basically: why would someone need a realtor to BUY a house?
i understand that to buy a house, you (buyer) give some money to the owner (seller) in the form of a down payment and essentially get a loan from the bank (mortgage), and then pay that loan back to the bank over the course of years (decades).
for selling a house, i get that you’d want someone to put up the listing and pull connections to get the word out to buyers.
but for buying a home, where do the realtors come in and why does everyone say you need to get one to be a serious buyer?
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They know the market is the usual reasoning. They’re supposed to help streamline the process as it’s pretty complex.
Imho, first home having one makes sense as it’s complicated. After the first and you know what to expect using a lawyer and asking for a reduction in price relative to buying agent commission is the smarter move.
We have 5 properties now- so we have some experience here.
Realtors do a lot of the grunt/leg work for you:
Identify utility companies, arrange for the contractors to do repairs (even with new homes), make sure all of your paper work is in order, connect you to vendors (for special work you may want or need to be done). Overall, they represent you to make sure you are not getting ripped off (though this is the worst part because they don’t get paid if you don’t buy. So there is a conflict of interest here – they want you to buy. Results vary). Plus they have access to the MLS, so they can help filter out houses pretty quickly for you when initially searching
A good realtor does all the legwork. They look up comps, talk to the seller realtor to gauge competitive bids. They also handle a lot of the paperwork and coordinate a lot of scheduling with inspections and your attorney. A bad realtor doesn’t do very much.
A realtor helps buyers by finding homes that meet their needs, handling negotiations, and guiding them through the paperwork and legal processes involved in purchasing a property.
A realtor can be a good reality check for you. We fell in love with our house and I was ready to offer asking price. She pointed out some issue with the house and had us offer 20k less. Then during the negotiation she helped us get credits and things fixed we would have never thought to ask about. Maybe their value decreases the more homes you buy but as a first time homebuyer it was super helpful and at times she helped calm us down as we waited to hear back from the sellers.
When I bought my house, we went on Redfin to find all of the listings we liked. We met our agent there, but ultimately, he wasn’t that much help for making our decision. He was just able to get us into the places we needed to look. Otherwise, we would have had to call the listing agent. Then when we decided on one, he helped us with the paperwork. We did go with his inspector, which may have been a mistake. But, otherwise, we would have had to find one on our own. That’s about it. I don’t think he was a particularly knowledgeable realtor, but he was nice.
So when i bought my house, the realtor did all of the work. They researched which houses were within my budget and were the kinds of homes i was looking for and located in the areas i was interested in. He set up times to go look at the homes, that worked with my schedule since i was working nights and we were on a 12 hour shift schedule.
Then once we decided on a house we were interested in, he was the go-between between us and the seller for the negotiations.
And then, when the seller couldn’t make the closing costs, both my realtor and the sellers realtor gave up part of their commission in order to make sure the deal happened.
A realtor doesn’t do anything that a real estate lawyer can’t.
They make a massive % of the sale for finding you homes (you can do that online) and ‘coordinating’ the paperwork.
People are paying 10s of thousands of dollars (or more) for nothing more than some small coordination tasks (eg photographer, lawyer).
Not sure how it is elsewhere, but in Canada…the sellers agent sets up on the advertisement materials (online listing, etc) and maybe organizes an open house and then… pretty much nothing unless an offer comes in. Then they negotiate, on the sellers behalf and complete the paperwork.
All my experiences have been like that. It’s the buyer’s agent that finds the home and shows it to their clients.
Never once did my realtor hustle to find clients, they came on their own
Why does anyone need a lawyer if we have the right to represent ourselves?
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