You know the listing. The one where every showing ends in the driveway. Buyer’s agent walks the client through, the client sees the soft spot in the bathroom floor, the water line on the crawlspace wall, the 1970s breaker panel, and the next text you get is “we’re going to keep looking.”
Your seller is frustrated. You’re frustrated. The house sits, the days on market climb, and the price conversation gets uncomfortable.
That listing is exactly what I want to see.
I’m Ben Lovro. I’m a real estate investor based in Lexington, South Carolina, and I buy property across the Midlands through Cash Property Offers. I’m not licensed. I’m a buyer. And I’ve learned that an investor friendly real estate agent in South Carolina is one of the most valuable relationships I can have.
Why licensed agents are the clean deal channel in South Carolina
In May 2024, South Carolina’s revised Real Estate Practice Act took effect, with a definition of wholesaling that treats marketing property you don’t own, with an expectation of compensation, as activity requiring a license. And when the Real Estate Commission issued its advisory opinion that November, it made clear that “marketing” covers a lot of ground, from the MLS and Facebook groups to a private email blast or a phone call.
What that means in practice: a lot of the unlicensed middlemen who used to send investors deals are now in a much tighter spot. You aren’t. You’re licensed to market property. Marketing property for your sellers is literally your job.
So when I think about where my best deals come from going forward, licensed agents are near the top of the list. You bring listings with real sellers, real disclosures and real authority to sign. I bring a fast decision and a reliable close.
If you want the plain-English version of what changed, I wrote it up at sc-wholesaling.benlovro.com. It’s worth five minutes, because investors who don’t understand it will call you with some strange requests.
What I buy from agents
The short list:
- Estate listings. Inherited houses, often full of belongings, often with a personal representative who wants it done right.
- As-is listings. Deferred maintenance, roof or foundation questions, original everything.
- Tenant-occupied property. Single-family or small multifamily with tenants in place, leases or not.
- Small multifamily. Duplex, triplex, fourplex.
- Land and land + mobile home. Rural tracts, infill lots, a home on its own acreage.
I walk through each of these in more detail, including what I look for and what I need from you, on the listings I buy page. My full investor criteria live on my buy box.
Where: anywhere I can drive in about an hour from my house in Lexington. In practice that’s Columbia and its river towns (West Columbia and Cayce), Irmo, and out toward Newberry and Greenwood to the northwest, Aiken to the west, Orangeburg to the south, and the smaller towns like Swansea, Pelion and Batesburg in between. I’ll also look at Sumter, Lancaster, Rock Hill and the Upstate.
How I treat listing agents
Every agent I’ve worked with has a story about an investor who wasted their time. Lowball offer by text, no proof of funds, inspection used as a renegotiation weapon, ghosted after the option period. I’ve heard all of them.
Here’s how I try to be the opposite.
I answer fast
Send me a listing and I aim to respond within 24 business hours. You’ll get a yes-I’m-interested, a request for specific information, or a clear no with a reason. You’ll never have to chase me to find out where I stand.
I write clean contracts
Standard South Carolina forms where they fit, clear terms, reasonable inspection period, no weird clauses. If I need something unusual, I tell you why before I write it, not after.
I don’t renegotiate for sport
I underwrite before I offer. I look at sold comps, estimate repairs system by system, and build in a contingency. That means the number I write is the number I mean. If inspection turns up something truly new, a hidden foundation problem nobody knew about, we’ll talk about it honestly. But I don’t use the inspection period to grind your seller down.
I respect your role
If a property is listed, I go through you. I don’t reach around you to your seller. I keep you informed. I show up to the walk-through when I say I will. When closing day comes, your seller is happy and you get paid. That’s the goal.
I close with an attorney
South Carolina closings are attorney-supervised. I close with a South Carolina closing attorney every time. If you’d like to know how I think about picking one, it’s on the closing attorney guide.
What to send me
Make it easy and I can move fast. Here’s what helps most:
- Address and MLS number if it’s listed
- Disclosures, or a note on what the seller knows
- Occupancy and lease info if tenants are in place
- Access instructions and showing restrictions
- Photos or a walk-through video, especially of the problem areas
- Your seller’s priorities: timeline, as-is terms, leaving belongings, whatever matters
- Anything about title you already know (estate status, liens, boundary questions)
Send it through the agent submission form. It flags you as an agent so I know to coordinate everything through you.
What most agents get wrong about investor buyers
A few other things that help:
- Price to the condition, not the neighborhood. If a house needs a full rehab, it’s not competing with the renovated house down the street. Pricing it like it is just adds days on market.
- Tell me the hard part first. If there’s a foundation issue, lead with it. I’m going to find it either way, and early honesty speeds everything up.
- Don’t be afraid of the cash-buyer conversation with your seller. Some sellers, especially estates and tired landlords, value certainty and as-is terms more than squeezing every last dollar. You know your client. Give them the option.
Do investors pay commission?
That’s between you, your seller and the listing agreement. When you list a property, your compensation is governed by your agreement with your client, and buyer-side compensation is something we discuss and document up front. I’m not going to tell you how to set your commission, and I’m not going to surprise you at the closing table. The agent FAQ covers more of these questions.
Why I care about getting this right
Two deals is luck. Twenty is a system. The system I want is a handful of agents across the Midlands who know that when they have an investor-grade listing, they send it to me first, because they know exactly what will happen next.
That only works if I’m good to work with. Every time. I’m a husband and a father, and reputation is one of the few things I get to hand down. In a place like the Midlands, agents talk. I want what they say about me to be simple: he answered, he closed, he was straight with us.
You can read more about me at benlovro.com/about, and see how I think about the South Carolina market as a whole at sc.benlovro.com.
Your next step
Got a listing that keeps scaring off retail buyers? An estate that needs to move? A duplex with tenants your buyers don’t want to inherit?
Send it through the agent deal form. Put the hard part in the first line. I’ll get back to you fast.
Questions people ask
Do you work with buyer's agents as well as listing agents?
Yes. If you represent me on a purchase, we’ll talk about how that relationship is set up and documented before we write anything. If you’re the listing agent, I respect your role and communicate through you.
Will you go around me to talk to my seller?
No. If a property is listed, I work through the listing agent. That’s the rule, and it’s also just good business.