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I had to explain this to my clients last night. We were submitting an offer on a VERY competitive house. I've been working with them for about 3 weeks under verbal buyer agency and told them I had to have a buyer agency agreement in order to submit the offer for them as a buyer's agent on their behalf.
They really didn't want to sign anything but are very nice and said I was incredibly helpful and hardworking so they wanted to make sure I got paid. Husband is an attorney as are BOTH of his parents so they went over 6 page buyer agency agreement with a fine tooth comb and took issue with many aspects of it. They wanted to go to the listing agent and have him agree to pay me as a sub-agent; but if they did that he (and technically I) would only be negotiating on the seller's behalf and they wouldn't have any representation in the transaction.
I'd still get paid the same amount.....they wouldn't have anyone representing them. I told them this was a terrible idea for their sake and my BIC told me to just have them sign a non-exclusive buyer agency agreement which they happily did as an "everyone wins" compromise.
Bottom line..... even a family of attorneys think that it is better to have their own buyer's agent than to work with the seller's agent.
Attorneys make the very best (in my experience) and the very worst (from what I hear) clients.
Attorneys make the very best (in my experience) and the very worst (from what I hear) clients.
Couple is my age and husband is an attorney and wife is a doctor........
They are very nice and have a fairly realistic (a tad on the naive side) idea of what they can get with their budget in this crazy market. Wasn't expecting this hiccup to come up with the buyers agency agreement but was glad we came to a solution.
I'm thinking of moving 100 miles away to a small town where my daughter and grand-daughters live.
It seems to me that the broker I used to buy this place was a waste of money - I found the condo, and negotiated a deal, including a 4% reduction, not the broker.
The mortgage broker he recommended was terrible. Added a huge fee at the last minute, so I walked out and found a much better deal somewhere else for a lot less money - at least $1K, maybe more. It was a while ago, and I don't remember the details, just that my broker was kind of useless. He even appologized for not being much use.
But in these days of RedFin and Zillow, what good does it to use a licensed professional? Do they get listings those of us using the internet don't get?
It seems like I might want to negotiate directly with the seller. Being able to forego the buyer's agent fee of 3% seems like it might move me to the top of the line when the seller is looking at options, no?
These guys are getting $8 -$10,000 for a few hours' work. There must be something I'm missing here...
Do you know how to submit and offer and not lose your escrow money or fill out all the legal paperwork it takes to enter into a purchasing contract?
Plus most buyers agents have to show their client many homes on many different days without a guarantee that they will even make their gas money if the buyer decides not to buy a home that he showed them.
Plus what do you care, you didn't pay him.
You can hire your own broker and pay him a flat fee out of your pocket or hire a lawyer yourself.
My wife and I spent months (nearly a year) and more than 10,000 miles of driving, traversing the eastern half of the state of ME looking at houses on our own. We finally located something we wanted and retained a buyer's agent because we wanted someone who would be focused on *our* interests rather than the sellers' interests. Unfortunately, the seller's agent turned out to be a real weasel (not the word I *want* to use)- she called our agent (unbeknownst to us) and told him that she was keeping the deal 'in-house', essentially cutting him out and somehow insinuating that we had condoned this arrangement. The first we learned of this was a furious phone call from the agent we had retained, demanding to know why we were stabbing him in the back and cutting him out after he had already begun working on the deal. I assured him that we had not agreed to this, and that his call was the first we were hearing about it. I immediately called the buyer's agent and told her, in some rather colorful language, that the deal was off and just where, exactly, she could stick it. (In retrospect, I probably should have also filed some sort of official complaint but I just wanted to be done with this witch and wasn't going to waste any more time thinking about her.)
The next weekend, we retained an agent in another area of the state. We explained to her exactly what we were looking for- must haves, can't haves, things we would like but weren't critical, and things we didn't care much about either way. We had spent so much time and effort looking on our own, only to have the deal go bad, that we wanted someone else who was familiar with the market and what was available looking *for* us. This was probably the best decision we could have made- within a week (or maybe two) she called us and said that she had two properties for us to look at. We looked at both of them the same day. Both fit our specs, and we put an offer in on the second one we saw immediately after looking at it.
Using a buyer's agent can save you a great deal of time, money, and effort...if you know exactly what you are looking for and can communicate that clearly.
In addition, as this turned out to be a short sale (that went into foreclosure) that took seven months to close she put in a lot of extra effort helping us to ensure that the house and property was properly maintained and winterized (the [former] owners abandoned it immediately after we put in our offer) and helping in communications/negotiations with the bank holding the note.
Further, after the deal was [finally!] done, in the middle of January in ME, she assisted us in retaining someone to plow the 1,000 foot long driveway for the rest of the winter as well as making additional recommendations on other services and amenities.
I'm thinking of moving 100 miles away to a small town where my daughter and grand-daughters live.
It seems to me that the broker I used to buy this place was a waste of money - I found the condo, and negotiated a deal, including a 4% reduction, not the broker.
The mortgage broker he recommended was terrible. Added a huge fee at the last minute, so I walked out and found a much better deal somewhere else for a lot less money - at least $1K, maybe more. It was a while ago, and I don't remember the details, just that my broker was kind of useless. He even appologized for not being much use.
But in these days of RedFin and Zillow, what good does it to use a licensed professional? Do they get listings those of us using the internet don't get?
It seems like I might want to negotiate directly with the seller. Being able to forego the buyer's agent fee of 3% seems like it might move me to the top of the line when the seller is looking at options, no?
These guys are getting $8 -$10,000 for a few hours' work. There must be something I'm missing here...
I didn’t really need a agent. Unfortunately sellers use agents so I have no choice but to use one too. I’m not doing a double ended deal.
Not necessarily. Depends on the seller, and if both buyer and seller can deal with each other and understand what the process of the house sale and purchase is.
I feel the Real Restate market is going to change quite a bit in the near future. As houses become more and more expensive the 6% will become a astronomical number to the point where the value a agent brings won’t be as impactful as it once was. It just win5 measure up. As we speak more buyers are doing their own research, their own loan process, inspections. The agent simply is there to open doors and pass info between parties.
At one time the agents had to do a lot of foot work and paperwork to actually go find houses. They had to call talk and find houses. Now lots of that legwork is done by the buyer. So what are you paying for? When I was house hunting I did all the legwork. The few houses that a agent suggested were a joke. Literally nothing in the house had what my requirements were in a purchase. Agent wasn’t even listening to what I wanted. She just wanted to make a sale. Got rid of her.
I'm thinking of moving 100 miles away to a small town where my daughter and grand-daughters live.
It seems to me that the broker I used to buy this place was a waste of money - I found the condo, and negotiated a deal, including a 4% reduction, not the broker.
The mortgage broker he recommended was terrible. Added a huge fee at the last minute, so I walked out and found a much better deal somewhere else for a lot less money - at least $1K, maybe more. It was a while ago, and I don't remember the details, just that my broker was kind of useless. He even appologized for not being much use.
But in these days of RedFin and Zillow, what good does it to use a licensed professional? Do they get listings those of us using the internet don't get? It seems like I might want to negotiate directly with the seller. Being able to forego the buyer's agent fee of 3% seems like it might move me to the top of the line when the seller is looking at options, no?
These guys are getting $8 -$10,000 for a few hours' work. There must be something I'm missing here...
Depends who gives the better offer.
One of my recent sales had five offers, three above asking. The highest face amount wanted $5k in closing costs. The other was $2k under them but wanted nothing.
I went with the one that was $2k under and wanted nothing.
When we relocated we needed a buyers agent. Why? Because we were not 100% familiar with the area. She was able to answer questions about the different towns we were researching, schools, local government, ordinances, etc. We ended up purchasing a builders spec home and she also negotiated a sweet deal for us. We were very happy!
Comes down to you. I'll walk through a house and know more about it than the buyers agent will, but I know how to build them. At that point, they're just administrative assistants.
Not necessarily true. To you and the OP, agents are there to offer guidance in the transaction and help should you run into trouble. Now, experienced buyers are less likely to run into trouble but an agent is sort of like an insurance policy. If you need one you'll be glad you have one so make sure to get a good one.
It may well be that that agent and that poster were made for each other, A Match Made In Heaven.
'You don't have to read this."
"Oh. OK! I won't!"
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