How do you choose a real estate buyers agent?
We'll demystify this topic in the following video.
My name is Chris at Hauseit, Hauseit is the largest for sale by owner and buyer commission
rebate company in New York City established in 2014.
The first criteria is to check whether your buyer's agent is a member of the main MLS
system in your area.
For example if you're buying property in New York City or Manhattan, well you have to make
sure that your buyer's agent is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York or REBNY.
If he or she is not a member of the local MLS system well not only will he or she miss
out on better data that is potentially available in the broker database but he or she may not
be able to get the cooperation of listing agents to have listed the property in the
MLS.
Remember, from the prior video that listing agents are not obligated to split commission
with buyer's agents unless a pre existing co-brokerage agreement is in place.
Well, a co-brokerage agreement is typically in place by default if both members are a
member of the same MLS.
Of course, another important consideration is if your buyer's agent is not a member of
the main or local MLS in your area he or she will not be able to secure a co-broke or essentially
earn any money from working with you on a listing.
This brings us to another point.
When choosing a real estate buyer's agent pick one will offer you a commission rebate.
If he or she says that commission rebates are illegal then the first thing you should
do is run.
Of course, keep in mind, do check whether commission rebates are legal in your state
first.
In New York where Hauseit was founded and is currently based, well, commission rebate
are legal as it is in over 40 states of the union.
Keep in mind though that many buyer's agents may simply be misinformed instead of malicious
when they tell you that they don't know anything about commission rebates or they don't allow
it.
Furthermore, some larger firms may actually prohibit commission rebates or half corporate
policies prohibiting commission rates below certain levels.
Of course, we do want to point out that its important to work with a buyer's agent who
will be discreet in giving you a rebate meaning that if a listing agent google's your buyer's
agent the first thing he or she will not see is a website stating that commission rebates
are their main business model, that they intend to disrupt the industry.
Obviously this can be quite perplexing to a listing agent and perhaps even infuriating
because remember the buyer's agent is essentially asking for half the listing agent's commission.
So, this could be potentially troublesome and throw wrinkles into the process.
Which is why if you work with a Hauseit affiliated buyer's agent you will avoid these issues
because all of Hauseit's partner brokerages are traditional brokerage firms with good
working relationships with other firms, with great reputations and who never openly discount
their services.
And because our partner brokerages are not out there to disrupt the industry, as a result
you can expect a smoother process when working with listing agents.
The next topic to keep in my mind is exclusivity.
Where your buyer's agent try to force you into some sort of an exclusive agreement.
Keep in mind that exclusivity on the by-side is extremely rare in metropolises like New
York City.
This is primarily a supply and demand dynamic and a major city like New York City with high
property values and less high commission rates, there are a large number of real estate agents.
As we discussed in a previous video, there are 50,000 licensed real estate agents in
New York City and only around 5,000 closed transactions per year.
As you can imagine, the supply/demand dynamic means that buyers never have to agree to an
exclusivity situation.
In fact, the only time is that exclusivity might be seen on the by-side is for unique
foreign buyers who have a very close relationship with the buyer's agent on the ground for example
here in New York City who runs around perhaps even films, does tours, and does lots of research
for the foreign buyer.
Well, in that case the buyer's agent may require some sort of exclusivity agreement and the
buyer may agree to it because it might be reasonable to do so.
The same logic applies in outer boroughs or for example in suburban areas such as Westchester
where sometimes the buyer's agents will actually drive buyers around to different showings.
Well, because of the additional work required in these instances it may be common for a
buyer's agent to at least ask for exclusivity.
Another very important question you should remember to ask your buyer's agent when deciding
whether to hire him or her is what level of service will your buyer's agent provide to
you.
Well, there are two stratification to this question.
One, what if the buyer's agent has agreed to give you a commission rebate.
Well, if he or she has already agreed to give you a commission rebate, are there any terms
attached to this, will it be full service.
For example, well, the buyer's agent helps schedule any private showings for you if there
isn't any open house or he or she attend your second or third showing that the listing agent
requests the buyer's agent to attend in order for you to make an offer.
Well, this are all very important questions.
We've heard complaints from customers before who have worked with perhaps smaller one man
or two man shops that are discount brokers.
Again, nothing wrong with that.
However, we have heard complaints about the lack of availability or capacity to accompany
buyers to showings.
The refusal to schedule any showings at all or the refusal to attend any showings at all
even if it is a repeat showing before the buyer wishes to submit an offer.
In these cases, it can be quite problematic because as you can imagine listing agents
are not simply going to hand over half of their commission if they perceive that the
buyer's agent is doing zero work.
Unfortunately, its not as easy as simply showing up, putting your name down and collecting
the commission.
Now believe it or not, we've heard some stories from buyers who have worked with others that
this is indeed what is expected of them.
Rest assured, at Hauseit this is not what we're about.
We do provide full service on the by-side.
You want private showings for something that doesn't have an open house, our team can do
it for you.
It will be a main point of person agent on our side.
One of our partner agents who will be with you throughout the process.
And of course, if you have a showing that needs to be accompanied, well, we have agents
who will go with you.
If you have any questions about buying or selling real estate and what to expect from
a buyer's agent.
And of course, how to save money on your purchase or of course save money when you sell as well.
Please check us out www.hauseit.com or email us team@hauseit.com, spelling is below.