Should You Hire a Buyer’s Agent?

 

 

You’re preparing to enter the market to buy a home. Is hiring a buyer’s agent the right move? My answer to that is, absolutely. I say that because their legal, fiduciary duty is to you and you alone.

 

From time to time, a client will come to me inquiring about whether or not they should go straight to the listing agent to handle their side of the transaction. Working with the listing agent can be problematic in a variety of ways. They may have a long history and relationship with the seller, and you’d be none the wiser when you hire them.

 

Having an advocate working on your behalf is the only way to ensure that your interest as a buyer doesn’t become secondary to the seller’s and that you gain the most out of your purchase.

 

Let me share an example that illustrates this point: We were recently looking at a condominium townhouse for one of our buyers, and the property’s listing agent happened to be someone I’ve known for over 25 years. She listed it just ahead of a long weekend, which served our buyer very well in the end.

 

We were able to organize a showing and my client liked it so much that they placed an offer shortly thereafter. The listing agent held out for a second or third offer for a short time, but she ultimately signed the offer back to us in a timely fashion. As it turned out, she didn’t wait long enough: An hour after signing onto our offer, a second offer came in, followed by a third.

 

Because my buyer’s offer had already been signed, my client had the opportunity to accept or reject the terms. Though there were a few things my client wanted to amend, we knew that if we requested those changes, it would open the door for the seller to consider the other two offers.

 

We chose to send an email to the listing agent to find out if the seller was amenable to the changes we wanted. We accepted the seller’s offer as is, conditional upon the status certificate. That process went off without a hitch, the seller was, indeed, amenable to the changes, and my client purchased the home at the price they wanted.

 

This is just one of many examples that proves it truly pays to hire a buyer’s agent to work on your behalf. If you have any questions or suggestions for video topics you’d like to see us cover, please don’t hesitate to let us know. We hope to hear from you soon!