Just this morning, on my 8am walk, I noticed a house for sale. The sign had been there for some time so I decided to call the agent. When I got home I checked my diary where I noted that it was a good 3 months that it had been listed.

These ones do excite me, as vendors get desperate - as you can imagine - and they are sometimes a great boost to anyone’s equity! He has had tenants that caused or were involved with a fire inside the house. Insurance paid out to cover replacement / refurbishment cost of the fire. Total renovation and re-marketing to cover some outlay. Meanwhile the mortgage still has to be payed each and every month.

When I asked the agent some questions, she said to me that they are looking to re-rent the house out and will have the rental agreement by the end of today. I said why don’t I rent it and buy it at the end of the 12 month lease. She then said and I quote ‘We don’t do that here, its just a straight buy and sell, nothing fancy‘. So I said thanks very much. Goodbye.

Now if you were the vendor would you like the security of someone paying rent each and every week with a contract of sale at the end of the lease; or would you like to wait another 3 months to get something done. A Lease Option or a Rent to Buy.

The agent then called me back, and said that they were happy to rent it to us, but it would still be for sale if I was interested. A straight sale. Remarkable, she was not even interested in the fact that I was going to pay more for that house than the list price. Not my mortgage to worry about!!

So the message in it all? Find agents that want to work with you to get you where you need to go. There is no school for these guys besides a very quick real estate institute course. They don’t do a why-investors-do-things-differently course. It never ceases to amaze me why these guys don’t have substantial portfolios. I know I would if vendors called me looking to sell each and every day of the week!

Well, now they’re just another Agent that will never get any further inquiries from me again… Nor a sale if I need some help getting things sold in the future.

Find people who want to work with you in your investing and you will get further even with one agent working in your favour!

Don Christie

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