Realtor

[nethgerona]

I’m planning to buy a property but I wanted to know if do I really need a Realtor when buying a home?

[EvolutionHouseBuyers]

The short answer would be NO. You do not need a Realtor to buy a property.

[nethgerona]

Thanks. However, I wanted to know if this would help the process to be easier rather than doing it on my own. this is actually my first time to do all these stuffs.

[javipa]

You don’t need a realtor, but there are upsides and downsides of using them.

A few upsides:
You can hire a buyer broker/agent that represents you in a deal.
They have direct access to inventory, and often inventory that is not exposed to the public.
They can act as either the ‘good cop’ or the ‘bad cop’ in a ‘bad cop/good cop’ negotiation gambit.
They can insulate you from having to deal directly with a nutcase.
You can take advantage of their deal-finding efforts.
They can serve as a mediator between parties.

A few downsides:
Agents work for themselves no matter what kind of agreement you have with them.
They can use information against you, when they’re not using it for themselves.
Agents will lie to get listings.
Agents will lie to get closings.
Agents will lie when it serves their purposes.
Did I mention that agents lie?
Agents have one objective: Get paid a commission.
All’s fair in love and war, and real estate investing is like love and war.

---

Agent’s commissions are partly what you pay to have someone bring you deals. Otherwise, you could spend your own money up-front to find mostly the same deals an agent will find.

The main difference is that without agent involvement, you have direct access to the buyers or sellers, without any 3rd party interference.

Here’s a story that gives perspective when dealing with an agent:

Two Banditos, Juan and Pablo, held up a gold-carrying stage coach near the border and robbed the passengers of their chest of gold.

Later the Sheriff caught up with the Banditos near town, but the gold had vanished.

Unable to speak Spanish, the Sheriff called for Enrico, the town land broker, who spoke both Spanish and English to translate for the bandits and himself, and find out where the stolen gold was buried.

Enrico happily obliged.

When the Sheriff asked the Banditos where they buried the stolen gold, Enrico relayed the question, but the bandits wouldn’t talk. Enrico informed the Sheriff that they wouldn’t cooperate.

So the Sheriff pulled out his six-shooter, spun the revolver, and told Enrico to relay the message that the Banditos had exactly one minute to fess up, and reveal the location of the buried gold, or he would shoot them each in the head.

Enrico relayed the Sheriff’s threat, and so frightened were the Banditos that they gave up the location of the gold, explaining that it was buried under the Oak tree in Dead Mans’ Gulch.

With that new information Enrico turned to the Sheriff and said, “The banditos say, ‘Go ahead and shoot!’”

[nethgerona]

That was tragic huh? Well, this story is very relatable and I guess you were right. Maybe I can just do it on my own rather than risking to ask help from a realtor. thanks a lot.

[Content]

Hilarious story - I need to share this with my Kids.

I’ve used Sellers Agent to close deals before and offer/counter a lower price. When asked to "justify"my offer - I told them the 1-2% reduction is from not having to split your commission and instead of 3% they are getting 4% - haha…some of them get blind sided by that and don’t like me after that but they are “stuck” with the paperwork.

@javipa post:4

You don’t need a realtor, but there are upsides and downsides of using them.

A few upsides:
You can hire a buyer broker/agent that represents you in a deal.
They have direct access to inventory, and often inventory that is not exposed to the public.
They can act as either the ‘good cop’ or the ‘bad cop’ in a ‘bad cop/good cop’ negotiation gambit.
They can insulate you from having to deal directly with a nutcase.
You can take advantage of their deal-finding efforts.
They can serve as a mediator between parties.

A few downsides:
Agents work for themselves no matter what kind of agreement you have with them.
They can use information against you, when they’re not using it for themselves.
Agents will lie to get listings.
Agents will lie to get closings.
Agents will lie when it serves their purposes.
Did I mention that agents lie?
Agents have one objective: Get paid a commission.
All’s fair in love and war, and real estate investing is like love and war.

---

Agent’s commissions are partly what you pay to have someone bring you deals. Otherwise, you could spend your own money up-front to find mostly the same deals an agent will find.

The main difference is that without agent involvement, you have direct access to the buyers or sellers, without any 3rd party interference.

Here’s a story that gives perspective when dealing with an agent:

Two Banditos, Juan and Pablo, held up a gold-carrying stage coach near the border and robbed the passengers of their chest of gold.

Later the Sheriff caught up with the Banditos near town, but the gold had vanished.

Unable to speak Spanish, the Sheriff called for Enrico, the town land broker, who spoke both Spanish and English to translate for the bandits and himself, and find out where the stolen gold was buried.

Enrico happily obliged.

When the Sheriff asked the Banditos where they buried the stolen gold, Enrico relayed the question, but the bandits wouldn’t talk. Enrico informed the Sheriff that they wouldn’t cooperate.

So the Sheriff pulled out his six-shooter, spun the revolver, and told Enrico to relay the message that the Banditos had exactly one minute to fess up, and reveal the location of the buried gold, or he would shoot them each in the head.

Enrico relayed the Sheriff’s threat, and so frightened were the Banditos that they gave up the location of the gold, explaining that it was buried under the Oak tree in Dead Mans’ Gulch.

With that new information Enrico turned to the Sheriff and said, “The banditos say, ‘Go ahead and shoot!’”