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Q:
O.K.,
I believe you have the best service for me, but how do you get paid?
A: There are a number of ways buyer's
agents can be paid, in general the best way is to have us paid right
out of the transaction just like a traditional real estate agent.
This way you can have the services of a buyers agent and not pay
any more than if you had used a traditional agent. (Often you would
pay much less because we are negotiating for you.) There are other
ways we can be paid including hourly and flat fee, the final choice
is really something to discuss with your buyer's agent during your
first meeting.
Q:
Your service sounds great but I was talking to a lender and he said
you guys are hard to work with and he would never use you. What
did he mean?
A: Lenders expect real estate agents
to give a buyer very little guidance on mortgage interest rate shopping
and lender choice. Our office actively compares mortgages and junk
fees. Our office also has tremendous leverage with lenders since
we are the largest buying specialist in the area. You still choose
the lender. But once we gather the information from three to twelve
lenders and explain the various service levels, rates, and junk
fees, you may find you will want to use some other firm. Or, we
can go back to the lender you know and pressure him to shave hundreds
of dollars off his rates and fees. That is why few local lenders
like us, we are on your side and they don't like the pressure. Since
other real estate companies let them take advantage of buyers, I
wouldn't expect most lenders to like us.
Q:
What areas do you service?
A: All of Washtenaw county and about
one township north, east, and south. This spans about from Brighton
to Novi to Romulus to Clinton to Manchester to Stockbridge. If you
are interested in other areas give us a call and we can usually
direct you to the best buyer's agents in any given area.
Q:
What is the next step?
A: Call us to arrange for a no-obligation
meeting to discuss your needs and how we can help you achieve your
home purchase goals. Call (734) 662-6240, if no one is at the office
when you call, leave a message with times that would be convenient
for you to meet. Our voice mail system usually pages an agent so
they can respond to you fairly quickly, even after hours.
Q:
What do other agents think about you guys?
A: When we started sixteen years ago
most agents were completely confused by the idea. Then, most agents
became afraid of the idea because it had always been easy to manipulate
the buyer. In 1994 when real estate agents became legally obligated
to tell buyers they were really working for the seller, many agents
took classes to try to figure out how they could compete with us.
They even started calling themselves buyer's agents!
Over the last seven years most of the top listing agents in our
area have done business with our buyers and they have found out
we are very easy to work with once the price negotiation is completed.
(Unless the inspections find problems with the house.) As a result,
since 2000, most of the top traditional agents like to work with
us because we have the best qualified buyers in the market and we
don't compete with their lucrative listing business.
These days the only agents who still have negative feelings toward
buyer's agents are either old time Realtors who still don't understand
agency or companies who are afraid we will expose some kick-back
arrangement they have (since our office doesn't take kick-backs).
Q: I am going to sell my home. Do you
work with sellers?
A: We offer no services to sellers
because if we did, that would mean we couldn't offer the best service
for buyers. What we have is buyers looking for homes. If you are
selling a home it is very smart to send our office a description
of the home you have to sell. If we have any buyers in the market
for that type of home we will call you for a showing appointment.
You have no obligation. You sign no listing contract. We bring a
well informed, well qualified buyer through your home.
Now, if the buyer is interested in your home we will write a purchase
offer for the buyer and present it. That offer may include you paying
some closing costs for the buyer and it may not be at your asking
price. (Since we work for the buyer we are working to get the home
at or below market value.) However, if you don't like the offer
you can always counter us at terms that are acceptable to you.
The result is that we do a lot of business with for-sale-by-owner
home sellers and they normally end up saving thousands in commissions
and a lot of frustration.
You may want to check our list of typical
clients to see if there is a good match for your home right
now.
We
helped area home buyers save over one million dollars last
year. If you are interested in saving money on your next
home, send us a note. Or,
give us a call at (734) 662-6240.
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