Real Estate Agents

If you are buying a home, hiring a real estate agent is a must. You will need and appreciate someone on your side, an advocate, to deal with the seller’s agent and the paperwork that comes with the process. They can feed you ads of homes that match your parameters, open doors for tours, inspection and negotiate with the seller’s agent on your behalf. However choosing a real estate agent can be a throw of the dice unless referred by a reliable source. The good news for buyers is that the seller usually pays the commission which both agents split. So unless specified otherwise, buyers do not pay their agent. Buyers can change their agent but that may require paper work if an agreement is signed.

A real estate agent once informed me that his job was basically to open doors and to conduct a general tour and to stay neutral about the particulars of a house. That did not sound right to us if the agent was supposedly looking out for our interest. It dawned on me later that although he is working for us, he is going to be paid by the seller and it is in his or her best interest to stay neutral. Our agent did however stress the importance of having a home inspected by a certified home inspector.

Deciding whether something is OK or not then becomes the job of the home inspector and ultimately for the buyer to decide. That can work if you are an expert in all things pertaining to a home. The problem is that hiring a home inspector at that juncture may be jumping ahead too far. Home inspection assumes you are buying the house. It comes after an offer is made with the appropriate earnest money placed in escrow. You will be paying a non refundable fee for inspection. It is really the last step.

So the problem we found was how to make the right offer if we did not know the true condition of the house. Sellers are required to fill out a full disclosure form stating all known facts good and the bad about the house. However, the seller may not be aware of existing problems. Although it may not be helpful, your agent should show you this disclosure before touring a house.

For us the answer was that we had to love the house. Anything less and things can get slippery. Inspection was $250 non refundable, were we prepared to pay that to confirm we did not want the house after all? Also there is a chance that the seller may refuse to refund the earnest money.

The agent does not care which house you buy as long as you buy one. They normally work with multiple clients simultaneously and cannot be expected to give you great advice on all the houses you tour. Do your homework first and always remember that the bottom line is caveat emptor (buyer beware).