Choosing a Real Estate Buyers Agent
You’ve determined how much money you need to buy a home. It’s now time to choose the Real Estate Buyer’s agent that’s going to help get you into that dream home. We’re going to help you understand the types of agents that you’ll need and how they’ll help you throughout your real estate journey.
This article will walk you through:
- The difference between a buyers and listing agent
- How a buyer’s agent helps you
- How to find the right agent
Let’s get started.
Snapshot of Buyer’s Agent vs. Listing Agent
Before choosing a Real Estate Buyers Agent, it’s important to understand the difference between a buyer’s agent vs. a listing (sellers) agent.
A Buyers Agent is, as the name suggests, the real estate agent that is working for the buyer in the home buying process.
A listing agent, sometimes known as a seller’s agent, is the person listing the property and in the end, representing the seller side of the transaction.
A listing agent and a buyers agent work together throughout the home buying process to close on the home for their respective parties that they’re representing.
Bringing it together
The goal of the buyer’s agent is to successfully lead their clients through the whole buying process from the start until the buyer gets the keys to their new home. Many people think that the primary purpose of a real estate buyers agent is to find buyers their “Dream Home” or get them a “Good Deal”. With the advancement of technology you can easily find homes online using the “Compass Search Tool Here” The real value of a great buyers agent is knowing how to compete in a competitive market while also preparing homebuyers to be informed consumers so they make the right home selection.
At the same time they need to find homes that will meet their needs both physical and emotional needs. Click here to figure out how to find what you need from a home.
The goal of the listing agent is to position the sellers home so they get the best offer that fits the sellers needs. Sometimes this just doesn’t come down to offering the most money.
Sellers care about a multitude of factors from closing timelines, security of the offer and what lender the buyer selects. Click here on how to pick a great lender.
In the end both agents act as intermediary for their clients, passing along the necessary information throughout the process. With the common goal of getting the purchase and sale successfully cleared!
Real Estate Buyer’s Role and Responsibilities
A real estate buyer’s agent will have your best interest in mind and assist throughout the home buying process, including:
A great buyers agent can make all the difference in the home buying process
Educating Their Clients
First and foremost, buyers’ agents are there to educate their clients. The home buying process can often be overwhelming, but the agents are there to help you throughout the buying journey.
An agent with experience in the buyer’s price range and location can help educate the buyer on things such as market conditions to financing options, helping the buyer understand the conditions in front of them.
According to Bankrate, “one of a Realtor’s key tasks is to evaluate the prices of homes currently on the market, along with those that have sold in recent months, to determine whether a seller’s asking price is in line with fair market values. If you’re inexperienced in doing this type of analysis yourself, you could unknowingly overpay.”
Helping the Buyer Build a Team of Professionals
Referring the buyer to professionals is just one of the many services that buyer agents provide.
What kind of professionals?
Well, when you’re buying a house, there are a few different types of professionals that the buyer is going to need as part of their team. Those professionals include but are not limited to:
- Mortgage Lenders
- Real Estate Attorneys
- Contractors
Having a team that is competent in their respective areas will make your home buyer journey much easier, and the Real Estate Buyer’s agent is the foundation of putting that team together.
Finding the Right Property
One of the buyer’s agents’ primary goals is to find the buyer their dream house.
A buyer’s agent should have extensive knowledge of the areas that you are looking to buy a property in (something you’ll want to ask about when looking for/interviewing prospective agents), whether its information regarding the house itself or even potential projects that may have an impact on the neighborhood, having an agent that has an understanding of the area can help the buyer find the house that’s right for them.
Buyers always have personalized needs, from their budget to the number of bedrooms the house needs to have, a buyer’s agent is going to need to put a list of houses together that meet the criteria of the buyer.
Moving on from finding the property itself, let’s assume that the buyer found their dream home and are ready to put in an offer. How does the Agent help here? Once a buyer is ready to put in an offer on a home, an agent can submit an offer and negotiate on behalf of the buyer.
Negotiating an offer isn’t always as simple as offering as much as you can afford. Appraisal, demand and as we noted previously, even projects in the surrounding area can help the buyer come up with an offer price on the home.
The agent can then act as an intermediary with the buyer and the listing agent, determining whether the seller is going to accept the offer, return with a counteroffer or even if they potentially lost out to a different buyer (this is common, but having a process in place ensures that you’re ready for it), the agent would relay all of this information to the buyer.
This leads us to the next piece of value that Real Estate Buyer’s agents provide and that is helping you overcome setbacks throughout the process. So what kind of setbacks are we talking about?
There are various issues that can arise but to name a few, it’s possible that the buyer:
- Has had their offer outbid
- Discovered inspection issues
When these issues come up, it’s great to have an agent that can take the burden off of the buyer and really provide some direction on the next steps to take. Whether it’s coming up with a new offer or revoking your offer completely, it’s best to have help from a professional when navigating these situations as they’ll do the heavy lifting for you.
Finding the Right Agent
So now that we’ve talked about many of the things that the buyer’s agent brings to the table, let’s talk about how to find the right Real Estate Buyers Agent for you.
As we mentioned earlier, finding the right buyer’s agent is one of the most important steps in the homebuying process. The reason being, they have so much control over both the houses that you see as well as how much of a burden they are able to remove from the buyer.
So what are some of the best ways to find the right agent? The following are two ways to start:
- Doing some research (Google)
Doing research on your own, using reviews on google, and seeing if your values align is a great way to start in trying to find an agent.
From there you’ll always want to interview multiple agents to get a sense of who they are and what they can provide for you, their experiences and specifically if they have experience with home buyers in similar situations are all important factors to consider.
Shortly, well talk about some good questions to ask an agent during the interview process.
- Referrals (Friends, Coworkers)
Referrals are also important. Using your peers who may have had a good experience can be important in assisting you find a Real Estate Buyer’s agent that makes your life easier. With referrals, it’s even better if you use a combination of both internet search and the referral.
Something that we talk about in our “How Much Money Do I Need to Buy A Home?” guide, if you cross reference your referrals with some online research, it can really help you narrow down the list of agents that you should interview.
So you’ve done your research, asked your friend and coworkers for a referral and you have a list of agents you are going to interview. Ensure that you understand your home buying search criteria, and then begin interviewing agents to find one that will help you meet your goals.
What kind of questions should you ask a Real Estate Buyer’s Agent?
- What experience do you have in my price range?
- How many houses have you sold in the area that I am looking at?
- What do you provide that other agents don’t?
- Do you have a process from start to close?
- What does your schedule and availability look like?
Again, these are just a few examples, and you may even want to get more specific than this to clearly outline your situation, but you’ll definitely want to figure out who has reliable experience, good communication, and since this is probably someone you’ll be working with a lot, someone you enjoy being around and believe has your best interest at heart.
What’s Next?
Having done your due diligence and now understanding how a buyers and sellers agent represent their respective parties, you’re armed with all of the information that you need to choose your agent.
Remember, choosing the right agent will serve as the foundation to reaching your real estate goals. To quickly summarize:
- Go into the process knowing what to expect from an agent
- Ask questions to ensure that they’re the right agent to help you meet your goals
- Cross reference your own research with referrals
Now, it’s time to choose a lender.
