When a deal that we like comes on the market from an agent, we pick up the phone and CALL, EMAIL, and TEXT. We do all of them until we get a reply. Is it aggressive? Maybe, but does it work? Yes....
We always have listing agents represent us, and we explain to them that as brokers ourselves, we understand how hard it is to get a listing. We want them to represent us in the transaction and double-end the deal.
When we're going after deals, I use the iPhone "shortcuts" feature and create a shortcut for 'HMN' that auto-fills the following message: "Hi, my name is Artem Tepler. We’re all-cash investors, and we’d like you to represent us. Please call us regarding the purchase of the property at" and then fill in the rest of the address by typing it.
In the rare instance they're "too ethical" to represent the seller and us, I ask the agent’s best friend in the office to represent us.
Can you go over the benefits this way? You certainly get access to direct information about the Seller and what they want. How else has this benefited you?