Stick with the big name realty office or use the individual realtor?
April 3, 2020 10:54 AM Subscribe
We're talking about moving. Should we use the same realty office (owned by a big name realtor who is a family friend) we used to buy our current home, or should we go with the amazing realtor who did our showings and is now out on his own?
(For the sake of discussion let's pretend the world is running as normal and not in a pandemic)
I have a family friend, Terry. He's known my parents forever and is a big name in the local real estate market. They've bought and sold houses with him over the years, as have many of their friends, and when my wife and I bought our first house several years ago we gave him a call. He's a bit pricey (charges an additional fee on top of the cut of commission) but he and his office have a reputation for driving hard bargains and getting things done.
We ended up getting paired with Adam, a realtor who worked in Terry's office. Adam was incredibly knowledgeable and helpful as we learned what we wanted out of a first house. We always missed his input when someone else from Terry's office for showings Adam couldn't make. Adam would often bounce things off of Terry, so as great as Adam was it was a huge benefit to have decades of experience backing him up. He showed us quite a few places before they were officially open and did a great job of learning our preferences.
One funny thing is that after all of Adam's work, we were the ones who ended up finding the house we purchased, as it was down the road from where we were living at the time.
Shortly after we put an offer in on that house, Adam left Terry's office to go out on his own under a different brokerage. All the negotiations about a major repair ended up being handled by others and went very well.
Now that we're talking about moving we need to pick who we'll be using. Our gut feeling is that we'd end up in familiar neighborhoods within 10 minutes of our current location. If we go with Terry I suspect showings would be handled by whoever happens to be on staff these days. If we go with Adam we'll have great showings but I wonder if we'll be missing the big guns during negotiations.
How do we decide?
(For the sake of discussion let's pretend the world is running as normal and not in a pandemic)
I have a family friend, Terry. He's known my parents forever and is a big name in the local real estate market. They've bought and sold houses with him over the years, as have many of their friends, and when my wife and I bought our first house several years ago we gave him a call. He's a bit pricey (charges an additional fee on top of the cut of commission) but he and his office have a reputation for driving hard bargains and getting things done.
We ended up getting paired with Adam, a realtor who worked in Terry's office. Adam was incredibly knowledgeable and helpful as we learned what we wanted out of a first house. We always missed his input when someone else from Terry's office for showings Adam couldn't make. Adam would often bounce things off of Terry, so as great as Adam was it was a huge benefit to have decades of experience backing him up. He showed us quite a few places before they were officially open and did a great job of learning our preferences.
One funny thing is that after all of Adam's work, we were the ones who ended up finding the house we purchased, as it was down the road from where we were living at the time.
Shortly after we put an offer in on that house, Adam left Terry's office to go out on his own under a different brokerage. All the negotiations about a major repair ended up being handled by others and went very well.
Now that we're talking about moving we need to pick who we'll be using. Our gut feeling is that we'd end up in familiar neighborhoods within 10 minutes of our current location. If we go with Terry I suspect showings would be handled by whoever happens to be on staff these days. If we go with Adam we'll have great showings but I wonder if we'll be missing the big guns during negotiations.
How do we decide?
Response by poster: That is a great question that I didn't fully consider, since last time we just needed a buyer's agent.
We would be selling our current house so I suppose we'd be engaging the same person for both transactions.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:20 AM on April 3, 2020
We would be selling our current house so I suppose we'd be engaging the same person for both transactions.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:20 AM on April 3, 2020
We would be selling our current house so I suppose we'd be engaging the same person for both transactions.
It's not necessary to do that. It seems you really liked Adam showing you homes, so if that is a really important factor for you, just hire Adam as a buyer's agent.
posted by yohko at 2:16 AM on April 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
It's not necessary to do that. It seems you really liked Adam showing you homes, so if that is a really important factor for you, just hire Adam as a buyer's agent.
posted by yohko at 2:16 AM on April 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by ClaireBear at 11:18 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]