I have spoken in front of many real estate investor groups over the years. As I talked to  investors I was often asked, “how do you get real estate agents to give you the really good deals?”   Another nuance on this same question is, “why would a real estate agent pass a truly great deal on to you? Wouldn’t they take it for themselves?”

To respond to this question, I must first let you how real estate agents and brokers think. They think in terms of commissions. They are not thinking with the attitude of profit by investing themselves.

Now, there are always exceptions to this rule, but the  majority of real estate agents and brokers that you will find are looking for houses to list or buyers that are looking to buy right now so they can earn a commission from selling a house. They are rarely interested in buying an investment property for themselves and there are more deals than they could take themselves.

So, once we know that, we can focus on helping real estate agents get what they want so that we can get what we want. How do we get them to think of us when they have really great deals? We need to think of them first. Here’s how.

I don’t know how many times I’ve been sitting with some motivated sellers where the offer I was making to them did not quite fit… maybe my price was too low, maybe my terms were too long, maybe I was not offering them enough cash, maybe they thought the house was worth more than what it could be sold for quickly. It really does not matter; here’s how I handle it the overwhelming majority of the time.

Once they express to me that there is something about my offer that will not work for them and after I try to overcome their objection, if they still are not ready to accept my offer I tell them that the next best thing is to have the best real estate agent I know sell their house for them.

And here’s the part where you will have your real estate agent sending you (and only you) all the best deals… I then tell the seller that I’d like to have the best real estate agent I know work up a free sales comps for them and let them know what he could sell their house for. Then, I pick up my cell phone and call my real estate agent. Here’s about what I say (and right in front of the seller)…

Mr. Agent, I am sitting here with Mr. and Mrs. Seller and unfortunately what I can do for them just won’t work for their situation, but I just told them that you are the best agent I know locally that could actually sell their house for them quickly and for the most money. If it is alright with you, would you be kind enough to research what you think you could sell the house for quickly? Would you like to schedule a time to meet with them to show them what you can do?

Then, I pass the phone to the seller so that they can schedule a time to meet.

Do you see the power in doing this? What an amazing referral for both the seller and real estate agent!

And what is great about this for me is that I only get about 1 offer in about 10 accepted, so I am doing this 9 times for every deal I do get under contract.

Would an agent run comps for you if you are referring this many people to him? Yes.

Would an agent send you Christmas gifts if you are referring this many people to him? Yes.

Would an agent send you the best deals he could find if you are referring people to him in this way? Absolutely.

Do you know why? Because if he isn’t you’ll stop and he lose a ton of business. That’s how to get real estate agents to send you all their best deals.