10 Ways Working With a Property Sourcer Could Help You Towards Your Investment Goals More Safely and Quickly Than Doing It Alone

Working with a property sourcer can be really helpful for busy professionals who want to invest in property but just don’t have the time, knowledge or expertise to find the right properties.

Letting someone else find you the deals while you carry on running your business, doing your job and being with your family sounds good, right?

Here are ten ways working with a sourcer could help you towards your investment goals more safely and quickly than doing it alone.

1.     Property Sourcing Saves Time & Minimises Risk

Sourcing investment property is hard. It can be time consuming, head scratching and sometimes emotional.

A good property sourcer will have been in the industry a long time. They will have their own portfolio. They’ll know the ins and outs of finding good properties, from how to work with agents to negotiating a deal. They’ll understand refurbishment specifics and rental or sale demand. They’ll know their location inside out and perhaps most importantly they’ll be an expert at crunching the numbers and understanding how to maximise a property’s investment potential.

Their experience is worth its weight in gold to a time-poor property investor. Being able to utilise their years of knowledge and expertise can not only save you a lot of time, it can also help you minimise the risk and give you much-needed peace of mind to move forward in the right direction.

2.     Removes The Emotions and Works Only With The Facts

Property is a numbers game. We’re always saying it. As an investor you have to work with the numbers only and not get emotional about a property. But that can be easier said than done for a lot of people.

People tend to get emotional about houses. They see the potential in something and get their heart set on it. Decisions made by the heart often result in offers being increased and people paying over the odds for the bricks and mortar. Or they end up in disappointment when a deal isn’t won.

This doesn’t happen when you’re working with a good property sourcer. They remove the emotions and just work with the facts. They work with the numbers and that’s that. If the spreadsheet says, ‘No’, they move on.

They’re also used to putting offers in and not winning properties. That’s also part of the game and not something they get hung up on.

How does this help you? Well, it ensures you don’t pay over the odds for a property and it keeps your emotions out of it. So you can use your brain space for something more important. Happy days.

3.     Property Sourcers Have a Rigorous Due Diligence Process

Knowing whether a property is a good deal or not is tough when you’re new to this and many first-time investors can easily do their own heads in trying to calculate whether something will work or not (and still get it wrong!).

An experienced sourcer has been through all the pain of learning how to do it and has plenty of practice from buying their own properties and sourcing properties for other investors, so they can calculate a deal in a matter of minutes. Seriously. A good sourcer can spot a good deal a mile away.

The ones they think will work then go through a rigorous due diligence process where they scrutinise all the elements to establish whether the property could work and what the maximum offer price would be.

This saves you so much time and effort. By the time a deal comes to your desk you know that it will work, you just need to figure out if it works for you and your goals.

4.     Refurbishment Experts

Being able to scope the refurbishment before you buy the property is an essential part of the process and can make the difference between making a profit or a loss.

Your sourcer will have done countless refurbishments themselves and they’ll be very knowledgeable about exactly what’s needed to get the property ready to rent out or sell. They’ll know product and trade prices and which standard of kitchen is required and they won’t get hung up on having to buy the best tiles or the best carpets. They'll just work with the numbers.

Not only does this help you to know if the property will be a good investment or not, it also gives you a great head-start on the refurbishment specification to help you with the next stage once you’ve bought the house.

5.     Market Knowledge

Your property sourcer will be looking at properties, crunching numbers and negotiating deals on a daily basis. As such they will know the market inside out. They’ll know what’s happening with prices in individual streets and areas. They’ll know the latest trends of landlords in their area and who’s selling up and why.

Building up this level of knowledge yourself would take years and, let’s face it, isn’t going to happen. But that’s OK, right? You don’t need it, not when you can tap into the knowledge and insights of your property sourcer to help you make decisions and choose the right properties for you.

“By the time a deal comes to your desk you know that it will work, you just need to figure out if it works for you and your goals”

6.     Ready-Made Team

When buying a property you need to build up a team of professionals you know and trust - solicitors, brokers, builders, letting agents - and this can take time and a bit of trial and error while you find people who are good.

There’s no need to do this when you work with a sourcer. They’ll have plenty of experts they work with all the time, who they know and trust and know can be relied on to get the job done well. Making use of this is another area that gives you peace of mind as well as saving you time.

7.     Solid Relationships

This industry is all about relationships. Whether you’re speaking to auction houses, estate agents, direct to sellers or builders or other local landlords and developers, relationships are key to the whole process.

A good sourcer will have put a lot of effort into building up their relationships over the years, which means you don’t have to.  Another time and effort saver.

8.     Access to Exclusive Deals

Those good relationships we were talking about, well, another benefit of them is that they can help you find off-market deals.

Estate agents and auction houses tend to go to their trusted buyers first with some properties to see if they can sell them before they go to market.

Landlords also approach other landlords, investors or sourcers they know who might be able to take a property off their hands quickly, so they don’t have to go through the lengthy process of putting it on the market and waiting for viewers etc.

This can result in you, the buyer, being presented with deals that no-one else is getting, meaning less competition and a quicker and easier process for everyone.

9.     Masters of Negotiation

Negotiating a deal can take a bit of effort and you need to know what you’re doing. It’s not just a case of putting your offer in and sitting back and waiting. Ongoing communication is vital and can be the difference between getting a deal and letting it slip through your fingers.

There’s also the delicate process of putting your rationale for your offer forward and trying to gather information from the seller as to what price they’re prepared to accept.

Your sourcer will have this process nailed and because of those good relationships they’ve got (that we keep going on about) they won’t have to try too hard, as there will already be a mutual level of understanding and trust, helping you, the buyer, to get the right houses for the right prices, with minimal effort on your part.

10.  Make Money From Your Armchair

A good property sourcer will do all the due diligence and number crunching so you don't have to, meaning you can use your time for something else, like sitting on the beach. Sounds good, right?

What’s Next?

If you some help finding the right investment property for you, get in touch to discuss how we can help.

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