Why Buyers Need Their Own Agent

Until you know why buyers need to have their own agent and believe they need you as their agent, you will never be able to successful at getting buyers to sign a contract to work exclusively for you.  You also need to know all the problems that can happen and how you can avoid them.

# 1.  Why Buyers Need Their Own Agent The first step is thinking about all phases of the transactions and think about everything you do and what you would do differently if you were working for a buyer. 

Here some ideas for you:

Needs Assessment Stage  As a Buyer’s Agent, you should be offering the buyers this service.  You need to learn how to help them figure out exactly what they are really looking for.

Pre-Qualification or Pre-Approval Stage  As a Buyer’s Agent, you need to know exactly what your buyer can afford BEFORE you take them out looking at houses.

Initial Decision Making Stage  When you know what they are looking for and what they can afford, a Buyer’s Agent can then help them make changes in what they are looking for based on the price they can afford.  This is a critical step and has to be handled carefully.  If they want more than they can afford, and won’t change their search criteria, you should not even attempt to work for them.

Viewing Properties and Selections Stage  As a Buyer’s Agent you should be actively looking for problems in the home.  You should tell them when a property they may be emotionally liking does not come any where close to what they are looking for.  The best way is to review their Needs Assessment with them.  You also should actively look for the perfect place for them and let them know if for some reason they are overlooking a home that could be perfect for them.

Offer Submission Stage  As a Buyer’s Agent, you should let your Buyer Client know what the ramifications could be of various clauses in the contract so they can make informed decisions on the offer.

Negotiation Stage  Your experience will really help your Buyer Clients at this point.  If it is the perfect home for your Buyer Clients, your goal is to get to an agreement, but to also actively work to get the best “deal” for them.  Of course, they won’t always get everything they want, but the best “deal” for them is always a good outcome.

Getting to Closing Stage  Going through the Inspections, loan processing, etc, a good Buyer’s Agent will always stay on top of things, keeping problems from happing, negotiating repair related issues, and solving problems that to appear to the buyer’s satisfaction.

Modify these items to reflect how you can help buyers and you will have a great presentation to give them on why they need a Buyer’s Agent, why you are the best Buyer’s Agent for them, and why they should sign an exclusive contract up front with you.

#2.  Problems that can happen

If your company makes you change your status as a Buyer’s Agent if they select one of your company’s listings, you need to make sure that the buyer’s understand that and what the ramifications are to them.  The change can be to Dual Agent, to a Designated Agent, to a Transaction Broker, to a Facilitator…or what ever they do, it means that you are then functions in a status that is less than a true Buyer’s Agent.  If your buyers are not comfortable with that, you need to be prepared to do something to protect them, such as referring them to an agent at another company to write the contract and get it to closing.  That is a very hard solution, but as a Buyer’s Agents, you have to be working for the benefit of the buyers….and not you!

Having two buyer clients that want the same house At the time of writing the buyer’s contract, you need to disclose what will happen if another buyer client wants the same house.  Remember, their agency relationship is with the company and not you.  So the larger your company, the more likelihood there is of this problem.  Ideally, you should get their written permission to work with another buyer client on the same property.  Although there was a settlement (with no financial figures released), the Debs Case of several years ago put the industry on notice about this problem.  Recently the Supreme Court of ___________ ruled that it was illegal for Buyer’s Agents in the state to work for two buyers on the same property.  That ruling can now be used in future lawsuits, so it is really something to be careful with.

I hope this will give you the confidence you need to be a real Buyer’s Agent and get a contract signed with them at an initial meeting.

 

The author of this article is Linda Grissette.  Some of you may remember her as Linda Grayson.  Linda is a Broker-Associate with River City Real Estate.  She is also the company trainer.  Learn more about how River City Real Estate can help you make more money...even in today's market...browse through this site.

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