What is a buyer’s broker?
An RE Borker that represents the buyer in a transaction. Their job is to look after your best interests, while the seller’s agent’s job is to look after the seller’s best interest.
Do you have to sign an agreement with them that states you can only use them for doing your deals? Or can you use multiple brokers at once?
I would never sign an exclusive contract saying you can’t use other brokers on OTHER deals!!! Anyone who tries to get you to sign a contract like that is probably not the type of person you want to work with. Now, I suppose if they were offering you a significant discount and you were confident in their abilities, it MIGHT make sense, but not out of the starting blocks. Just go on a deal by deal basis starting out. If you find one that consistently provides excellent service and can negotiate a win/win, why not??? It’s definitely not a requirement, though!!! Also, if you want to use more than one broker on the SAME deal, you might run into issues. In this case, the broker isn’t going to want to split their commision. I don’t know why you would need more than one broker per deal, though…
I agree with Mike. Never sign an exclusive agreement. The sense of urgency goes away since they know that there is no competition.
Do you think it would be better to have a buyer’s broker that is non-exclusive working for you or better to call the selling agent yourself to find out about properties? What exactly is the advantage to having a buyer’s broker for yourself, what do they do for you? Mike
If the buyer’s broker is doing their job they should be doing all of the leg work for the buyer. They should know the parameters that their client is looking for and be searching for those properties.
The buyers broker is simply the broker of record that represents the buyer. Unlike the seller’s broker, who almost always has to sign an exclusive agreement for a specific period of time, the buyer’s broker is not on an exclusivve basis, except for a property that he or she is actually brokering.
You will still sign an agreement with the buyers broker that has a non circumvent clause in it to protect him/her from you going directly to the seller or hiring a cheaper broker on a property they have shown you.
Jeff
Hey Jeff,
This leads me to a question. I have a broker that we both do business with. I have always trusted and liked doing residential business with her and now she is assisting me with my REI endeavor. I was actually working with her and your company at the same time to obtain financing, then I find out that Crusader is one of their investors/lenders that they like to do business with.
What would be you advice in this situation? I know brokers are good for shopping around to get your the best terms and representing the package but I know that in the end she will most likely use Crusader because your products are outstanding.
What is the general concesus? Go to a direct lender or use a broker?
Jordan
Hi Jordan,
If you are going through one of our brokers, I would say that you are in the same hands as if you were going directly with us. We handle all of our clients the same whether they were direct of through our brokers.
It doesn’t cost you any more either way and we work directly with you anyway and take care of our brokers.
It’s all a matter of what makes you most comfortable.
We do have a policy of protecting our brokers. If one of our brokers contacts you first or if you bring a deal to one of our brokers and they lead you to us, then we would always respect our promise to our broker and give the deal to them even though we would have profited more direct. If, however, you knew about us before being introduced y the broker, that is a different situation.
Either way, whatever is fair and just and makes everyone happy is the generally our course of action.
Jeff
Thanks Jeff
How about Origination fees, Brokers fees etc? Should that play a part in my decision?
They are the same whether though a broker or direct.
We don’t let our brokers determine the fees. We set them.
The broker commissions come out of our profit, not added onto as a burden to the borrower.
As always, when money is coming out of your pocket, fees are something to weigh. Keep in mind… Everyone is in business to remain profitable so no matter what anyone says, the borrower is going to pay on the fron end of the rate end one way or another.
Rates, points and fees should always be fair and reasonable
Jeff
gotcha, thanks Jeff