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Buying and Selling Homes

How to find a buyer's agent

17 years ago

I compiled a numerous recommendations of this and other forums into a blog with some thoughts on what to expect from a buyer's agent and how to interview her. Your feedback is welcome.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to find a byer's agent

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Comments (3)

dreamgarden
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The following story outlines some of the things my spouse and I went through in dealing with a bad Buyer's agent. If you are buying locally, I would suggest using a competent real estate attorney instead.

You might want to check out the book "Not one dollar more-How to save $3k to $30k buying your next home" by Joseph Cummins. ISBN: 047135726X

Most local libraries carry it. Amazon has copies available for as little as $1.34. I do not know the author nor do I get any compensation for recommending it. It is simply the best book I have ever read about buying real estate.

Here is a story that some first time buyer's will be able to relate to.

Bad Buyer's Agent Turns Buyer Off
realtytimes.com/rtinteractive/20000810_buyersagent.htm

Criteria for a Buyer Agent
Posted By: Cynical_Buyer - 10/08/2001

Given the bad apples of the profession, even those buyer agents that perceive of themselves as the cream of the crop may not be the best fit for clients. Based on recent experience with an ABR, GRI, multi-million dollar buyer agent, I have come up with a list of criteria that potentional buyers should consider:

I want a buyer agent who only moves at 90 miles per hour at any point in the process if and when I say so.

The buyer agent must be experienced and have a proven track record of sales in the areas I am interested in.

I want a buyer agent who is ABR certified and familiar with REBAC.

The buyer agent must be upfront with everything : I must see all forms regardless of nature or applicability at the first meeting and I will decide whether or not to use a form.

The buyer agent works around my schedule and does not ask me to meet at their location all the time or force me to drive around on my own looking at properties.

The buyer agent must not dismiss any criteria as being marginal or repairs as being "cosmetic/ maintenance". Painting, cauking, and fireplace cleaning can all be considered as required repairs on a property as determined by the buyer and not the agent.

The buyer agent will not pressure me at any point of the process.

The buyer agent will pay attention to detail and be willing to go the extra mile to investigate a property for additional information without buyer inquiry.

The buyer agent must be knowledgeable about the area, make the effort to understand the buyer's situation, and have a plan for approaching situations.

The buyer agent should not assume anything and act on the buyer's interest. For example, the buyer agent shall provide the contract ahead of time and give the buyer ample days to read the contract before writing or marking out any portion of the contract.

At the risk of steering, the buyer agent should preview the available properties according to features I set.

The buyer agent shall not prematurely remove or exclude portions of the contract. The agent will make

recommendations only and wait for buyer approval.

The buyer agent will compile a list of deficiencies in a property independently of the home inspector based on their experience.

The buyer agent shall not use sales tactics on their client. Guilt trips, projected time deadlines, and excuse of a "seller's market" are reason for terminating the relationship.
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berniek
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
"The buyer agent will pay attention to detail and be willing to go the extra mile to investigate a property for additional information without buyer inquiry. "

I dont know what the buyer is asking here. Any investigations and inspections are the buyers responsibility. All the agent can legally do is point the buyer to where answers can be obtained.

"The buyer agent will compile a list of deficiencies in a property independently of the home inspector based on their experience."

This request is beyond the agents qualifications and legal responsibility.
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Kristen, I'm very excited for you! There are lots of things you must seriously consider, of course, and it sounds like you are on the right track. I had a buyer's agent, and I am glad I did have one. The house that I did buy had a listing agent that was VERY unprofessional and would do anything to sell the house. However, DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT, put all your faith into a buyer's agent. Make sure you do alot of your own homework and question everything. At the end of the day, any agent - buyers or sellers - are looking at accomplishing one thing: to sell you a home. Absolutely DO NOT use any inspector the buyer's agent or listing agent, or anyone that has a stockhold in selling you a property. Find your own. I hired one that was highly recommended from my trusted buyer's agent, and he screwed up royally. Missed so much...$20K worth of things that should have easily been found. But, he was working with her to make the sale go through. And inspectors are not that worried about reprecussion of a bad inspection...the most they could ever get is a little slap on the wrist and to refund your inspection cost back. Surely not enough to cover damages that should have been found. Home inspectors DO NOT move anything. So this is what you should do yourself: look under area rugs for trouble, move the curtains to see the windows better, move the refrigerator to see what is lurking beneath (in my case it was a rotten floor), ask to see the house after it rains, etc. Go in yourself with a flashlight and look into every corner. Better yet, take knowledgable friends and family with you. Specifically have these questions asked and answered: when was the electric updated and where? when was the plumbing updated and where? how old is the septic system? How old is the roof? Also make sure you get the water tested. VERY important, especially if you have well water. Another very good thing to do is to go to the town hall and see what permits were pulled for work done on the house. See what was done professionally. Big things count: roof, septic, electric, plumbing, and installation of a furnace. Make sure you have the chimneys checked as well (not doing so cost me $4,000 to have them updated as they were caved in and I waived the chimney inspection). Don't think the ASHI organization is the pinnacle of excellence in finding a great home inspector either - that is used mostly for advertising so HI's can say they are part of some national organization where their credentials are checked. The take a test once, pass, and that's it. Find your HI through friend's recommendation. Interview several yourself. After all, YOU are hiring them to do a job. As far as a buyer's agent, do the same thing: interview a few, ask alot of questions. You are basically giving them a listing on a potential sale. So, you have every right to check them out to see if they really do have your best interests at heart. So do, many do not. Remember, they want a sale, period. Good luck, Kristen, take your time, and ask, ask, ask questions galore to find the right people. They are out there, it just takes some digging. Best to you!!!
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Real Estate Agents are licensed by the state and follow state laws and regulations. Realtors have taken a step further and joined the NAR (at the local, state and national levels) and are bound by their stricter rules and the Code of Ethics. Most Realtors also join their local MLS and sometimes more than one. I don't believe you can join MLS without being a Realtor, but you can be a Realtor without joining MLS. In my experience, the 2nd-hand websites are not as up-to-date or accurate as MLS. I know some agents put their buyers on auto-notification but I always screen the notices so that incurs a delay, but it's the service I provide my buyers. I forward along maybe 1/4 of the notices because the searches will send along a lot of junk. For example right now, a buyer I'm working with would keep getting notices about a particular home that is a disaster because the listing agent is dropping the price or making a change to the listing every few days so that it keeps popping up on my notifications, but I know my buyers are NOT interested, so I screen it out for them. As far as access to MLS, as far as my local one goes, I have a lot more search and screen capability (with the exception of being able to exclude specific properties, unfortunately!) than any of the online sites, especially in the mapping which I have to use all too often to encapsulate certain neighborhoods. The closest, most accurate one available of course, is Realtor.com, because that is directly sourced from MLS. I don't know the specifics, but I think Redfin and Trulia and Zillow all data-mine their "listings" and that's why there are numerous inaccuracies. I am often, all too often, looking up properties that my buyers find on Zillow or Craigslist and have to tell them that it has been off the market for weeks or sold or a scam (in the case of CL) and basically, there is a legitimate reason I didn't show you that house! This stuff is all over my head, but I know there are rumors of NAR going into cooperation with these other websites, which will change the game. As far as low inventory - that is my neighborhood exactly. The home that I found for my buyers was a walk-by - knew they had it listed years ago, and FSBO after that, so I was walking by last week and saw them out front and asked it they were still thinking about moving and...we should be under contract tonight if all goes well. This is after I've already contacted the major agents who farm this neighborhood to see if they had any pocket listings (meaning a listing coming up, or someone thinking about selling but hasn't committed, basically pre-MLS). This is what an aggressive buyers' agent can do for you. All the major agents who farm here have been sending out letters in the last few months stating that they have buyers looking for homes, so much that the last listing went under contract the same day the sign went up. You'll have to see the threads that have been posted about approaching people, writing letters and postcards, etc and maybe try that if you can't find a buyers' agent to work aggressively for you.
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I like to test-drive realtors. I've emailed a number of them through realtor.com and only 2 responded quickly (others were a couple days later, a week later by someone who was in the office that didn't answer my specific question, or never). I asked each of those 2 to show me a house they had listed and one that was listed by someone else, and then I pumped them for info on pricing, comps, etc. while we were together. One answered my questions better, provided me data to back up his "gut feel", etc. You're remote, so you can't do this in person, but I would think you could do some of this by phone. I'd narrow down your choices by looking at their listings online, or getting the office to send you a list ranking buy-side agents and choosing a couple top ones. When you call, explain a bit about your situation, tell them you're shopping for a buyer's agent, and here are the 5 properties you're considering. Assuming they're in different neighborhoods, ask their opinion of value of the different neighbohoods, and if they know the specific properties. Ask them to send you the comps they'd use to value those properties. Then see who's the most open and helpful and responsive and knowledgeable. It helps that you know the area and can judge their answers based on that. Look at the comps they send you and, if they gave you different ones, evaluate who was more complete/accurate with picking comps. And see if the comps justify the pricing they were telling you. It should be no problem to see 5 houses in one day, as long as they've got a few days to line them up. When we were househunting we hit 15+ in a day.
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Hoo boy, are we going to start up this debate again? :-) First of all, note that my response above was to Sylvia's assertion that seller's agents work extra hard when they play dual agent because of all the paperwork. To that, I say "poppycock." That said, I'll answer NC's question. I intend to post a retrospective thread, after we close, on the whole experience and learnings. BTW, we weren't on the market for 2 years, we went under contract ~8 months after listing with a realtor, ~14 months after we listed FSBO. With the 4 month closing period (buyer's request), that's a total of 18 months from first FSBO list to cash in the bank. What our agents brought to the table that we couldn't do ourselves: -Listing in the MLS (no flat fee available here). -Access to MLS data in a way it could be analyzed and used more than I could get from county property records and realtor.com. Things like which realtors had clients looking in our price range. Or watching a buyer's agent's sales to see if the buyer that looked at our house had bought something yet. -Networking with other realtors, which provided us better feedback from showings than we got FSBOing. Our agents could follow up again with the agent later when they saw them, to see if the buyer had bought something else, etc. They also typically got more info about the buyers from their agents than we would have gotten. What they didn't do better than us: photos, website, write-ups. And it was a bit frustrating/slow at times in the process because we had 2 middlemen passing messages back and forth without adding value. And keep in mind, I don't think realtors add no value. I just think they're overpriced. The local cartels they form keep the prices up. And I abhor markets that are economically inefficient. Education and health care are 2 other examples that rankle, but I'll find more appropriate forums to whine about those. :-)
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pebbles396
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Honestly - for me I need someone who is hardworking and honest and has my best interests in consideration when they negotiate and aid through the purchase process. If you have those you've got a WHOLE lot more going for you than most of the agents I've dealt with.

If you get along with them, and the agent is smart enough to be able to spot 'your style' then that's gravy.
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