attracted buyers. She was also very accessible to her good clients and took calls on a Sunday night at 10pm. She is very rare and she has been integral to the success of Castle Rock as well as those other clients she has cultivated.
You might not find an agent with a background like Christine’s, but you need to make sure that the agent is bringing something of value to the table other than slapping it up on the MLS. That’s what most agents do and that’s why most agents fail within the first couple of years.
Real estate listing presentations can be filled with flashy promises of some new way to market a property. In reality, all agents market properties in pretty much the same way. It’s really what the agent brings to the table throughout the entire process that makes them valuable.