Find Best Investment Real Estate Agents in San Francisco

A good investment-savvy real estate agent is a real estate agent who doesn’t just have experience in representing buyers and sellers of properties, but also has personal experience investing in real estate and focuses on working with investors, not just homeowners. An investor-friendly realtor will view properties from the same perspective as an investor. The large majority of property sales in the U.S. are personal residences—homeowners buying or selling their house or condo. As a result, the majority of realtors specialize in representing homeowners, which requires a different skill set and objective than viewing a property purely as an investment. A good investor will need a realtor specializing in investment properties, where the fundamental question is not whether a house is right for a buyer or seller’s family, for example, but whether the property will generate a good return. For potential flip properties, an experienced investors’ realtor will be calculating potential renovations, their associated cost, and then the projected sale price of a post-renovated property while searching through listings with an investor. For a rental investment, they will be performing a similar calculus when exploring potential renovations, vacancy rates and rent elevators against expenses. Property investment agents will look past the emotional and qualitative aspects of a property and help investors find and sell properties that have attractive numbers (e.g. purchase price, loan terms, rental potential, average market sales velocity etc). Viewing a property as a source of enjoyment and homelife vs viewing a property purely as an investment are entirely different perspectives when buying and selling property—it’s essential to find realtors who work with investors and who have strategies that align with an investor’s objectives.

Real estate agents who have experience in working with investors will have a fundamentally different mindset to real estate agents who focus on working with home-owners. Identifying good deals—especially those that might be off-market—is just one of many abilities that a good investor-friendly real estate agent will have. A good real estate agent will also be able to help an investor find other relevant professionals (e.g. home stagers, property managers, subcontractors) during the lifespan of a real estate deal. Finally, having an investment property realtor in your corner will provide an invaluable second opinion on prospective deals. They will have been part of a deal-team on dozens if not hundreds of similar property investments and will be able to advise on what strategies work in your local area and what strategies often fail. Looking through a property and proposing prospective renovations, for example, is often an educated guessing game. An experienced agent will be able to provide that critical second-opinion on whether it’s possible to knock down a wall or refurbish some hardwood underneath a carpet. A good real estate investor should ultimately be concerned with the numbers attached to a deal and not on the subjective aesthetics of a prospective deal.

A realtor for real estate investors will typically charge similar fees to what standard real estate agents charge. The seller of a non-commercial property will generally pay about a 6% commission to the listing agent of a property. In the event that the listing agent can find a buyer who doesn’t have an agent attached, the listing agent will generally capture most or even all of that 6% fee from the sale of the property (unless they’ve made an alternative agreement with their agent). However, this is very rare, and usually, the buyer’s agent (aka the “selling agent”) will capture half of the 6% commision so that each agent ends up with 3% of the total selling price of a property for their services. For investors, one thing to keep in mind is that real estate agent commissions are not fixed and are entirely negotiable. An investment property buyer’s agent will often be willing to give an investor part of their fee (e.g. 1% of the total sale price) upon the purchase of a property with the expectation that they will also end up as the listing agent when that property sells and/or they will be seeing more future business from that buyer.

When buying an investment property, an investor should always perform the due diligence to ensure that they find a real estate agent specializing in investment properties. Like most professionals, finding an investor-friendly real estate agent comes down to validating experience. Always ask a potential agent what experience they have personally investing in real estate. Also, you should ask a prospective agent what experience they have executing your investment strategy (e.g. flipping a single family home).

Just like a thorough search for an ideal investment property, a thorough search for a realtor who specializes in investment properties will have an investor explore several candidates. Finding the right property at the right price is almost always the most critical element of making a good return in a real estate deal. The right agent is critical to executing that process, and you can find one in our directory by choosing your location on this very page. HouseCashin provides an up-to-date list of real estate agents that work with investors in your area to help you partner with the ideal professional for your investment strategy.