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With all due respect, IF you are seeking a home as you say in "only the 150K range" IN CASE you have to "lose it to foreclosure" as you say, then perhaps you are NOT at all ready to even be consiedring buying a home. Although anyone can lose their home due to circumstances you said that so matter of factly - as if you would simply walk away from it if you lost your job. Sounds like you do NOT have a large emergency savings for such a circumstance and it sounds liek you should be RENTING instead. Please rememebr to think of other people in whatever neighborhood you buy in. Forclosure affects your neighbors home prices. How would YOU like to spend your hard earned money buying a home in a development only to hear your neigbors say "oh well..if I lose my job I will just forclose"...Something to really think about.
I think I have sufficient emergency savings. Also I have stable job and high credit score. But I have seen many people losing their "safe" jobs for downturn.
So chances of my adding to foreclosure numbers in a neigbourhood are less than 1%.
I know I can always sale the house at a loss in case needed. But the smaller home means a small loss.
I want to join the chorus of voices recommending a buyer agent. Your agent not letting you negotiate the price, especially in this market, should have been a red flag. But there are lots of good buyer agents out there and some of them are on this very board. Any property that is listed in the MLS will be paying the commission, so you might as well have someone working for you rather than working directly with the listing agent which is what you will be doing if you don't have your own representative.
I also agree though that if you are concerned about losing your job it's best to continue renting. Losing your home to foreclosure means losing your good credit rating and that will not be helpful in the long run.
Regarding buyers agents, I also had a crappy one when I bought this home and would have been better off without him. I'll spare you all the list of problems I had with him. I ended up doing almost all the work on the transaction anyway, and this was my first real estate transaction. I knew zero going in and I had to learn it all on the fly because he was so incompetent. Looking back, we definitely should have fired him instead of sticking with him. That said, I have now met someone to use as a buyer agent who I can tell is really great and I plan to work with.
I'm not an expert but I don't appreciate being misled into feeling that one *needs* a buyers agent if one is comfortable handling it themselves. If you don't use a buyers agent, then the selling agent gets the full commission instead of splitting it with the buyers agent. So, you could actually get a lower price on the property with the selling agent getting the same amount in commission as if you had used a buyers agent and split, selling at a higher price. Plus, the selling agent is contracted to fairly represent you, the buyer, as well. At least that is what I saw in the documents that I read. And, why would a selling agent not negotiate on price. They want to make a sale, too! A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Again, I am using a buyer agent now, because I need help with a lot of things. Advice on fixing up my house to sell, figuring out exactly what kind of property we want for the future, and investigating properties for my in-laws to move in to. And, I found someone I really really like and seems very honest and hardworking, and insightful. BUT there are situations in which I would not bother using a buyers agent and I don't appreciate being told that a person needs one, I feel it is misleading.
It was the same vibe that I got from the incompetent buyers agent -- that we needed him and would be foolish not to use him. Whereas with this new woman, I have never felt that she pulled that kind of game on us.
Regarding buyers agents, I also had a crappy one when I bought this home and would have been better off without him. I'll spare you all the list of problems I had with him. I ended up doing almost all the work on the transaction anyway, and this was my first real estate transaction. I knew zero going in and I had to learn it all on the fly because he was so incompetent. Looking back, we definitely should have fired him instead of sticking with him. That said, I have now met someone to use as a buyer agent who I can tell is really great and I plan to work with.
I'm not an expert but I don't appreciate being misled into feeling that one *needs* a buyers agent if one is comfortable handling it themselves. If you don't use a buyers agent, then the selling agent gets the full commission instead of splitting it with the buyers agent. So, you could actually get a lower price on the property with the selling agent getting the same amount in commission as if you had used a buyers agent and split, selling at a higher price. Plus, the selling agent is contracted to fairly represent you, the buyer, as well. At least that is what I saw in the documents that I read. And, why would a selling agent not negotiate on price. They want to make a sale, too! A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Again, I am using a buyer agent now, because I need help with a lot of things. Advice on fixing up my house to sell, figuring out exactly what kind of property we want for the future, and investigating properties for my in-laws to move in to. And, I found someone I really really like and seems very honest and hardworking, and insightful. BUT there are situations in which I would not bother using a buyers agent and I don't appreciate being told that a person needs one, I feel it is misleading.
It was the same vibe that I got from the incompetent buyers agent -- that we needed him and would be foolish not to use him. Whereas with this new woman, I have never felt that she pulled that kind of game on us.
I agree with you that buyers can go it alone. And be successful.
We over-hype agency sometimes.
And sometimes buyers make grave errors, both with and without representation.
However, your explanation of agency when going to the listing agent is in significant error.
"Fairness" falls well short of "Fiduciary."
Fiduciary function implicitly means that one party will be favored.
The brochure clearly indicates that a listing agent only owes equal representation without favoritism when in dual agency.
The buyer may certainly proceed without representation.
At that, the listing agent only has to assure fairness and honesty when dealing with the unrepresented buyer, without the fiduciary duty which will be legally owed the seller.
Also, "selling agents" represent the buyers.
"Listing agents" represent the sellers.
Thanks for clarifying. Definitely don't want to mislead anyone which is why I qualified my statement by saying I am not an expert . . you can see the state of my knowledge which is based on one transaction, and not even one that went too smoothly at that. Can you believe that I know so little yet I was still 10 times more competent than this guy!
It's too bad that people having bad experience with buyers agents can leave such a bad taste in people's mouths, myself included. The woman I am dealing with now is so different than the first one I dealt with it they may as well be from different planets. She was staffing an open house that we popped into by chance once at that is where we connected with her.
Other professionals that we deal with we either like or don't, and we get over bad experiences pretty quickly. But it seems there is something about the real estate transactions that just affects people in such a deep way. We still hold bitterness towards our agent and it's been three years. I can't think of anyone else I have held a grudge against like that. Every time we have a problem with our house or find out some new information about our property, we say "yeah, and *blank* failed to mention that, too" or "*blank* gave us the totally wrong info about that, too." Uggh.
The whole thing actually makes a pretty funny story (because there are so many pathetic incidents) that I at least get a kick out of telling it over beers. So at least some good did come of it -- entertainment value.
OK, I can't resist -- I'll just give one funny tidbit, there are so many . . the agent tried to talk me out of bothering with a walk through before closing, said it was optional, etc. Well, I said, no, I'm doing the walk through. Went to the property a few hours before closing and lo and behold, most of the stuff had been moved out of the main house, but the apartment was still full of stuff, with people living there! The owners tried to talk me into letting these people stay in there a few days (after we had closed . . ). My agent seemed to consider this. My jaw was dropped and I was speechless. I said little and went straight to the lawyer. The lawyer handled everything from there and did an excellent job. He is big name Cary real estate lawyer. Thank God we at least had him based on a recommendation from an old friend of my fathers.
Last edited by jgb; 11-29-2009 at 05:20 PM..
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