Why property investors are service providers

As property investors, we need to think of ourselves as service providers. Not only will this change of mindset make it easier when we approach landlords, agents etc but we actually really are a service provider because we offer solutions to problems that the traditional method of sale will not fix.

And the more acute the problem that we can solve, the more obvious our solution is to that problem, the easier it is to convey our service to that property owner, get a result and get a property into our portfolio. Or if we’re packaging deals into another investor’s portfolio.

Now, if you’re a property investor looking to buy right now, the types of properties you don’t want are where the property owner wants to get the full market value. Because they won’t be motivated to sell quickly, and they’ll just go to an estate agent. And of course, the main reason is that we’re looking to make the profit between the purchase price and the increase in value that we have. Now that might be short term increase in value flipping or refurbishing to get refinanced, or it might be long term value in terms of capital appreciation.

You can be a service provider to agents.

Agents generally find properties relatively easy to sell; some are easier than others, and, in a buoyant market, the properties sell like hotcakes. 

But if you look on agent portals, there are still properties that they struggle to sell. Sometimes that might be because of vendor-led pricing or unrealistic expectations on pricing, which we can’t do much about at the moment, but we can monitor that for the longer term. 

And then there are other properties that agents get on which they struggle to sell because they have problems. Problems like; a substantial amount of work needing to be completed or structural issues. So, as the service provider, the service that we offer to agents is an alternative solution to selling those properties that they are struggling to sell.

How to approach them.

Remember your strategy; you are not looking for every property an agent or landlord has available. Instead, you’re looking for properties that match your specialism or strategy and changing how you approach direct vendors, landlords & agents.

Say your specialism is properties with structural issues; you’ll be looking for specific properties like this. Or perhaps your specialism is properties that need extensive amounts of work, extensions, or conversions completed. Then, you would focus on these properties and tell the agent, the landlord, or the direct vendor your service of offering a solution to the problem properties they’ve got that they can’t sell. 

Becoming the expert

And if you can do that for vendors, agents, or landlords, you’re going to get more deals done and spend less time focusing on deals that might never come. 

Instead, you’ll focus energy on the deals that are yours for the taking, offer solutions and it’ll be a win-win for everyone involved. 

In addition, you’ll get an excellent reputation locally for what you do and how you do it, and that will serve you well on your property journey.