So how does how long the house has been on the market play into this? When you see something that's been on for a while, or we'll get to something that just came on after? Hey, I mean, it's just like online dating, right? I don't do online dating, but I know how the thing works.

If she's been single for 6 days, she's probably not in a rush to take your response to go out with you Friday. But if she's been single for 6 months, she's probably going to give you a little bit more attention when you send that message. When a seller first puts their house on the market, they have all the leverage.

They have tons of interest, people are going to look at their home showings are being scheduled. Agents are calling all excited. We really love the house. Do you have any other offers? It's this frenetic, crazy emotional pace where the sellers are trying to think of how can I leverage this to get as much money as possible, which is really where I'm trying to guide my clients away.

I don't want you in that feeding frenzy. If no one buys that house after 14 to 21 days, interest is starting to slow by day 30, day 40. They're getting worried. It's not who's the best guy that I can take that gets to take me to prom. It's am I going to prom at all?

I just want a date. Does anyone want to buy my house? I'm stuck. I might not be able to move. And I write about this in some of the books that I've published for BiggerPockets for agents. There's this spectrum of fear and greed. We usually all start off on the greed side.

And as you slide across, you end up in the fear side. You're worried, "I might not sell the house at all." So in most markets, depending on what your average day is on market, this wouldn't apply in an area with $7 million homes that tend to sit on the market for 6 months before they sell.

But for your regular starter homes, they should be selling in less than 30 days in most markets in the country. So the minute you get past that point, you're going to start seeing some worry in sellers and they will be open to more aggressive offers or terms that are more favorable to the buyer.

What happens if you are in a hot market? And let's say you've identified a neighborhood, you've looked, maybe a house comes on every 2 or 3 months, and you know, "This is what I want." You say, "The moment that house comes on the market, it's hot. It's the worst time." Is there a way to get ahead of that?

Is there a way to find homes before they get on the market and buy them? Is that finding the right agent? Or how do you get what might be a hot home before it's hot? Rob, what have you been doing? You've gotten a couple of deals this way. Yeah.

So there are definitely a few. I mean, there's... Let's see. There's the creative finance and the sub 2 deal. And that's effectively where you're cold calling a bunch of property owners and also wholesaling where you cold call property owners and basically try to buy the property directly from them versus going the realtor route.

That's a very popular niche within real estate. But honestly, I think having a really big network of realtors that you're friendly with is super important. And more than just having a bunch of realtors in your network, finding a realtor that I see... And this is where the marketing thing comes into play too.

So finding a realtor that's very good at marketing and having a vast network of realtor friends that can pass each other deals to you or pass deals to each other, that to me is super important. Because if you find someone that's very new and very green in the industry, they probably don't have a lot of other real estate colleagues necessarily.

But if it's someone that's been working in the industry for a while, they have the opportunity to find all these deals before they ever hit the market. So I have realtors that are texting me all the time that they're like, "Hey, my bud just sent me this. It's gonna hit the market next week.

They're interested in selling it before even going to market. Are you interested?" And I'll look at a deal much quicker, much faster, and much more intentionally knowing that I've got first dibs on it. Do you think that applies for a consumer? Should I... If I'm looking to buy a home in a neighborhood, should I just talk to all the agents in the neighborhood and say, "Hey, I'm looking to buy a home.

There's nothing on the market I want right now. But I just want you to know, if you can find me something, I'm ready to go." And just talk to 10 agents. Do agents like that kind of behavior or...? Not really. Yeah. No, not really. Because you send the message that you're looking for an open relationship and they're wanting a committed relationship.

So it doesn't benefit me as an agent if you come and you're talking to 12 agents in the years. If you find me the deal, I'll buy it from you. That sounds great, but I don't need to sell it to you. If I get a listing, it's so hot right now, everyone's going to want to buy it.

I don't have to discount my commission. There's people that would probably give me extra commission if they wanted to get that home or I want to be able to go to my seller and tell them I got 10 offers on their home and I want to look like a rock star to them.

So I don't think the "go wide instead of deep" strategy works unless it's a buyer's market. When you are in those situations where it's very difficult to find someone to buy a home --we're talking 2010 when there were for sale signs everywhere. Listings were all over the place. REO inventory was massive, but there weren't a lot of pre-approved buyers that were willing to step in and buy a house.

Then that strategy makes a lot more sense. That's where you're reaching out to all these agents saying, "Hey, if you get a deal, bring it to me and I'll buy it because you're the prize in that situation." They need a buyer. And you're basically saying, "Listen, I'm one of the few buyers that's out there that could do this thing.

But if you want my business, you're going to have to make it worth my while." That works a lot better than in a market like today, where you're just one out of a whole bunch of other people that are all struggling to try to get a house. Yeah. I'm actually really glad you asked that, Chris.

I'm glad you clarified, David, because Chris, for reference, I'm in about 16 different markets around the country. So I actually have a massive network of realtors in different cities. They're all very aware of exactly what I'm looking for. So when they get a pocket listing or an off-market listing, they text me directly.

When I'm working in a city, specifically, or in a market specifically, I do want just one realtor. And that's why I say, "I want to find a realtor that's got a lot of realtor friends that can help find some of those off-market deals." So it's about finding someone that's connected.

Is that as simple as just seeing whose name pops up in a neighborhood most for sale signs? Who represented most of the sales or any other tactics for finding that super connected agent? I see why it would look that way. But there are so many real estate agents, Chris.

It's like the ones you see are the tip of the iceberg. There's so many of them. There's way too many agents. We don't need this many. It reminds me of a scene in The Office where Dwight and Michael are walking through a crowded room and Dwight says, "There's too many people.

We need another plague." There's just so many agents that have flooded into the real estate space. Like people coming to California in 1849 thinking they're going to strike gold. They're all fighting to try to get that seller to think of them. It's just this massive marketing campaign that every agent is throwing themselves in front of people.

And now you've got investors that are also sending letters to those same people saying, "I want to buy your house. I want to buy your house." Most home sellers know, in general, they have what everyone wants. Their home is valuable. You're probably not going to put things in your favor by just talking to every real estate agent out there and saying, "Hey, I want to buy a house if you get one." Because if they can get a listing, it's guaranteed to sell.

There's no reason they're going to go to you particularly. And then this is a very short question, but it's important. How much does the brand behind the agent matter? Is it all about the agent or is it all about the agency they work at or the brokerage firm they work at?

The only people that think a broker matters is the broker. Your clients never care who your broker is. It's 100% the agent. So if you're trying to find someone and they're like, "Oh, you can work with my colleague on this." That's a red flag. It used to be really useful.

Just a little history lesson. Because there was a time where if you wanted to buy a house that Remax was listing, you had to go to a Remax agent at that office to buy that house. So Remax had their listings, Coldwell Banker had theirs, Century 21 had theirs. And you would jump from broker to broker and look at their inventory.

When we created the multiple listing service, this was an agreement between all brokerages that they would all put their listings into one central location that everybody could see which eventually morphed into the online listing portals that we all see when we're looking for homes. That eliminated the value of going to an individual broker because now you can see everybody's inventory in the same place.

And if people that you know had success using those online brokers that are like, "We're just going to cut your rate and give you huge discounts." I know Redfin does that. Have you heard success stories there? Is the savings worth it? In our industry, Chris, I'm just going to tell you the brutal truth.

I look for a Redfin agent to be on the other side of the transaction because I know I'm going to destroy him in negotiation. Because they don't make hardly any money on these deals. They usually go there when they're desperate for food. "I'm starving. Please Redfin, give me some deals," or whatever the discount brokerage is.

I've had massive success, particularly targeting listings that are Redfin listings because those Redfin agents are... Not all the time. I'm sure there's going to be a Redfin agent out there who's going to say, "Well, I'm a Redfin agent. I'm good." Yes, they do exist. But in general, any of those discount brokerages...

I sell the most Redfin homes in this neighborhood. (laughs) Yeah. In fact, that might even be an advantage to tell people to look for those because your agent is going to have a field day with their agent if you have a good one. Yeah. One more tip. I got one more tip here.

If the listing says, "Run, don't walk," it's probably not that great of a listing. (laughs) Oh, wow. We were just talking about this yesterday. Every listing agent is putting their house boast of 5 bedrooms, boast of amazing light, boast of a great view. These houses are just boasting all over the place.

Bay Area real estate has become very arrogant. (laughs)