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We are looking for a home in Texas. We are looking in three main areas of the city. Our buyer's broker, who made us sign a contract to use him exclusively for four months, has been showing us homes for two months. He isn't sharing anything about the positives/negatives of the neighborhoods, how well/poorly priced the homes we are seeing are, etc. He just says "this is a great house" or "I would love to live here". All the homes we are seeing we've found on our own, too, through multiple listing agencies.
Our broker did not offer direction for bidding when we asked. We did offered full price for one house and were outbid.
Is the job of the broker just to drive buyers around, open lockboxes and comment on how pretty the house is? We've bought houses before through a regular broker and knew we were dealing with a broker who really represented the seller, but, I thought buyer's brokers would be representing us.
1. You don't know his skills as a buyer's broker until you choose a property, and you need/want it to close.
2. Did you ask what his strengths are?
3. Your broker does not have a crystal ball - how would he know which direction negotiations would go?
4. Who should choose your house for you?
Sounds to me like your expectations are not being met. Have a heart to heart about what you are really looking for.
Here is what my clients get from me as a buyer's agent.
A sit down consult to talk about what they want, home plans (ie short term and turn to rental, retirement home, etc), and we discuss the process.
We both look for homes because sometimes I might pull something out that they really want to see. I send them homes and they send me homes. I look for FSBO's too. In fact, I have two buyers under contract with FSBO's right now.
Then house hunting. We go home by home and talk about the pros and cons. I tell my clients that it is their job to be enamored with a home and it is my job to not be enamored. They count on me to be the objective eye. I want my buyers to walk into their purchase eyes wide open. I educate them about siding, roofing, water issues, et al, anything that pertains to home buying in my area. We are rainy here in the PNW so water management is really, really important.
After they find a house, I do a due diligence packet for my buyers. I pull permits, surveys, CMA, etc and pull it into one big packet for them. If that looks good, we write an offer. This part sometimes gets pulled into the inspection period if we are bidding on a great deal that just popped up on the market.
They have a CMA already at that point so we talk negotiating strategy, things to include, etc and how we want to approach that part. Then we write the offer and take it from there.
The reason I do it this way is because in my 9 years as an agent only two clients have terminated over home inspections. If we can see an issue, they have already planned for it, they ask for it upfront as part of the offer, or have decided they don't want to deal with it so we don't write. $400 a pop for inspections to back out over things that are observable doesn't make sense to me.
We have never worked with one exclusive broker before, expecially in such a large city with many different neighborhoods. We have in the past, in other states, used several brokers who specialized in one limited area of town or county and knew it very well: recent comps, history of houses, anything that will impact or is impacting the house's value in the future, what to look for as to problems, etc.
I am generally asking what is expected of a buyer's broker. What are the specific benefits to working with a buyer's broker vs the standard broker?
Here is what my clients get from me as a buyer's agent.
A sit down consult to talk about what they want, home plans (ie short term and turn to rental, retirement home, etc), and we discuss the process.
We both look for homes because sometimes I might pull something out that they really want to see. I send them homes and they send me homes. I look for FSBO's too. In fact, I have two buyers under contract with FSBO's right now.
Then house hunting. We go home by home and talk about the pros and cons. I tell my clients that it is their job to be enamored with a home and it is my job to not be enamored. They count on me to be the objective eye. I want my buyers to walk into their purchase eyes wide open. I educate them about siding, roofing, water issues, et al, anything that pertains to home buying in my area. We are rainy here in the PNW so water management is really, really important.
After they find a house, I do a due diligence packet for my buyers. I pull permits, surveys, CMA, etc and pull it into one big packet for them. If that looks good, we write an offer. This part sometimes gets pulled into the inspection period if we are bidding on a great deal that just popped up on the market.
They have a CMA already at that point so we talk negotiating strategy, things to include, etc and how we want to approach that part. Then we write the offer and take it from there.
The reason I do it this way is because in my 9 years as an agent only two clients have terminated over home inspections. If we can see an issue, they have already planned for it, they ask for it upfront as part of the offer, or have decided they don't want to deal with it so we don't write. $400 a pop for inspections to back out over things that are observable doesn't make sense to me.
Thank you so much. This is the information I was looking for. I think we need to get another broker.
One broker was so sweet talking to me on out initial meeting and then he asked me to sign a contract with him. I refused. And this thread just helped me understand why I was right.
I had 4 other realtors and all of them were waste of time and space. All they did were unlocking doors...
One broker was so sweet talking to me on out initial meeting and then he asked me to sign a contract with him. I refused. And this thread just helped me understand why I was right.
I had 4 other realtors and all of them were waste of time and space. All they did were unlocking doors...
There are 600,000 real estate agents according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 5 isn't a great sample.
There are 600,000 real estate agents according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 5 isn't a great sample.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EngGirl
That's was enough for me to understand the whole deal about people in that profession... if it's even a profession... No offense.
I've known people who were married and divorced 4 and 5 times, and used their experience to make assumptions about all billions of members of the entire other gender.
Sometimes the pertinent question when multiple personal or business relationships fail is, "Who is the one constant in all the failed relationships?"
That's was enough for me to understand the whole deal about people in that profession... if it's even a profession... No offense.
I'm not at all offended. I'm good at what I do and you are entitled to your opinion about the profession.
I think it says something about your approach to the world when you condemn an entire profession based on .0008% of that profession. I know there are dolts in every profession and it is my responsibility to myself to weed them out. If I don't like someone, I just move on to the next one until I find someone that works for me. I'm on my third primary care physician because I didn't like my first two. Doesn't mean I think 2/3 of physicians are bad. I guess the difference between you and me, is that I expect there to be some doltage in each profession so I have no issues moving on because I truly believe all professions have exceptional people in them. It is my responsibility to find those people and not settle.
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