Recommend a RE agent (Great Neck/Herricks area)

Anyone have a good agent in the Great Neck/Manhasset/New Hyde Park area?

Been debating getting an agent to help our house search with the wife.

We randomly went into an office last weekend and an agent made an appointment with us for Sunday.
We met at the first house and saw 4 houses total.
All were open houses, luckily I had my GPS because she drove too fast and we lost her twice.

That experience did not help sway my wife to get an agent.
My wife's opinion is:
1. The seller's agent and the buyer's agent split the commission.
2. So if there are 2 offers on the house
500k with a buyer's agent
480k without a buyer's agent

The seller's agent will tell the seller to go with the 480k offer.
This way, the agent will not have to split the commission.

and the wife said that most homes have open houses these days, so we can just go to open houses. There are very few houses that do NOT have open houses.

I said that having an agent will help protect us, because the agent knows about the whole buying process, etc...
but the wife thinks having a good lawyer is all we need to help us for closing. (once we find the house, Im going to ask for a lawyer here too!)

Thanks

Re: Recommend a RE agent (Great Neck/Herricks area)

I think you are much better off using an agent, for many reasons.

First of all, not all houses have open houses, but even if they do, they probably have them once a month, or once every other week, at most. So why would you want to have to wait for an open house when an agent who is working with you can get you into every house you want to see at one time? It's more efficient. And while you are waiting for an open house, another buyer can come with their agent in the first day a house is on the market and put in an offer.

If you don't go to open houses, but want private showings, then you NEED an agent to get in. Why would you want to do all the legwork of calling 5, 10, 12 real estate offices to set up appointments and dealing with a different agent every time you want to see a house? Plus, each agent you meet won't get to know you and your needs, whereas if you work with an agent, you may get access to info before it's generally available online. For example, I was working with a buyer from this site for a couple of months, and I knew what they wanted. When my colleague had a new listing coming out, it was held as an exclusive for a week or so in order to clean the house up, make repairs. I got that buyer in the first day we had the exclusive, and they made an offer before it was even on MLS! You will miss out on those type of opportunities when you just agent hop around.

I also walk my buyers through every step of the process, through closing and beyond. Attorneys are helpful (and I am an attorney, so no disrespect to them!), but usually aren't as accessible to you as an agent is, and your attorney won't be there for the inspection, the appraisal, and other key aspects of the transaction. Your attorney doesn't see/know the house, and will have a more limited role.

Your wife's assumption that if a buyer with an agent offers $500K and the listing agent has their own buyer at $480K, that the listing agent will push the seller to take the lower offer to keep the whole commission, is NOT how it works in reality. The seller will take the best offer and it's the listing agent's job to get the seller the best offer (which is usually the highest offer). Most listings are sold by an outside agent; it's less common for an agent to sell their own listing than to have another agent sell it. But that's why we have the MLS system -- to maximize the chance of getting a property sold.

Bottom line is that it doesn't cost you anything to use an agent; you don't need to sign a contract with anyone. So what's the downside of using an agent? Perhaps you didn't have the best experience the first time out with an agent, but that doesn't mean that it wouldn't be very beneficial to you to use another agent. It's like any other field -- some realtors are better than others!

I am a full time realtor (my background is as an attorney), and I work all over Long Island, so feel free to contact me if you would like to chat or have questions. I have helped several people on this site buy a home. Anyone who sets up a buyer's consultation with me before March 31 will be entered to win a $200 gift card to Lowe's.

[email protected] or (516) 587-7618