Do You Need a Buyer’s Agent?
Posted by David Zadareky on Thursday, July 14th, 2011 at 10:51am.
Thanks to the internet, today's housing market has taken a different direction from proven methods of the past. If you are looking for houses to buy on the market in Alexandria, you are likely to go solo after seeing homes with virtual tours on the internet, area sales figures on the internet, and plenty of home buying tips there as well. You feel nearly as well versed as an agent, so you are likely to bypass having a buyer’s agent to look after your interests.
When you go to open houses, the Realtor® on duty may thrust a card in your hand and try to follow up with you. They want to see if you are interested in the home you saw, plus may offer to show you others. This can give you some of the help you need, but if you are interested in a home the agent is listing, whose side is the agent on? They had a pre-existing relationship with the seller, and are likely to place the seller’s interest ahead of yours.
In the ideal transaction, this may be fine as the agent only has to broker the transaction, so to speak. But what if the home inspection shows a big problem that will cost one or the other of you a lot to fix? Whose side is the agent on?
To avoid this problem of “dual-agency” where one agent spoke for both sides, buyer’s agents filled the gap. This usually costs you nothing as a buyer but could protect you in case of a dispute. While the listing agent was doing his job to protect the seller and maybe minimize the damages, the buyer’s agent was trying to get the problem fixed at little cost to you or get the price of the house reduced.
Now, many buyers feel empowered by the internet. They follow interesting listings and call to sell the home without committing to work with a particular agent. Even sellers follow this trend, as many try to sell their Alexandria home "For Sale by Owner" in hopes of avoiding the commission.
Bypassing the middleman may seem like a reasonable idea, but when buyers are representing themselves, they often kid themselves. A real estate agent does a whole lot more than point out the closets and the new appliances in a home. They have both knowledge and credentials that even an internet-savvy buyer lacks.
The internet gives you a “heads up” on the market but does not prepare you for everything. As you search alone for a home to buy in the DC area, you may have a harder time determining the many factors that are involved in purchasing a home, unless you are an expert in the subtitles of real estate.
There are a lot of legal technicalities involved in making such a purchase and you may not have the "know how" to achieve success in finding the perfect neighborhood or home that would fit your budget or needs.
Don’t deprive yourself of expertise you need when buying a home. Buck the trend and consider using a buyer’s agent.
As a skilled Realtor® I provide knowledge and expertise to both buyers and sellers. If you’re in the market to make a move in Northern Virginia, you owe it to yourself to work with an exceptional real estate team committed to Going Beyond Your Expectations. That team is RE/MAX Evolution & David Zadareky.
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