5 Best Reasons to Have a Buyers Agent Represent You

Oct 29
12:35

2009

Jeff Persons

Jeff Persons

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This article is about the 5 Best Reasons to have a Buyers Agent/Buyers Advocate represent you when buying real estate. Additionally the article goes into what to look for, and what questions to ask when interviewing a prospective Buyers Agent. Attn Ezine editors/ Site owners Please feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed.

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Best Reason Number 1: Unlike a Seller's Agent,5 Best Reasons to Have a Buyers Agent Represent You Articles a real estate Buyer's Agent is permitted to advocate for you during the negotiation of your offer. This works in your favor, increasing the possibility of achieving the best price and terms.

Best Reason Number 2: You will benefit from rigorously objective guidance as to the market value of the property as well as real estate market cycles. Because of many state's progressive agency rules a Buyer's Agent can supply a comparative market analysis replacing opinion with statistical facts, which Seller's Agents are not permitted to do under many state's new agency laws.

Best Reason Number 3: The Seller's Agent represents the SELLER. A Buyer's Agent can research and reveal information to you that may be purposely left out of the seller's presentation. The Seller's Agent has a fiduciary responsibility to the seller and can only tell you what the seller wants him to tell you. A Buyer's Agent can tell you everything he finds in his investigation, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Best Reason Number 4: Unlike a Seller's Agent, a Buyer's Agent is permitted to recommend a trusted home inspector as well as recommend their favorite real estate lawyers and lenders.

Best Reason Number 5: There is no additional cost to you; the seller pays all the usual commissions.

The 5 Best Reasons outlined above are only some of many reasons to seek out the services of an Accredited Buyer's Agent. The reason I suggest looking for the ABR at the end of the agent's name is because it represents a real effort on the part of the agent to learn how to represent the best interests of the buyer. This certification helps the agent "think" like a buyer, look over the specifics of the property and "act as if" he is the buyer himself.Often Seller's Agents take on a buyer but instead of watching out for them, they end up trying to"sell"them some real estate. All the bad habits real estate agents acquired while everyone was representing the seller come out in force when a deal is tough to put together.

 What to look for in a Buyers Agent

If you notice that your agent is trying to reinforce the seller's points, you are working with a seller's agent in brilliant disguise as an agent that is on your side.

If you interview some agents ask the Buyer's Agent if he or she takes any listings where they would be representing any seller. If the answer is yes then I would keep looking. A believable Buyer's Agent does not take listings which would of course require them to switch their advocacy from seller to buyer and back again. I'm not saying they can't do it but that it's a rare individual who can REALLY do it well. Ask the agent if he will also seek out and find documents like the minutes to condo meetings. Exclusive Buyer's Agency is a way of thinking that most Sellers Agents can talk about and maybe even have ABR after their name, but in the end will more than likely try to "sell" the property to the buyer because that is where their years of training have been focused.

The best Buyers Agents never give their clients any "sales talk" or use manipulative language to get an offer from the client.

Never in a hurry and replacing opinion with statistics that support or disqualify a property. Buyer's Agency at its purest has an unbreakable alignment with truth. This means pointing out the negative aspects of the property like size, location, noise factors etc. Dropping personal opinion and replacing it with statistical fact. This also means going over all the sold properties that compare well with the property in question. Some Seller's Agents will only give you the stats that support the purchase. A good Buyer's Agent will give you ALL the sold property statistics and let you decide which to use in establishing fair market value for the property. We all know how statistics can be slanted to reflect the interpreter's purposes.