How To Utilize The MLS As An Agent Or Not The Good Stewards Real Estate Podcast

Agent VS Non-Agent:2:01: Ryan is the only one of the Good Stewards who’s licensed, but Amanda has considered it.4:00: Be careful of the trap of becoming an agent and getting commissions as kind of your source of income--commissions are quick short-term money.6:45: If you are going “direct to seller” as a real estate agent, you have to tell any person you talk to that you are a realtor.9:10: Being an agent is one of the very best ways to get into real estate investment. Property management is another good way.11:01: In Oregon and Kansas City, they’ve built up a lot of great relationships with agents that bring us short sales, distressed property situations or other deals  that aren't going to work well on a market. They interim give us comps.Zillow Is Usually Off:13:05: The MLS has the best data because they fine agents who don’t upload correct information. Zillow on the other hand may utilize some of the MLS data, but they’re largely using information from 3rd parties.14:20: Zillow claims to be within 2% of the actual sales prices. But in our experience it’s usually been 10% in either direction. One went as high as being 32% off.MLS Tools:17:00: Ryan’s favorite tool is utilizing the saved search function. Set a search for specific property types, listing expirations, etc and let the MLS basically prospect for you.19:00: There’s really just two ways to get deals on the MLS. Be the first to make an offer or look at data points, going back in time and making “offensive” offers.22:09: The best strategy for newbie’s on the MLS is setting a particular farm area, property type and then look for what listings have expired over the last 2 years. The best thing is that these properties have since appreciated and you can use that as leverage to get the deal.24:20: The best feature of PropStream is the equity filter--Ryan uses it all the time.Larger Complexes and Commercial:25:50: These types of properties are usually acquired through relationships. You can utilize the MLS to identify who the players of those deals are. See if there’s one agent that usually gets those contracts.27:10: You want to be the guy who’s everyone’s go-to in your market and get in on their pocket listings. If they know you’ll close, you’ll reap the benefits.Not Having Direct MLS Access:29:17: In Eugene, OR, it’s pretty easy to determine comps since the market is so small.31:43: The Eugene team has even leveraged one of their broker relationships to mail letters in their name. He doesn’t do much work, but he’s someone we can bounce ideas off of on what it would take to get the property to top shape for a retail buyer.35:00: Bottom line, if you want to treat this as a business, you have to have access to where all of the business has done.Tools Mentioned:23:15: Skip Genie -- unlimited manual searches for skip tracing.23:58: PropStream -- “The poor man’s MLS.”Connect with the Good Stewards:Visit Our Website and SubscribeEmail | Ask@TheGoodStewards.comTwitter | @TheGoodStewardsInstagram | @GoodStewardsPodcastFacebook | @GoodStewardsPodcast