Question Every Home Buyer Should Ask: What Is A Buyer’s Agent Or Broker?
There are a few different types of real estate agents or brokers: selling agents (buyer’s agent), listing agents (seller’s agent), and dual agents. In this video, I discuss the job of a BUYER’S AGENT.
What does a real estate agent do for a buyer?
A real estate agent can provide valuable assistance to a buyer in the home buying process. Here are some of the things a real estate agent can do for a buyer:
- Help the buyer determine their budget and priorities for a home.
- Identify properties that meet the buyer’s criteria and arrange showings.
- Provide information about the local real estate market and neighborhoods.
- Advise the buyer on the fair market value of the property and offer strategies.
- Negotiate on behalf of the buyer to get the best price and terms.
- Recommend other professionals, such as home inspectors and mortgage lenders.
- Assist with paperwork and coordinate the closing process.
What does a buyer’s agent do?
A buyer’s agent, also known as a cooperating broker, is a licensed real estate agent who represents the buyer in a real estate transaction. The buyer’s agent’s primary responsibility is to help the buyer find and purchase a home that meets their needs and budget. Some of the duties of a buyer’s agent include:
- Helping the buyer determine their budget and priorities for a home.
- Identifying properties that meet the buyer’s criteria and arranging showings.
- Providing information about the local real estate market and neighborhoods.
- Advising the buyer on the fair market value of the property and offer strategies.
- Negotiating on behalf of the buyer to get the best price and terms.
- Recommending other professionals, such as home inspectors and mortgage lenders.
- Assisting with paperwork and coordinating the closing process.
Overall, a buyer’s agent works to ensure that the buyer has a smooth and successful home buying experience.
[Video Transcript]
Hey all, Zach McDonald, your real estate agent with Real Property Associates. Today’s question that every home buyer should ask, is, “What is a buyer’s agent or broker?” In Washington State, a buyer’s agent, real estate broker, same thing. I think the thing to understand with real estate brokers, real estate brokers can represent buyers and sellers. They can do both. A buyer’s agent is somebody that is working with the buyer. I’ll do another video, a listing agent is the one representing the seller. I personally believe that it’s really important to have representation in the process. Some buyers are very independent, they would rather work directly with the listing agent, that’s fine, but you need to understand that the listing agent is going to be getting paid twice as much to represent the seller and help you write up a contract.
There’s such thing as dual agency, I’ll talk about that again as well, but then you don’t have representation necessarily to its full extent. A buyer’s agent, their job is to represent your best interest in a real estate purchase, and represent you as the buyer. That’s going to include the showing houses, things that we would do, we would look at houses together. We would write up the contract and negotiate on your behalf, we would help on the back end once you’re under contract, so that’s setting up inspections, that’s referring any related contractors to the process, that’s going to include helping you get your pre-approval on the front end. There’s a myriad of things, but essentially you have somebody that’s on your team, that’s representing you and is looking out for your best interests in the process, and I think it’s important to have, if you’re a buyer, a buyer’s agent and representation in the process, because it can end up costing you money, and it’s free.
Now, I get paid a commission when I represent a buyer, and that commission is paid out of the purchase price by the seller. So a seller in the state of Washington, almost 100% of the time is paying a commission to their listing agent’s firm, that commission is shared with the buyer’s agent. So out of the proceeds of the sale, I get paid and that’s not something that you as the buyer are directly paying for. You are paying the purchase price, which you’d be paying anyway, but there’s no extra cost to you aside from what’s already baked into the purchase price, to have representation. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, and if you’re buying a house on the market, the commission is already there, so you might as well have your own representation.
