The Key to Rentals

Your buyer’s real estate agent should be working for you!

If you call your real estate agent and tell them, “We found a house we want to buy”, and their response to you is, “Great! Let’s write an offer!”, you may need a new real estate agent. You definitely should have an agent working on your behalf though!

Let’s be brutally honest. Buying a house should not be like ordering lunch at the drive through. Your agent can and will submit an offer for you, but if they are ready to go without any consideration of helping you examine the particulars of a house or evaluate options, your agent is not doing a great job for you. They are not order takers at the drive through. They have a responsibility to assist you with your life changing transaction.

Before considering what an agent should be doing for you, lets take a look at your responsibilities with your agent so they can effectively represent you on your purchase.

1. Have a conversation about expectations; yours and your agent’s. Are you expecting them to answer your phone call at 11:00 pm on a Sunday and take you to forty property showings in a week?  You may need to adjust your expectations, but if you find an agent ready to do that, at least everyone has an understanding at the get-go.
2. Tell your agent what is important, and how important. If school district is a non-negotiable item for you, your agent needs to understand to not try and stray from that. If you want a four-bedroom home, but may be receptive to less bedrooms if a house has other features, your agent should know that.
3. Life changes! One of the most frustrating things for an agent (and your mortgage lender!) is when you make a life change and don’t tell them. For example, changing jobs may change your desired market area, but even more importantly, if you are under contract on a purchase and change jobs, that can change your mortgage approval. Your agent and lender need to know things like job changes, new credit, higher credit card balances, purchases or sales of other real estate, etc. Knowing these things in advance will allow for planning. When they randomly happen, they can cause a transaction to fall through. Your life change will most likely present itself somehow in the process of a purchase. The credit investigation that happens from your mortgage lender up to the day of closing is a common way these things are discovered. 
4. Demonstrate what you can afford, and shop for properties that realistically may fit. If you qualify only for a $300,000 house, don’t waste everyone’s time looking at $450,000 houses. Don’t set up showings for houses out of curiosity. Limit yourself to realistic options.
5. Communication – when offers are being presented, there will be a lot of back and forth with calls and texts. Generally, though, try not to contact your agent every time a thought pops into your head. Make note of your questions and concerns and save them for a periodic call. 
6. Be respectful of the houses you visit. Remove your shoes if possible. Bathrooms are not for your use. Stop along the way. Don’t disassemble or damage anything. Don’t touch personal property, open dresser drawers, etc.
7. Be mindful that you may be recorded when you go on a showing. It is supposed to be known in advance if there are recording devices at the showing, but don’t be too sure. Don’t do anything that if recorded on video or audio would not be appropriate. Save your private conversations with your agent for after you exit.

YOUR AGENT!

Your agent should not be an order taker! They should be assisting you through the process of finding a house, getting a purchase offer accepted, and guiding you through the purchase process.

Shopping – your agent should present you with options that may meet your expectations. That may be a list of currently available properties, an automated email with new listings as they appear, or even just a conversation about known opportunities. Together, you and your agent can determine what look like good options for an in-person showing. You may go to open-house events on your own, but for scheduled showings, they should go with you.

When visiting a house, it is not reasonable to expect your agent to have the expertise of a home inspector, but they should be able to point out potential concerns. Buyers tend to focus on cosmetics and functionality. That is fine, but your agent should help you recognize that a hard-worn roof may need replacement soon, that there is a crack in the basement wall, or that the electrical panel is outdated. The things recognized can be good things too! A sticker on the furnace showing that an annual maintenance has been done every year for the past ten years can be an indicator of an attentive seller.

If you feel like you may want to present an offer, your agent should review the Property Condition Disclosure with you to identify concerns. They may need to make phone calls or do other research to validate the information on the property listing is accurate; property taxes, homeowner association fees, property features, etc.

Network – You will need professionals that will help you through the purchase process. Your agent can present you with options for these professionals. Most commonly, you will need a real estate attorney (in NYS), and potentially a mortgage lender. If you are not paying cash for your house, your agent should have had you go through a mortgage pre-qualification process. Other professionals like home inspectors, insurance agents, septic inspectors, well inspectors, contractors, etc. may be needed. You may also decide you want to purchase a home warranty. Your agent can make recommendations on these.

Negotiation – Your agent can show you what similar nearby properties have sold for recently. This can be a guide for what the house is worth.  As a buyer, you will always be the one to determine how much to offer, as long you can demonstrate that you have the capacity with cash or a mortgage pre-approval to make a purchase. Your agent will not know if there will be competing offers, but if there are or may be, there are strategies to discuss. When you present an offer, it may be accepted, rejected, or counter-offered. If your offer is not accepted as presented, you can decide to walk away from the offer, or negotiate the terms. 

Closing process – Once you have an accepted purchase offer, your agent should immediately get your purchase offer to your attorney for review. The attorney will look at the contract for acceptable form and note any deficiencies. They have only a couple days to review it for acceptance, but can also reject your contract with your consent if there was something that was missed. Your agent will also get your contract to your mortgage lender so they can begin the process to get you to mortgage commitment and also closing. Throughout the process, the agent will be your liaison for follow up with other professionals to facilitate the closing.

Agency – an important item to note is that when you have an agent and attorney working on your behalf, the other party to the transaction should never contact you directly. The seller’s attorney will be in contact with your attorney. The seller, the seller’s attorney, the seller’s agent should never contact you. If they do, immediately refer them to your own agent or attorney. They know they should not contact you.