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I don't think you read through the whole thread. Please do that. It's not about her "not being able to do her job". I have explained why I would rather do it like this.
Who is doing her work for free? (this is an honest question, lol) The sellers realtor? My experience (when I was looking in FL), was my realtor took me to a property where we met the SELLER'S realtor and all 3 of us traipsed around the house. The seller doing most of the showing. Quite frankly that is annoying to me to have 2 people over my shoulder while looking. If the sellers realtor is going to be there touting the place anyway, why can't I just go alone??
Again...It IS not just an issue of me wasting her time...I find it a waste of time to have to get 3 peoples schedule aligned. Make sense?
I assure you I did read the thread and I think you're being foolish. The short answer I guess would be yes, you don't want to have an agent involved go find FSBO's. That's your only option. If you want your friend to represent you, then have her show you the homes you want to see. IF SHE'S GOING TO REPRESENT YOU IT'S HER JOB!
Or, you could just go with MikeJ's advice. Seems to be the best solution offered since you seem to have already made up your mind before you even posted.
Buyer: Hello, I just saw a house with your sign in front that I'd like to walk through; 124 Oak St
How soon can you arrange to have the door opened for me?
Listing Agent: I can have one of our junior associates over there this afternoon; say 3:30PM?
Buyer: Hello, I just saw a house with your sign in front that I'd like to walk through; 124 Oak St
How soon can you arrange to have the door opened for me?
Listing Agent: I can have one of our junior associates over there this afternoon; say 3:30PM?
Buyer: Thank you.
Reality Translation:
They try to give the buyer the annoying sales pitch, try to pick up the client as a buyer client, asks about prequalification, finds out she isn't and tries to get her with their lender, find out she's got another agent she wants to represent her, tells her to call her buyers agent to show it. The OP really needs to just get her agent to show houses. I hear all these ridiculous stories from people on here but I've shown thousands of homes and don't have those types of experiences.
Junior associates...how many agents really have those? Maybe 1 out of 100?
If the sellers realtor is going to be there touting the place anyway, why can't I just go alone??
Again...It IS not just an issue of me wasting her time...I find it a waste of time to have to get 3 peoples schedule aligned. Make sense?
But is the sellers agent really going to be there anyway?
I've bought/sold houses in 3 different states and I bet I can count on one hand the number of times a sellers agent has been present when I've viewed a property as a buyer. In my experience that just isn't the norm.
My answer to your question would be yes, you can call the sellers agent and ask to see a property, just don't be surprised if you get a less than accomodating attitude.
Think about it... besides the "but that's not really my job" vibe that's coming across loud and clear in some of the responses here... the sellers agent has no way of knowing whether you're a qualified, serious buyer or not.
As a seller I expected my agent to provide me with feedback on showings. Not sure I would be thrilled with "someone called and asked to see the house, don't know whether they're qualified or not, they did say they're working with an agent, not sure who though, no real feedback on this one"
Honestly, as sellers we have required a pre-qual letter before setting up any showings at all. Granted market conditions at the time were different than they are now. But still.
Reality Translation:
They try to give the buyer the annoying sales pitch and generally demonstrate that out of their ordinary gets their panties in a wad, try to pick up the client as a buyer client, asks about prequalification... but I've shown thousands of homes and don't have those types of experiences.
I can personally recall about 30 very recently (betw Jan and April)... as I was being such an informed and picky buyer looking what I wanted and once found settled in about ten days.
Quote:
Junior associates...how many agents really have those?
whoever they are and whatever you may like to call them.
the point is all the informed buyer needs is a warm body to open the door; nothing more (at that initial stage)
make that as difficult as you like.. maybe doing so even helps you sell.
I can personally recall about 30 very recently (betw Jan and April)... as I was being such an informed and picky buyer looking what I wanted and once found settled in about ten days.
whoever they are and whatever you may like to call them.
the point is all the informed buyer needs is a warm body to open the door; nothing more (at that initial stage)
make that as difficult as you like.. maybe doing so even helps you sell.
I guess my point throughout the thread is the OP is making a much bigger deal out of this than need be. Instead of "wasting" (her words not mine) her agents time who is getting paid to do a job, she'd rather really waste someone elses then have her agent write up the contract. Just give the dang list of homes to see to the friend and let the friend schedule. It ain't that dang hard.
Someone else mentioned this but look at all the threads about buyers who come to look at houses with no intention of buying anytime soon or at all.
It's a pain for people to get houses ready for showings, get kids and pets out of the house, hanging around the park for a fw hours while people look.
I'd like to know my agent is not wasting my time with people like the op, is there a chance she falls in love nad buys the house, I suppose but like others have said who's to say she's qualified, seriously looking, etc. I woulnd't want my time wasted cleaning and getting out of my house for this buyer. I'd hope my realtor was either working with her or her realtor nad knew she has a prequal letter.
Also, I agree, in this market you can probably get realtors to show you houses in place of your own agent but overall my feeling is why should a number of other listing agents show you houses just so your "agent" can swoop in and attend the closing and collect a commission for doing absolutely nothing. If another agenty is showing you the house I would feel they deserve the entire commision at the very least a portion of your "realtors" commission.
I think several people here are being unfair in characterizing the OP as "foolish", not serious or not having the intention to buy. I don't think anything she has said is consistent with that. She simply isn't caught in a time pressure situation such as having 3 days to pick out a house due to military leave. Several people are telling her they've read her posts, but they clearly haven't, or they haven't understood what she said. She's not trying to avoid having her buyer's agent do her job, or paying the agent, nor is she wasting people's time getting houses ready any more than the military couple who sees 20 houses in one weekend is. Unless she's prepared to arrange and go to, say, 100 showings "just to see what's out there", I don't see her as any less serious than any other buyer, and I don't see anything in her posts that suggests that's what she intends to do. She's simply trying to avoid having 3 people involved if there is way she could have only 2 people involved at the time of the showing.
I think her situation is pretty common, in that a buyer willing to do the work can sort through a lot of properties online, and that properties that interest him/her don't all come on the market at the same time or even near the same time. If you are a mature or move up buyer, especially if you have a big budget, you know what you want, you're willing to pay a fair price for it, but the house needs to meet those standards, and you realize that may be hard to find. Agents who want to make a quick buck may prefer working with someone who is squeezed, but that's no reason why this OP should be willing to put up with it. She may end up taking less time from an agent (buying or selling) over the long haul by having a good idea of what she wants and being willing to do as much of the looking herself, if she can.
Of the properties that make it over this hurdle, you can't really tell whether you will love the place until you see it in person. Many properties don't even have a great set of photos online, and, in my area, at least, very few have floor plans online, but that's something very important that you have to see one way or another, especially if you are looking at older homes or custom homes as opposed to a cookie cutter subdivision.
All the OP is trying to do is to limit the hassle factor when trying to sort this out. But the problem with her plan is that she's assuming that a listing agent AND her agent must be present (unless she can find a way to avoid having her agent attend), which as she said just a few posts ago was her experience in FL, but this isn't the case in many other locations. As several of you have pointed out, usually a buyer's agent can get into the house using a lockbox (or the owners will let them in and leave). So it doesn't save any hassle--it just shifts it from the buyer agent to the listing agent--except that it might be slightly less trouble for the listing agent to let her in if the LA happens to live close by. So, OP, can you understand why the LA would prefer that either (a) you have no agent with whom to split the commission, if the LA has to let you in and watch you or (b) that your buyer's agent do that, spare the LA the showing trouble, and take his/her split?
Thanks ACWhite and MrRational in particular...you and a few others on here actually get my point. Was that so "dang" hard? Thank you all so much for your input.
Just because people have different opinions, it doesn't mean they don't get your point.
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Thank you all so much for your input.
