Everyone plans to buy a house at some point especially when they want to settle down and have a family. Some of you might also want to sell your house and live in another country or state. But have you ever wondered what the real estate agent is thinking? Or what goes on inside his head as he makes the deal? Here are the ten things a real estate broker won’t tell you. At this point, we shall be addressing the real estate agent/broker as ‘broker’ for the sake of consistency throughout this article.
“Your open-house party means more clients for me in the future”
You have to hire a broker to help you sell your house. One of his first suggestions would be to hold an open house party so a lot of people can check out the house. Though the success rate of this promotion is only 2% higher than the average, the broker gets out of his way to spend hours on this strategy for one important thing – to expand his database of clients and connections.
“My fees may sound unmovable but you can actually negotiate with me.”
Brokers seem to make the price of the house unmovable, not to mention their fees as brokers. Most brokers would state that they’ve lowered their fees sometimes by a full percent to gain leverage in a tricky market. People selling their houses should take time to connect and canvass for brokers around and compare their fees. Because in truth, all you need is ask and they’ll usually lower their commission cut. That’s the real leverage.
“Getting no offers? Actually, I’m just waiting for a bigger offer than the last one you didn’t know about.”
By law, brokers are compelled to inform you of any offers made on the house. In reality, some don’t. They might think that the offer is too low and would come across somewhat insulting for you but it’s more likely, they’ll get a lower cut of the commission if they stick with that so they would rather wait and hold out for a bigger offer. You should make it clear with the broker that all offers should be made known to you. As the seller, the decision of choosing offers should only be yours to make.
“I talk about you behind your back.”
You spot your dream house and call the broker listed on the For Sale sign. This is usual the first step for most buyers on how they would stumble upon a broker. The broker shows you around the house, ask your needs and laughs at your joke. It’s easy to forget that the person you’re dealing with is NOT your broker so you tend to spill details that the broker is legally compelled to provide to his client. So better hang on tight to those preapproved loan numbers, or any money info for that matter.
“Sometimes I forget whose side I’m on but it’s more on about my cut.”
The agents or broker are strictly to work on the buyer’s interest, helping him to get a fair price on a home as well as avoiding pitfalls. That is why they need to tell you everything regarding your house. Remember that they need to at least have the 3% income when they sell your house. They sometimes forget whose side they are on; the buyers, sellers or their own. Most of the brokers are in the state of wanting to earn more and just getting the deal done.
“I actually know nothing about zoning but I like making suggestions just so to speed up the deal getting sealed.”
Brokers like making suggestions on how to make your property look better and gather more attention from potential buyers. It’s easy for them to do this since they’re out of the picture once the deal is done. None of the legal issues fall on their hands. "We had a client who bought a dilapidated house with a beautiful piece of property on a marshland," recalls Manhattan-based architect Mary Langan. "The broker told him that he could fix the house up however he wanted, insisting that this was a sleepy little town where nobody would care what he did. He put up a $15,000 shed in his backyard, pulled down trees, filled in some of the marshland. Now the town is making him put things back because of environmental zoning regulations." Always check first with your local zoning commission before doing anything to the surrounding area of your property.
“I won’t let termites or pesky inspectors jeopardize a deal.”
Sure a lot of brokers tell their buyers the same thing that there is nothing wrong with the house and it is in a perfect shape or that it was already fixed. This is just a trick for you to buy the house and lose your money because they can get away with it. It’s never a bad thing to take extra measures. Might as well hire a home inspector to make sure that the house is in good shape.
“I’m not a lawyer but I sound like one when talking about your house.”
Whenever you decide to buy the house, the broker would have an envelope that contains papers for you so that the house would be legally yours. Don’t get too excited owning the house or you’ll end up signing the papers without even reading the contents. It is illegal for the broker to hand you the papers with unnecessary words in it. There are times that the broker’s contract has additional things that are very important for you to know such as the no return policy of the house after certain days have passed. Please be sure to read the contract before signing it and always check with your lawyer.
“My website is a dead end.”
Most house hunters search for houses online, but it’s frustrating to discover that the houses you end up liking are already sold ages ago. This is a common bait that the broker uses to reel in more clients.
“You may not need me at all.”
There is a reason why people tend to hire brokers to sell their houses; it might be because we might not know how to do it like a broker should. All we need is a properly priced house and well advertisement to go around and the house will sell itself. You don’t need him at all for simple things as spreading the word by mouth, posting through website, newspaper ads, anything that advertises your house. What hurts the most when self-selling the house is when you might have priced your house too high or low. You have to hire or ask a broker or an appraiser to help you with that one.
It helps to take extra miles in dealing with matters involving a lot of money. Tell me what you think or if you have more ideas out there, I’d love to hear your experience with real estate investment and other strategies you tried to get your dream house become a reality.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you might also love to read our other real estate guide posts. Check them out here.
Reference: finance.yahoo.com/education/real_estate/article/101456/10_Things_Your_Real_Estate_Broker_Wont_Tell_You
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