While sometimes under appreciated, real estate investors are a critical part of any successful real estate team. Their presence on a team can serve as a valuable and strategic partnership. So who should be prioritizing relationships with real estate investors? What are the best practices for cultivating these relationships? Who even needs real estate investors?
Everyone involved in real estate related industries or with real estate needs requires the assistance of a savvy investor. At the very least, everyone can benefit from a knowledgeable investor.
For Vendors:
All types of real estate vendors can benefit from relationships with real estate investors:
- Insurance agents
- Title companies
- Real estate attorneys
- Mortgage lenders and brokers
- Tech start-ups and software companies
- Property management companies
- Property appraisers
- Contractors and builders
- Home inspectors
- Foreign exchange
- Home services companies including security and warranty firms
In the end, real estate investors are responsible of an incredible amount of deal volume. Individually, they dictate the moves of more business each month than real estate agents or mortgage brokers. For example; a single investor may have 20 transactions (sides) they personally handle each month, in addition to 100 plus potential referrals for deals they don’t do. That’s a lot of potential business. Easy, high profit, referral and repeat business.
For Public & Private Institutions:
Local governments and large corporations are increasingly relying on the help of real estate investors. Investors can be powerful partners for revitalizing communities, providing housing, and will often take risks that others can’t. In fact, it should be no secret that real estate investors have been absolutely critical to reviving the U.S. and national economy as a whole, as well as being a prime job and tax revenue creator in recent years.
Other Investors:
Other investors aren’t the enemy. There is plenty of money and business to go around. Most aren’t in direct competition with each other either, and could benefit more from collaboration. This could include partnering on bigger and more profitable deals. However, even more commonly, it could involve referring business to those specializing in other areas when out of area leads come in. Wholesalers can fuel those flipping houses and flippers can fuel buy-and-hold investors. In turn, landlords can help serve up buyers to others.
For Realtors:
Despite the generations old feud between real estate agents and investors, this can be one of the best partnerships in the industry. Realtors need buyers for their listings. Investors can be the perfect partners in this, offering help no one else can. When Realtors get a listing they want to sell fast, an investor can be the best bet. When Realtors have buyers or renters, turning to investors can provide an additional pool of properties to choose from that are ready to make deals quickly. Working together, Realtors may find investors to serve as a constant source of income.
Best Practices:
With the high value investor relationships offer Realtors, vendors and corporations shouldn’t just reach out to make the connections, but look for ongoing opportunities to secure and protect these relationships. In the past, some have gone as far as temporary territory or exclusive referral agreements. Others have offered their office space, technology and team members as support, which strengthens the bond and makes it less attractive to jump ship.
