You may be wondering if the real estate consultant title is meaningful and indicates something different from the same old licensed real estate brokers with a vested interest in the fate of a property. While it is true that anyone can call themselves a consultant, the term is not meaningless window dressing. For those who are serious about their real estate consulting business, it represents a different model, a different approach to real estate practice.
The first and most important difference is objectivity. Whereas a real estate broker is generally paid based on a result (in other words, he receives a commission), a real estate consultant is paid solely for his experience. They have no interest in the outcome. Sellers are paid only for one result: a sale. Real estate consultants are paid only for their expert advice and, by design, have no interest in achieving a particular result for a particular transaction. This gives them the ability to be more objective and inherently more trustworthy than a traditional real estate salesperson. Think about it, even the most honest salesperson will subconsciously try to steer you into a sale. After all, that’s where your pay comes from: sales! The consultant is paid in the same way as other professional advisors or service professionals such as CPAs, with an advance regardless of the outcome.
Consulting can involve a variety of skills and areas of expertise. You can hire a consultant for legal advice, market research, or locating potential investment properties, among other things. Since they are paid as much for their time telling you there are no properties in an area worth investing in as they are telling you dozens of viable properties, they have no interest in anything except giving you the best possible advice. After all, your future business depends on word-of-mouth support from investors like you.
If you are looking for properties to invest in, a real estate advisor can advise you to develop massive sales and opportunities, partnerships, joint ventures, and possibly even some unique and profitable turnkey investment opportunities. The consultant is selling information and experience and can therefore provide a layer of insulation between you and the people selling the properties. They can work out many of the details and business prospects of a property before you have to speak to a seller. Once you confront the seller, you can go into the negotiation fully armed with a variety of appropriate information, and thus avoid being misled and negotiate from a position of strength.
If, on the other hand, you are selling properties, especially if you have many properties to sell, a real estate consultant can help you create a strategy to sell the units before you get involved with real sellers, which can have many advantages. . For example, you can sell many properties in a relatively short time without creating the appearance of a mass sale by having a real estate agent distribute the properties among several different sellers.
