Low rate Real Estate Buying/Selling Agents

[Homesurfer]

But...

...(in the example used previously) if this is a market where houses are selling at full price...

...and the agent has a reduced rate for handling both ends of the deal...

...there is still no advantage to the buyer.

The advantage is to the seller, who gets to pocket more money for the same sales price.

I get "Ask the Experts" questions every day. Many times the question is from a buyer who made an offer through the listing agent and later feels, fairly or unfairly, that he was taken advantage of in some way.

So, unless the buyer is quite experienced and knows what he is doing, I still recommend that buyers get their own agents. Not necessarily an EBA, but someone to represent their interests.

"People don't know what they don't know."

And Ken, I've seen LOTS of agents drop their commission by two percent if they end up handling both sides of the deal.

[kensmith]

Terry, you make a great point about the "feeling" taken advantage of and many time there may be some truth to their concerns. To suggest that a buyer is better off going straight to the listing agent (who has a duty to the seller) is not something I would ever do. Side note when looking for property myself out of state I wouldn't even go straight to the listing agent.

As was said before some markets have more variable commisions then others. Just ran a check on each of the top 6 markets I serve and an average of only 18% have a variable commision. Plus a group of those are new construction and the builders agent just about always gets less if they sell it as many have a salary. This accounts for around 6% of the Variables in my markets leaving only around 12% if you are looking at a resale. Of those 12% there may be some that have a 2% savings to the seller, but my guess would be not to many if our office is any indication.

No matter what I think having someone that is working for you is important in a real estate transaction. It is one of if not the biggest investment most people have.

[chachi]

well, I just was reading something on Yahoo! News and wouldn't you know it, there was a big ad for "Search the Seattle MLS" and "We give 2% back on Our Commissions*"

Maybe you should start there Rand.

[Duncan Pollock]

What does surprise me is that no one has so far thought to suggest searching for an Accredited Buyer Representative (see http://www.rebac.net/MembershipDirectory.aspx ) or an Exclusive Buyer Agent (see http://ebasearch.com/agents/dir.htm or http://www.naeba.org/agent/index.htm ). All three sites can help you locate someone who either focuses on working for buyers or serves them exclusively.
Guess it's time I stuck my two cents in, all self-promotion regardless!

Duncan

[randfish]

I appreciate all your help. It seems like in the Seattle market, where properties have been selling before I can make an offer on them, I could possibly benefit from having a seller's agent handle both sides of a transaction, but I'm also someone who knows that they don't know enough, so a buyer's agent could be very important...

It's been a frustrating process so far, but hopefully things will get a little better - I just wish the market wasn't so geared to sellers right now - most properties I view have 3-4 offers on them bidding up the price before I can even decide whether or not I want to bid. Others are priced exorbitantly high for what you get and tend to drop their price by $10K every 1-2 weeks - it's not easy to know what to do and I feel that a buyer's agent might really help.

[TampaREOman]

Just make sure your agent is experienced. They don't have to have the alphabet soup after their name to mean they are better....they basically just paid to be apart of that membership. It's not bad to have, but it's definitely NOT needed. An experienced agent will easily know how to represent you correctly.

[kensmith]

Just make sure your agent is experienced. They don't have to have the alphabet soup after their name to mean they are better....they basically just paid to be apart of that membership. It's not bad to have, but it's definitely NOT needed. An experienced agent will easily know how to represent you correctly.

As for the alphabet soup comment I think you are generalizing why to much. Some designations really do mean something, for example CRS you must have closed a fair amount of volume and the classes you need to take are very imformative. Have sat next to 20+ million dollar producers that couldn't believe how much they learned. Most designations are just a write us a check and you get the letters, but there are some that mean something.

[TampaREOman]

you are right. I didn't mean to generalize.....the CRS means you have, I think, 50+ transactions. To me that means they are experienced and know what they are doing no matter who they are representing.....which is really all I meant by saying that above.......no harm meant