Buying a house Question

Would you ever or have you ever used the seller's agent or buy your home?

Personally I would not. I think there is too much risk and not much reward.

A friend of mine is convinced they are going to save the 2% when they purchase their home (they are FTB - not real estate savvy ). I think it will end up costing more in the end and no guarantee you are getting a deal. She asked my opinion and told her, but now just wondering if this is common practice....Maybe I just don't trust people lol.

ETA - seller is also owner.

Message edited 2/10/2016 6:09:05 PM.

Buying a house Question

I would never.

Re: Buying a house Question

our seller's agent tried to convince us to use her and said it happens all the time and it's not a conflict of interest, but i was definitely not comfortable with that and we got our own agent. she was not very happy about that

Buying a house Question

We did.

It wasn't the way we planned but it worked out for us.

Our house was on the market, went into contract and then fell out of contract. In between contract we desperately wanted to see it but obviously couldn't. Once it fell out of contract we pounced. At that time we hadn't yet secured a buyers agent.

We went in fell in love and made an offer the same day. The seller didn't even counter us. I have to say though the buyers agent was amazing. She answered questions and was not pushy at all. We were very very lucky.

Re: Buying a house Question

We did. Found the house online, knew it was a good deal and put in our offer. They did screw up (no permits for certain things). Everything worked out, even though their agent was very annoying.

Re: Buying a house Question

We almost did. We had parted ways with our realtor and saw a house with the sellers agent and put in an offer with her. We figured the agent might be more motivated to make the sale and might cut her commission to make the deal happen getting us a better price. The seller was very stubborn and negotiations dragged on and the agent did try hard to make the deal happen and claimed to cut her commission but it dragged and at the 11th hour we walked for a FSBO house we found.

Re: Buying a house Question

We almost did but it didn't work out.
Found the house online. Didn't have an agent yet. Went that weekend to the open house and fell in love. The agent was a friend and doing it for nothing or next to nothing to help them out since they were upside down. Told us if we used them we could take the 2% they would have to pay an agent off the price. It was well over 10k so we agreed to it.
They had another agent from the same office represent us so there wouldn't be as much conflict.
Turns out the sellers couldn't find another house and after lots of time and headaches they backed out of the sale.
We really liked the other agent they had assigned us and used her going forward so I guess it all worked out in the end. sorta.

Re: Buying a house Question

I did. Found the listing online and only dealt with sellers agent.

Buying a house Question

In her case the seller is also the owner.... If that's changes anything.

Buying a house Question

You don't save anything by not using an agent. The fee for the agent gets paid by the seller so I don't know why anyone would t use an agent.

Buying a house Question

We did. Loved the house and put in an offer. Had no issues.

Re: Buying a house Question

Since the seller is the agent she would be saving commission if not paying out for the buyers agent. Usually the listing agreement would call for total commission and how to be split which is all paid by seller. So no financial benefit to buyer using selling agent.

I would make sure your friend is very aware of value. Maybe even consider having an appraisal done to make sure value makes sense . I would also have home inspector and attorney lined up not use referrals from that agent.

Re: Buying a house Question

Every single time but I am a very educated purchaser!

Re: Buying a house Question

What most people don't understand in NY is that unless you elect to have a buyer's agent, the agent represents the seller in the transaction. So even if a buyer works with their own agent, unless they affirmatively choose to have that agent work as their buyer's agent (and not all agents are qualified or willing to work as a buyer's agent), it's really the same as using the listing agent. In both cases, the agent is bound to represent the seller's interests, and get the best deal all around for the SELLER.

I think it's far preferable for a buyer to have a buyer's agent to guide them through the transaction and advocate for them. Not just in terms of advising on value, but on things like home inspection issues, C/Os, appraisal issues, etc. A buyer's agent is also useful to have in the search process -- they can give honest assessments of the homes you see (pros/cons). My buyer clients often say that I raise issues that they never would have even considered, but they are glad they factored in.

I used a buyer's agent when I bought my home -- which was before I worked in real estate. And I'm very glad I did.

Also, you really don't get a better deal by using the listing agent. I honestly do not care who sells my listings -- me or another agent. And I never run into obstacles when working as a buyer's agent from listing agents. We all work on the MLS system, which means we cooperate with other agents to get the house sold.

Re: Buying a house Question

My SIL did and it did save her some money.

She found a house that she loved, contacted the sellers agent directly. She had a condo to sell, so she flat out told the seller's agent "if you can get the sellers to agree to X price, then we have a deal and you can have my listing as well". Sellers agreed, agent got her listing. Since he was getting commission on BOTH listings, she was able to get him to agree to take only 4% instead of the 6% he normally gets.