Free Comps

Getting Free "Comps"

How to get comparable sales data to help you determine the value of a property.

The following is a excerpt from my Lease Option course-

"If you approach a real estate agent as a brand new investor, while they may offer to be helpful, most agents realize that there are tons of “new investors” every day who waste their time. They are constantly contacted by people who see some late night infomercial and decide that they want to be real estate investors. They know nothing about real estate and couldn’t get a loan to close on a deal if they actually found one. Most agents realize that even dealing with these people is a big waste of time for them.

Agents work for a commission. If you cannot offer them something that makes them any money, then they are probably not going to waste the time it takes to talk to you. This is why when new investors approach real estate agents, the agents will ask them first to go get pre-qualified with a mortgage lender, then come see them. You cannot blame these agents at all. Most “investors” come and go very quickly, and if the agent has spent any time with them, it is usually wasted.

So how do you overcome this? What can you offer the agent? Here is how to approach this matter. Introduce yourself and tell them that you do a lot of marketing for your business. Let them know that you have signs and run “we buy houses” ads. A lot of time, you get calls from people who do not want to do any sort of creative deal on their house, they simply want full retail value and all cash.

Since you cannot do anything with these callers, ask the agents if you would be able to refer these people to them. That way, the agent may be able to get the caller to list their property with them. The agent would then be able to make money if they list the property and are able to sell it at some point down the road.

You are not coming to these agents and asking that they give you something for nothing. You are approaching them with something to give them! Which way do you suppose would interest an agent more?

After you have their business card, start referring leads that you cannot handle to the agent as they come in to you on your advertising. Be sure to call them up and ask how it’s going, if they’ve been able to list any of the properties that you refer to them, etc."

After establishing a relationship with a realtor like this, it is no problem to simply mention the fact that you are trying to determine the value of a property that you are looking at and would like to know if they can get on the MLS computer and pulls some comps for you. This might take a whole 5 minutes of their time and it is definitely worth it since you are providing something of value to them!