Should I go without a realtor on a home I don't want to lose?
April 12, 2018 8:34 PM   Subscribe

One buyer's agent lost me my dream home. After some uneasy conversations, I'm not sure I can trust another buyer's agent on my 2nd home purchase. Should I go dual agency (which I've done before) or keep trying to find someone?

Tl; dr: my first buyer's agent stole a mis-listed, underpriced house I found myself for another buyer. Now getting ready to a buy new construction production home, I feel I am being used again by new agents to drum up leads.

For the last few months, I have been planning on moving to a new area and would like to build a new construction home. I work remotely for my employer and I can move completely on my timetable and have a lot of flexibility in where I can move.

My last home buying experience was tainted by my buyer's agent, "Deborah", who was not only a licensed agent and Realtor, but also a close family friend. Unfortunately Deborah's recommendations were always poor. After driving around to places that missed the mark entirely, I ended up finding the perfect home for sale on my own. Some key information about the house was incorrectly listed on the MLS and it had been sitting on the market for a while. I found the home on a Monday afternoon, scoped it out on my own on foot, and then told Deborah. Deborah had not found this listing in any of her searches. She got a hold of the listing agent and said we could see it the following morning, so there were only hours in between my discovery and when I went to see it with her.

That morning, Deborah calls to say something came up and to push seeing the house until 1pm. I drive over to meet her there, only to find her already showing the house to someone else. She had called them almost immediately and pushed my appointment to show them the house. She insisted they were only casual viewers. Because of my relationship with her, I tried to believe her when she said the sellers were disorganized and unresponsive with my offer. Of course, the house sold very quickly and not to me.

(The longer version: I am a younger homebuyer and work in tech. Deborah is an older lady who has no idea what I actually do. She thought I couldn't really afford the home and gave it to her older client. Moving on.)

I ended up buying a different house on my own and did a dual agency deal with the listing agent where I got a percentage of the commission back in seller concessions.

Now I am looking to build a new construction home with a production builder. I did attempt to find a buyer's agent before going to sale offices. Because of my flexibility in where I move, I am interested in several cities, some of them 3 hours apart. No agent was willing to cover that wide of an area, and told me to tell the builders on first visit that I would be working with my own agent once I decided where I wanted to live.

After months of research and looking, and taking a few trips into my new build area, I have found a real steal in a hot area. My research the says the builder is amazing at building housing but terrible at marketing. (Just assume for sake of argument that this is true so we can get to my question.)

So...I've done all the legwork myself to find and meet with these builders, look at houses, look at lots, research the builder's past work etc. I'm ready to buy.

So I explain the situation to a buyer agent in X city. I say that I am close to a final decision on where I want to build but I have a few specific needs. I am looking for someone who is going to be me on the ground while I'm out of state: keep me updated, send me pics, go to the city offices and make sure permits were filed, etc.

So far a good handful of agents I've spoken to have made me uneasy. Rather than addressing my needs or how they would help me during the build process, they have tried to suss out EXACTLY where I want to build. Literally, the first question they ask. Nothing about how they can help or how they understand that it would be hard to build a house from far away. Sometimes they express surprise at house of Z square feet at Y price in X city. At this point I end the conversation before revealing the community and builder.

I feel I am being used for leads again. As there are only two lots in the community I want, I really do not need more competition.

I'm considering suggesting a dual agency proposal with the builder's listing agent (it is legal in the state). I might get some concessions in upgrade options and there's no additional risk of introducing competition via that agent.

I'm sure there are lots of opinions on dual agency, but really my question is: am I paranoid or should I trust my gut about the buyer's agents? Are buyer's agents nowadays that desperate for business? Is it possible to find a buyer's agent who ISN'T going to drive their other buyers to the area?
posted by ticktickatick to Home & Garden (10 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I have no idea if you can find a buyer's agent who won't drive other buyers there, but honestly, if you've found a legal way of ensuring you don't get scooped again, why wouldn't you use it.
posted by Jubey at 9:16 PM on April 12, 2018 [4 favorites]


Can you buy the house without an agent (just a real estate attorney), and once the paperwork is filed, hire an agent to keep you updated on an hourly or set fee basis?

In this technological age, I think most people use agents for expertise in local markets, which you clearly don’t want or need, so I don’t know why you would use one.
posted by permiechickie at 9:48 PM on April 12, 2018 [2 favorites]


Also, what happened with your previous realtor was really terrible, but I think it’s making you a bit paranoid about interactions with real estate people. They are probably trying to suss out the location and learn more about it because generally people want a realtors opinion on things like location, or the details you’ve given them sound too good to be true and they think you might be mistaken or scammed by a builder.
posted by permiechickie at 10:01 PM on April 12, 2018 [4 favorites]


someone who is going to be me on the ground while I'm out of state: keep me updated, send me pics, go to the city offices and make sure permits were filed

This isn't anything you need an person with a real estate licence for.

considering suggesting a dual agency proposal with the builder's listing agent

If you don't trust the builder to file for the proper permits, what makes you think their agent will be any better at it?

I'm assuming that you need an agent because the builder's listing agent won't work with you without an agent or an agency agreement with them. You can check into if they would do dual agency but the builder will need to agree to it as well. You might be able to negotiate for a lower commission if you use the builder's agent.
posted by yohko at 10:08 PM on April 12, 2018 [3 favorites]


The main reason to work with a buyer's agent is that they can do much of the bargaining for you.

Ideally they have a relationship with the selling agent where they're each trying to help the other out (with an unspoken agreement that they'll each recommend the other when it seems appropriate if the relationship is good).

Another advantage is that a broker generally has a better handle on the local market and trends. When I was a broker we were supposed to approach FSBOs with the question, "why would you choose to negotiate for yourself rather than letting someone with more experience, less of a personal stake in the transaction, and a non-biased relationship with the seller negotiate on your behalf?"

This allows for the brokers to negotiate with each other things that the buyer or seller may not want the other to know. The ideal relationship between the buyer's broker and the seller's broker is one of equity.

A good buyer's agent will go to your inspections for you and bring you the inspector's complete report. They also have knowledge about laws and constraints that you may not be familiar with.

Since the seller pays your broker's fees there's no reason for you to not work with a broker. But if your broker gives you even one red flag don't hesitate to find another one. Realtors are hungry hungry salespeople and have a lot of motivation to keep you happy. You have absolutely no obligation to your buyers' broker.
posted by bendy at 10:15 PM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]


Just noticed your title: "Should I go without a realtor on a home I don't want to lose?" -- but you don't say anything in your question about not using a real estate agent at all as an option. Realtors are real estate agents who are members of the National Association of Realtors -- yes, you can use an agent who isn't a Realtor, just make sure there isn't any issue in their background as to why they aren't a Realtor as in most areas it's very unusual to find an agent dealing with individual buyers in residential real estate who isn't a Realtor. If the builder's agent isn't a Realtor that should be fine (well, fine for you anyhow) -- I'm guessing they aren't great at marketing because the home isn't in the MLS.
posted by yohko at 10:16 PM on April 12, 2018


The buyer's agent's role these days is not so much to find you a listing as to advise you, negotiate for you, and wrangle the paperwork process based on their knowledge of the local market. It sounds like your first agent was horrible at her job, part of which should have been to suss you out as a buyer with enough cash and smarts to make her job easier.

It does sound to me like the agents you interviewed were asking you the right questions to allow them to do just that. They were trying to get a sense of if you were being realistic in your plans based on local market conditions. By being so secretive about details of what you'd like to do, you shut down a chance to get valuable info from them that wouldn't have cost you anything at all.
posted by Gnella at 3:50 AM on April 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


Go with the "dual agency proposal" and be very specific when you approach them and state: "I don't have a buyer's agent and you'll get both sides of the deal." Work with the listing agent directly, not with another agent in the office to maximize the agent's interests with yours.

The realtor don't represent anyone but themselves, so a rational buyer bribes them with double commission.
posted by zeikka at 7:09 AM on April 13, 2018


After a bad interaction with a real estate agent (not as bad as what you experienced), I went agentless and recently closed on my new construction house in another state. I negotiated directly with the builder; the builder's agent was considered a "sub-agent" of some sort and was in the room while we talked and basically just took notes. I did have an attorney review the contract before I signed, just in case.

My understanding is that the purpose of a buyer's agent is to help you find a property and then to help you negotiate. You've already found the property and you are willing to negotiate yourself, so why would you need an agent? If you can use that leverage of "no buyer's agent commission"* to swing a seller concession or a lower purchase price, then you should.
posted by basalganglia at 4:19 PM on April 13, 2018


Response by poster: Thank you everyone. It helped to realize checking on the construction is out of scope for most agents, even those who "specialize" in new construction. All production builders are a bit shoddy, so I want to keep a close eye on things and not end up with a shotgun nail in a water pipe and hidden mold damage 3 years later.

I was going to ask the selling agent about some dual agency deal, but my gut said this builder wasn't going to do that. I didn't want to risk procuring cause for assumed dual agency either. I found a hands off agent who does a rebate program so I'll get 2% back at closing. And I'll have a real estate attorney review the contracts.

As far as monitoring the build, I'll either hire a college kid as suggested or fly out myself. I also plan on hiring my own inspector.
posted by ticktickatick at 6:09 PM on April 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


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