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Make your home buying a fair game
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2005
Apr 16
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Comments
9
A lot of our friends are currently in the market for a house and they’re shopping around looking at locations, raking up their cash for a down payment, and just generally worrying about moving on. Having recently purchased a house, let me tell you that we would not have gotten the house we have (and wanted) at the price we could afford without somebody in the know working for us.
From referral we went to a Buyer’s Agent. A buyer’s agent is a realtor that works for you. It might sound like a waste, but hear me out. The most important thing to know about a buyer’s agent is they are free. You pay them nothing at any time in any way.
Secondly, think about the lawyer scenario. The people selling the houses have a realtor doing work for them, trying to get the most out of a buyer. Why should you, the buyer, go into that situation without an equal counterpart? You shouldn’t. And if you do, you’re stupid and will be getting boned hard when it comes to closing.
I was questionable about a buyer’s agent because my first assumption was that it would cost me extra, which is the last thing you want when you’re going to buy a big ol’ house. So how does the buyer’s agent get their money? This is the best part, in my opinion, because the buyer’s agent gets their money from the seller’s agent.
The realtor working for people selling the house typically gets a 6% commission of the selling price. The buyer’s agent, who is working for you, gets 3% of that 6%, so they get half of the seller’s commission. So your agent doesn’t get their money from you, they get it from the people selling the house. Not a bad deal, huh?
Now I’ve heard some people say, “There’s nothing a buyer’s agent can’t do that we can do.” In some ways yes, but in many ways no. The most basic thing the buyer agent does is find houses for you. Sure, you can scour the internet and the sale listings in the paper, but that takes a lot of time and a lot of travel only to find out that it’s really not a house you would buy. With an agent, you tell them where you’re looking and your price range - they then dump that info into their mega database and get instant results.
A good agent will also know what neighborhoods are like and can even weed those out based on your wants and needs. They do all that petty leg work for you, giving you that time you would have wasted driving around and looking through the paper. It’s so easy and so lazy that you’d be a fool not to take advantage of an agent.
Let me tell you that buying a house is confusing. There’s a lot - a lot - of crap that goes into even looking at a house. Inspections, tests, hidden costs…the list goes on, and an agent knows all that, you don’t. They will protect you from getting screwed and get you a lot of stuff.
In our case, our agent was able to work into the deal that all the closings costs, first year mortgage protection, and a short list of other costs were all paid by the sellers, not us. We got off scott free. We showed up with our down payment check, signed our lives away on the dotted line and were out the door with keys in our hands. No surprises.
And get this, when at closing contract and information packet you get charged per printed page. When the packet was given to us, our agent counted the number of pages and found that we were charged too much for the number of pages we were given. Would we have known to count the pages in the contract? Hell no. Because we had that protection, we actually got a refund.
Buying a house a big step in life and it needs to be taken seriously and carefully to make sure you get what you want, where want, and at a price you can afford without any trap doors or future land mines.
A buyer’s agent protects you from getting boned by the seller. The seller’s realtor, like HER, is trying to get the sellers the best price possible. Who’s making sure you get the best price possible? You are to an extent, but as a first-time buyer, you’ll never be able to work the deals the way someone who knows the system can, and best of all, it’s 100% FREE.
With all that said, I have no shame in pimping the Buyer’s Agent we used. If you’re looking for a house, you need to call Tammy Boring at Buyer’s Resource. She’s one of the nicest people I’ve met and is genuinely interested in getting you the best house that fits your life. Tell them we referred you and she’ll take extra special care of you.
Do it, or pay the price, figuratively and literally.
I cannot sing the praises of Tammy Boring and Buyer’s Resource enough. I met her through my parents when they were buying a house a few years ago. She was wonderful and we learned so many things that we would not have known. The realtor who is selling the house does not have the buyer’s interested at heart—her interest is in the person who is selling the house. If you’re the buyer you’ve got no one to back you up unless you go to some place like Buyer’s Resource. And, yes, if you see Tammy please tell her we sent you and she will take very good care of you as she did for us.
Thank you very much for the info. I was going to be asking for it anyways.
Yeah, tell me about it. This house buying thing would be crazy without an agent.
We have been working with a buyers agent too. We were put in touch with our agent through my dad. Her husband works for the same police department as Sgt. Phil.
We started out in this process with one particular house in mind. It was out in the country, not too far from where my parents just built their place. It was awesome (needed NO work), the yard was fantastic, and it had a BARN!!!
Well, needless to say, those people wanted too much for their house (they haven’t come down in price in 6 months), and they didnt’ want to play ball when it came time for negotiations, so we had to walk away.
Our agent showed us a bunch of other houses in the country, but none of them really struck a chord with us, so the search continued.
She also took us to visit a few builders, just to make sure we knew that building was an option. Yes, it is an option, but its also a pain in the butt if you’re not wanting to build in a development.
We’ve decided at this point to look in the suburbs instead of in the country. If anyone sees any interesting houses for sale, let us know!
We need at least 3 bedrooms (for office space), a basement, a decent yard, and central air.
Later!
G+
I think there is a market for freelance techies to take good pictures of houses and get them preped and online for realtors.
If you think there isn’t a market for it, than you haven’t looked at many houses on-line. I can’t believe the number of listings with either no picutre, only a single (bad) picture, or a collection of bad pictures!
I just recieved an email from our realtor with a list of possible properties. Now, I have to see which ones might be interesting. But… with the pictures being so bad, we have to actually drive by the houses to see what they actually look like!
OK… rant over…
G+
Thanks for all the help, Brian and Jen. I think we will be meeting with Tammy in the next week or so, if we can set something up. I think we will try to see some stuff in Pickerington since Grandview is a bit too *cha-ching* for us right now. Call or email us if there is anything else we should know before we go in to meet with Tammy.
Ross
Good luck guys!
Our realtor is going to show us a place in Gahanna tonight.
G+
From I remember talking with our agent, Tammy, the pictures of the houses are taken by the seller’s agent.
So the quality is up to the skill of the relator, which in our case the seller’s agent was at least 100 years old.
We did have to drive by many from the listing our agent gave us, but generally we could tell just from the outside picture whether we liked the design. Plus the MLS list from the agent came with prices, cross streets, etc. so we could do a lot of eliminating from the start.
Then we setup visits with our agent to see the houses we liked. We looked at like 4 houses in one day. Granted, all our prospects were within a few miles of each other. But then you can see the outside, the neighborhood, and go inside all in one trip.
And it never hurts to look in a crappy house. We looked at few that we knew we wouldn’t want, but went in and looked anyway. You’ll see things in poor houses that you maybe don’t think to look for in houses that appear better. It really helped.
Good luck, Jon. Tammy will take really good care of you. Let us know if you find anything.
Brian and Jen, Your friend told me about this website — boy did it make my day! I cried - literally! Your words are so great - you nailed exclusive buyer agency on the head! Thank you so much! You guys are great! Stay in touch and let me know when you get married so we can put it in the newsletter and I can send you a gift. God Bless.