In my list of the Best Agents I noticed that these are people who should be listing your house because they can give you the greatest exposure to the market place by knowing what to do. Many people think you put a house on the Multiple Listing Service, buyers will find it, and pay top dollar. For a while in the mid 2000s it certainly seemed that way. The truth is presenting a property to the market is a highly choreographed process. In other articles we’ll explore that. Right now let’s talk about buying a property.
In some Real Estate offices there are a couple of groups of people, the listing agent, and buyers agents. When you talk with people who say they do both you can ask which they prefer. There is a saying in Real Estate that you need to list to exist, but that is a methodical job. The fun is actually in working with buyers.
To work with buyers you need to have more interaction, personally, with people. The buyer has a list that they follow and a good buyer’s agent needs to have the ability to interpret the list. Please don’t be offended but there is another phrase common in Real Estate that buyers are liars. Many people think that has to do with the ability to get financing, but really it has to do with the wish list every buyer has. We all want four bedrooms with three baths on the water in our price range. What we can afford may be something different. There may be a disconnect with our list even if we can afford anything.
I had a million dollar buyer in my car one afternoon who had an image much different from the way he actually is. His list, if we followed it, would have been the house he grew up in. That is really kind of a normal thing for a lot of people. It took several meetings to see what he wanted. He was single, kept talking about when he would meet some one, get married, and he didn’t even have a girl friend. We were looking for a home his future bride would like and a good school district for the kids. Just to round out the thought we ended up with him buying a place near Green Lakes where he might meet some one to marry. It is small and can probably rent for his mortgage payment today. When he does meet that some one he can rent out his first home and keep it.
In my experience about the two camps of listing and buyer’s agents, a listing agent is more analytical and a buyer’s agent is more personable. Listing agents are dealing more with the product and buyer’s agents are working more with the personalities. There is a lot of cross over, every agent needs to have a little of both, but ultimately agents make a choice.
One listing agent that has a network around them that is extremely professional let their assistant go after about seven years because the assistant wanted a raise. The number of listing dropped by 25% immediately. The communication skills were lacking. The agent knew the product, marketing, and area, but socially there was no connection with reality. It is one of the great things about the Real Estate business is that there is room for all kinds of characters.
For a buyer’s agent it’s first the amount of research it takes to get a buyer’s wish list narrowed down to what a person can afford. Then it’s a matter of weeding out what will work. This requires working closely with the lender and making sure the lender can get the job done. This can be a difficult task on it’s own. We’ll address that another time. It’s a puzzle that all has to fit together.
The second thing is the product. Every body today thinks they know the product of Real Estate. We will have a very long article about online Brokerages. The truth, the absolute truth, is that the wish list every person has is the very reason why you should never be making your own choices alone.
A side comment is that I was talking with an agent yesterday about a couple of buyers he had, who found a house on line, went to see it, and he showed them two others. They were convinced the house they found was perfect so the agent rebated them 1% of the commission. Then the agent said it was a funky house and that they should have never bought it. There were better houses out there but the agent didn’t have the complete list at that time. Now this is a discussion, but what do you do, the buyer wants the house, you say there are better choices, but this is the house they want?
A Buyer’s Agent is an extremely useful tool if you take the time to find the right person. You should be able to work with, communicate with, and enjoy the process with an agent. A good buyer’s agent is where you make your money. Making the right choices when you buy determines the value you will have when, and if, you decide to sell. Another saying in the Real Estate business is that you make your money when you buy a property and realize it when you sell it. That’s very true in today’s market place.
