Published: September 29, 2014
There’s no law that says you can’t go it alone.
But the real question is: “Why would you NOT want to use the FREE services of a professional whose whole career is spent helping people turn the dream of home ownership into reality?” And in almost every case, it is the Seller, not the Buyer, who pays the Realtor’s commission on the selling price of the home. If you are a Buyer, using a Realtor doesn’t cost you a cent – but it can save you thousands of dollars!
Some home buyers think that if they don’t use a real estate agent, the Seller’s agent will give them a kick back on the commission.These home buyers mistakenly think that if the Seller has the opportunity to pay less in commissions, he/she will share those “savings” with the buyer. Fair is fair, right?
It may seem logical, but in fact, it doesn’t work that way in residential real estate. In listing their home, Sellers have already committed to paying the Realtor’s commission. Whether you use a Realtor or not, it is unlikely to change the Seller’s fee or what the selling agent will make. The selling agent has a contract with the seller and is ultimately working for the seller and cannot guide you with regards to price, what you should offer, what terms you should put and also what should be included in the purchase price other than the normal appliances etc.
The most important point to keep in mind is what happens when there is a problem and you don’t have your own realtor working for you. This is a real life story that happened a couple of years ago with some clients of mine.I received a call from a couple wanting to use a Remax agent to represent them with their purchase of a new townhouse that they had already picked out. They asked if I would help them with the purchase. Of course I thought fantastic, sure I will, this is great. So I went there with them to the development we filled out the contract, received all the necessary documents including the developers disclosure and left. From that time we have 7 days to read the disclosure and then put the balance of the deposit down. Then it is a firm deal and you then wait until the unit is done and final occupancy is given.
A few months go by and I get a call from my buyers asking me to go and see the unit with them as they went there and they have installed 2 large green hydro boxes in their backyard. They virtually had no backyard anymore and were very disappointed to say the least. We talked with the staff at the complex and they were willing to possibly change units but my clients didn’t care for the other locations that were available.
So our next step is to reread the disclosure statement provided by the developer to see if there is anything in there that would allow us to get the deposit back and find something else somewhere else. In the disclosure there was a clause that said something like “the developer does not know of or will not change anything that will affect the value of the property”. So knowing from other complexes with hydro boxes in some yards, it takes twice as long to sell and for at least $10,000 less.
The developer was not willing to give the deposit back even though I had written a letter pointing out the above clause, pointed out the large hydro boxes and well before final occupancy. So we had a lawyer send the same letter and we did get the full deposit back and went and purchased something else.
Moral of this story is you MUST have your own representation when buying real estate, someone that is looking after YOUR best interest.
Liz Crawford
Remax Treeland Realty
604-308-3202