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HomePersonal FinanceI Didn't Like Using a Buyer's Real Estate Broker

I Didn’t Like Using a Buyer’s Real Estate Broker

Last week, The Wife and I went to contract on our new home (I will post pictures later this week), and there is one topic that The Wife and I went back and forth on and we still don’t agree with each other.  When we first started looking for homes we ran into a very nice seller’s agent who we then employed as our buyer’s broker.

What I Like about Using a Buyer’s Broker

Not every couple is the same, but I will tell you the best thing about using a Real Estate Buyer’s Broker was the fact that it was nice to have someone work with The Wife before I was even shown the house.There were times where they looked at 3 or 4 houses while I was at work.  It also provided The Wife another sounding board (although I believed that sounding board was more of a “yes-man” but at least it is another person’s input and that person has extensive experience).

I also liked the fact that the broker was “free to me.”  The broker was taking a piece of the seller’s broker’s fee. While I understand that in certain cases the seller’s broker may lower her commission to complete a deal, I had no out of pocket expense in using our Buyer’s Broker.

Our particular buyer’s broker was very nice and knowledgeable about the first area we were looking at (not our second).

What I Hate About Using a Buyer’s Broker

It is probably an ego thing but I felt like I was a better negotiator than our broker, yet, I wasn’t involved in the negotiation process. Which brings me problem, there are now two brokers on the phone who only get paid of the deal closes.  How much of the confidential information that my broker knew was laid out on the table under the guise of getting a deal done at my bank account’s expense?

A smaller issue I have (which is offset by the issue that using her was “free”) is that The Wife did 98% of the work! The Wife is diligent, smart, and organized.  The Wife had houses mapped out through MLSLI and Trulia way better than she ever could have.

I also had a few other complaints, but they might be broker specific

  • We had a few issues with the engineer’s report, said she didn’t want to be involved in the negotiations of that so I handed it off to Counsel and the next thing I knew she was involved.
  • The broker’s contract was littered with language that most people would ignore and I had to have them edit it pretty substantially as my position was clear – we will use you if you don’t cost me a dime out of pocket.  The language had to do with finding a home that wasn’t listed via MLS and thus didn’t have to prescribe to the splitting rule.
  • This might have to to do with the broker being female but I sometimes felt like it was two against one in terms of business decision versus pure “buying a home” emotion.

 

Have you ever used a buyer’s broker?

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6 COMMENTS

  1. Hey Evan, regarding the engineer.. Maybe she didn’t understand your “language”, if you know what I mean..:D

    • Maybe but then she got involved a little bit later and then acted like she didn’t know what I was talking about.

  2. Its the buyer who ends up paying for the broker in all cases. Think about it. If I was a seller and I had an offer of $100K from a broker where I would have to pay 6% and an offer of $95K direct from a buyer, which deal I would take? The $95K one! I get to keep more money, with the 100K deal I get to keep only $94K, so when I sell for 100K, I am factoring the money that has to go out to the broker.

    • Rohit,

      You are 100% correct, but the problem is that most people by me use a seller’s broker so in most cases it is going to be baked into the price.

  3. I know folks who got licensed to get (and share) commissions on deals done by them, relatives and friends. One should look in to the process if they invest in lot of properties or know people who do.

    • I should have done this. As a New York Attorney I could have done the paper work and shared in the fees. My bad

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