subject: Facts You Should Know About A Buyer's Agent - Consider One When Buying A House [print this page] Employing a real estate agent either for buying or selling a house or property is better than doing it yourself. They can facilitate your quest and can even find a better deal for you. The real estate agents are your intermediary in your property transactions and they can be either an agent working in behalf of the seller, the buyer or dual purpose of working for both the buyer and seller.
In the early period of buying and selling of real estate properties, most agents, realtors and brokers act in behalf of the seller. Contracts were executed to protect the sellers - yes just the sellers! So buyers usually do not get sheltered in any real estate transaction. This has been rectified because today buyers get protected in the contract, agency disclosure may now be included.
Hiring your own buyer's agent can always work to your advantage. This realtor will pledge loyalty to you and anything deliberated between the two of you will never be divulged, especially to the seller. An example of this is telling the agent how high you can offer for a chosen property. Well, of course you know that whenever you are buying a property, your agent makes representation in telling the other party the amount of your bid. As the agent negotiates, you have already told her the highest amount you are willing to offer. This amount is never disclosed if he or she is your buyer's agent.
Look at a different scenario. You have seen a listed property and go to agent who has listed it. When you tell the agent of the maximum price you are willing to offer, this amount will not be kept a secret to the seller. In fact the agent will relay this amount so that the seller can still go higher to haggle for your disclosed maximum offer. This will cost you a lot of dollars!
Some may think that employing a buyer's agent entail additional cost. This may not always be the case. Everything depends on the agreement between the two of you. There are 3 kinds of commission for the buyer's agent - hourly fee, retainer fee and success fee. In most cases, the success fee is applied wherein a commission is paid if and only if the sale goes through. And the amount of commission is an agreed percentage of the total purchase price.
A question as to who will pay the buyer's agent again leads to several options. The possibilities are : the buyer pays, the listing broker pays , the seller pays or the buyer pays whatever the seller does not cover. Of these options, the most common practice is for the seller or the listing broker to pay the commission.
So if you are really serious in buying your house, it is best to have your own buyer's agent. This will afford you convenience and you can save time, effort and money in the transaction.
