Buying a house, do I need a buyer's agent? (Austin: for sale, real estate)

[rangergrit]

I don't know exactly how it works here. I'm here in a rental house, so I can easily look for houses for sale myself. But if a seller (with a MLS listing) can't give me a better price than a potential buyer brought by an agent, I might as well use an agent. And I know using an agent has advantages.

[Moonlady]

You definitely want an agent. We are buying a house after 18 years and our agent has been fantastic. There are so many things that you need to navigate. Finding the house is just a small part of it. I actually spent a lot of time looking at listings and telling her which ones we wanted to look at. She offered up some I hadn't found but once we found a house, drawing up the contract, negotiation and working through the maze of inspections was all stuff we could not have done without her. A good agent looks out for your interests. The selling agent is looking out for the interests of his/her clients. You need someone on your side. Well worth it in my opinion.

[FalconheadWest]

"Need" is a subjective word. "Smart" would be a better word.

[TexasHorseLady]

Basically, if you have to ask the question, you probably do need an agent to help you navigate the maze that a house purchase can be like, making sure everything is done correctly, that you're getting all the disclosures you should, that deadlines are met (this can be critical), that everyone is doing what they should be doing to get you to the closing table on time (akin to herding cats, it can be), making sure all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed, and running interference when necessary.

If you're experienced enough at house purchasing not to need an agent, you won't need to ask the question because you'll already know what's involved and whether or not you have the time and inclination to do it yourself (like fixing the brakes on your car, say, or going to court on your own, either of which someone CAN do for themselves, of course, but sometimes they prefer to have someone else handle it for them).

[Aquitaine]

For a "normal" person the only time I'd recommend even considering looking without a buyer's agent is new construction. They may (key word: may) give you better incentives. We didn't think of this and had an agent already as we looked at a lot of resales first, and by the time someone suggested it we considered that it really would've been sleazy of us to dump our realtor, who had shown us around a dozen different neighborhoods and educated us about the market. So for us, even though we did end up in new construction, it was worth it.

Particularly with the market the way it is, if you look for resales without an agent, you have to really stay on top of the MLS. Not worth the trouble in my book.

[owlman]

I don't know any reason why you should NOT get a buyer's agent. You can still look for listings yourself, their feelings don't get too hurt about it.

[TexasHorseLady]

If you need an agent for resale, you need one for new build. They're not allowed to give incentives to you not to use an agent, and you can end up with a better deal negotiated.

I took some clients to look at some model homes the other day. They'd been to the office the weekend before and complained to me about how pushy and demanding the builder's sales rep had been with them - quite put them off. When he appeared this time (didn't remember them), I handed him my card and when we left, they were amazed at how much less pushy (not at all, really) and more cooperative he was with me there, and they were able to get much more information from him. That's just at the very start of the process, too - having an agent keeping an eye on things and stepping in when necessary can make the process go much more smoothly.

[G Grasshopper]

I think a buyer's agent is almost necessary. When we were looking for a house, of course I was always searching the MLS, and sharing what I found with our agent. But she also managed to find other things - houses coming on the market, etc. She navigated us through some difficult stuff.

[Aquitaine]

They're not allowed to give incentives to you not to use an agent, and you can end up with a better deal negotiated.

Yes, a nice win for the real estate lobby. But not always true in practice. They can't say 'you get this incentive because you don't have an agent' but if they see you don't have one, they may miraculously offer to pay more closing costs or just up their regular builder's incentive.

Or they may not do any of that because they value their relationships with buyers agents. But it's a bit silly to pretend this doesn't happen, though I guess if you're a realtor you have to insist that it doesn't. Our agent more than earned his check but didn't do anything once we were under contract...I guess if you have a sleazy builder it might be beneficial to have somebody there to stay on top of them, but with new construction that somebody is going to need to be you and not your realtor anyway.

[Idlewile]

I can't imagine not having one for all the reasons mentioned above, especially in this Austin market. Also, your buyer's agent can tell you things you cannot find out on your own since this is a non-disclosure state you, alone, will never be able to generate comps. Also, agents can tell you what current owners' owe on a home you may be interested in and how much flexibility they may have with sales price which may help in negotiation.