As A Buyer, Who Does Your Realtor Represent?

[bring in the new year]

Back to the original question for a moment.

In Maryland it was made very, very clear to me that unless you have a Buyer's agent with a separate buyer's agency contract, all agents work for the seller. So the lovely lady you've hired as a real estate agent who is taking you around to several houses? She works for the seller. If she's not pushing to get things done, or he's not pushing to lower the prices. remember that ethically he works for the seller. Laws may be different in other places or the law may have been changed but that's what I remember.

Of course, the last time I bought and sold it was a seller's market.

[Deleted]

Yeah, I've come to realize it probably doesn't even matter though. If they are paid on the basis of the price/sale, then they have a vested interest in getting it done. buyer contract or no contract.

I think the problem is that most agents really just want to close deals. Does it really matter to them if you spend an extra 5 or 10k? Because honestly, if a friend was griping about $1k or $2k, I think I'd kinda say "It's not that much money when you roll it into the loan".

Bottom line is that most agents take the path of least resistance to take the sale.

[DVM gone riding]

I think this is a state thing. When I have bought in our state at some point we sign a statement saying who is working for who in the process.

[bring in the new year]

Davebo, which is why I think the most important skill I learned from selling the first house is to be willing to kill the deal.

Sometimes it's useful to have third parties do the actual talking but especially as a woman, I feel like no one is listening to me. The agents want to close and everyone wants you to stop doing anything that you want just so other people are happy (and this was in the supposed seller's market). Once I learned to say no, I want this or no, they can't have that, and if they don't like, they can go elsewhere or I'll go elsewhere, it was amazing how quickly my needs took a little priority.

I was once buying a car and the salesman said well, you're not going to walk away after we've been going through this for an hour.

He was wrong.

And once you've walked away once, it's amazing how much better you negotiate.

[Deleted]

I still think she did a good job for us. I went in with a very skeptical frame of mind; I didn't tell her what we were approved for, only the price range we wanted, I changed the contract term from 6 months to 30 days before signing it, and was generally cagey when I was talking price with her (as in, I would tell her what I would consider paying for property but not my highest figure).

That's exactly how I was. Towards the end I was treating my agent as a spy and then turning her into an unknowing double-agent. When they were stalling, I said to her "You know, I am kinda mentally moving past this house so maybe we should just start looking again".

One of the things that really aggrevates me is when I want people to move and they say things like "We'll get it taken care of soon". When I'm really pissed about timelines, I want people to say specifically what they are going to do and when they are going to do it. Usually when I deal with people that are sensitive to things, I say "Ok, after I get off the phone with you I'm going to call Joe Blow. If he doesn't answer, I'm calling his boss. Either way, I'll call you back to let you know when I found"

[Deleted]

"I think the problem is that most agents really just want to close deals."

I think there's a lot of merit to this statement, Davebo. I was an agent in the early 80s and unless I was advised otherwise I went looking for properties that were the best value for my buyers. They came to me because they needed (wanted) to buy a property within a relatively short period of time (often relocating from out of State) and didn't want the cost or hassle of moving twice. Also there was often an issue of getting kids into the proper schools before school started. So quibbling over $1,000 (even back then) wasn't worth it. When problems came up (and there are almost always problems in every transaction) it was my job to solve them as quickly and painlessly as possible. No one wanted to live in a hotel longer than they had to.

BTW I would typically preview about 50 houses before I even took them out so I knew my inventory. I tried to always show them the best value in various price points; basically I treated their money like I would treat my own.

It's different for investors. They'll figure out their price upfront and make 10-20 offers bottom fishing for a deal. If they don't get a decent bite to their low ball offer they'll move on to the next property with little or no emotion involved.

Both types of clients can be a lot of work but that's why agents are paid the big bucks (or not-2kids will tell you that he netted far more as a salaried employee than as a real estate agent, lol).

ETA: BTW: Buyers agents can be paid on an hourly basis vs a % of the sales price. But how many people do you think actually agree to that arrangement? They almost always go for the % because they only want to pay if they find something (basically a contingency basis)

[Deleted]

Jun 23, 2011 9:50:51 GMT -5 bring in the new year said:

Davebo, which is why I think the most important skill I learned from selling the first house is to be willing to kill the deal.

Sometimes it's useful to have third parties do the actual talking but especially as a woman, I feel like no one is listening to me. The agents want to close and everyone wants you to stop doing anything that you want just so other people are happy (and this was in the supposed seller's market). Once I learned to say no, I want this or no, they can't have that, and if they don't like, they can go elsewhere or I'll go elsewhere, it was amazing how quickly my needs took a little priority.

I was once buying a car and the salesman said well, you're not going to walk away after we've been going through this for an hour.

He was wrong.

And once you've walked away once, it's amazing how much better you negotiate.

Yeah, I know what you mean. However, the area we are buying is kinda making it tougher. It's a much more affuent area with a small amount of houses that are even in the price range. It's an older area so the layouts are not as conducive to family life as the more modern houses. This was the first one that had the price, the house, the yard, and location that was great. So i DO feel like we're getting a good deal, regardless of the credits.

BUT, I can't help but think about what a total SOB I'd be if we were buying in the area we're living right now. The people that bought our house are a young couple and really gave us a good price. Don't get me wrong, we still lost money, but the price was really fair.

In my current area, it's ALL NEW. So the layouts are all great, big bedrooms, big bathrooms, full basements, etc. I could literally go out and find 75 houses that would work perfectly for my family. If that's the case, the buyer has so much power that it's frightening. In my current neighborhood, the buyer could've chosen from 14 houses in my subdivision with a similar layout, same builder, same location, etc. Now THAT is DEFINITELY an area where I would have no qualms about walking. I'd probably start walking around like Robert Deniro and give the seller the old "You talkin' to me" if I thought they were giving me a hard time.

[Deleted]

Jun 23, 2011 10:02:43 GMT -5 @bonnap said:

"I think the problem is that most agents really just want to close deals."

I think there's a lot of merit to this statement, Davebo. I was an agent in the early 80s and unless I was advised otherwise I went looking for properties that were the best value for my buyers. They came to me because they needed (wanted) to buy a property within a relatively short period of time (often relocating from out of State) and didn't want the cost or hassle of moving twice. Also there was often an issue of getting kids into the proper schools before school started. So quibbling over $1,000 (even back then) wasn't worth it. When problems came up (and there are almost always problems in every transaction) it was my job to solve them as quickly and painlessly as possible. No one wanted to live in a hotel longer than they had to.

BTW I would typically preview about 50 houses before I even took them out so I knew my inventory. I tried to always show them the best value in various price points; basically I treated their money like I would treat my own.

It's different for investors. They'll figure out their price upfront and make 10-20 offers bottom fishing for a deal. If they don't get a decent bite to their low ball offer they'll move on to the next property with little or no emotion involved.

Both types of clients can be a lot of work but that's why they are paid the big bucks (or not-2kids will tell you that he netted far more as a salaried employee than as a real estate agent, lol).

That's interesting because this post was going to be "Are There Any Good Realtors Out there" because what you're describing is REALLY hard to find. I would even say it's close to impossible. The agents that I've worked with, are all top producers that come highly recommended.

If you're representing the buyer, they should do what you're describing. And I'll give my agent credit, she did know about houses on the market and previewed most of them for me once she found out exactly what we wanted.

For the listing agent, I expect them to "sell" the listing to other brokers and encourage people to bring their clients through. That can be hard when there are so many houses on the market, but at least the effort. But things they CAN do are previewing the competition in the area so you can stay nimble on price. And definitely follow-up (phone, email) with every appointment. My agent had an automated email that went out after appointments and she waited for the email back. She said she followed up with a phone call but I kinda doubt it.

One of the things that was kinda funny about my buyers agent was that she never would give much commentary about areas. She would only comment on the house itself. So if it was in a good school district, but backed up to bad area, she wouldn't comment on that other than "It has a different feel". So I had to parse her words.

I guess she said that she's not allowed to comment on the areas as a realtor, so I see her point. Sometimes you don't want to waste your time though and look to the realtor for some insight. Turns out this house we were interested in checking out had a lot of crime that came over from the neighboring town and my father in law told me that.

[Deleted]

Well I was never a "top" producer; I steadily sold a house a week. I had no desire to be selling 10-12 houses like my mom who had her own assistant. I don't think you can give people the personal time they need for probably their most important transaction in their life. I should also add that most of the time I was an agent I was attending UCSD as a full-time student. ETA: I should also add that during the 4-5 years I sold that time I only had two transactions fall apart. One due to the peso devaluating, the second because they client changed their mind and bought another unit (through me-same builder). So I might have not had the sales #s but I was a good closer.

You do have to be very careful about what you say about neighborhoods given discrimination laws. I couldn't even say things meant in a positive way; for example I had a South African Jewish man who wanted to be in a Jewish area so he could walk to Synagogue. I couldn't say "this is a Jewish area". But there are always ways around it such as "Here's the Synagogue, do you need to be within walking distance?". Alternatively in a sketchy area you can say "It's always a good idea to check out the crime statistics as part of your research". I think if I were selling today I'd put together a little booklet called "How to Research a Neighborhood".

[tskeeter]

Towards the end I was treating my agent as a spy and then turning her into an unknowing double-agent.

I've always taken an approach similar to that. I certainly don't want an agent on the phone saying "They really want the house, I think they'll go up another $5K" as the seller's agent tries to gage our position for a counter offer. (I've used comments my agent made about the buyer and their interest to negotiate the price and what repairs I would do.) If I'm selling, I don't want my agent to know any information that could cause a buyer to negotiate more aggressively. Any information you might provide could slip into conversations between agents.