Buyers Could Care Less who the Home is Listed With. Buyers Want Houses, not Brokers

Copyright © 2014- 2019  AUTHOR: Paul R. Marino, REALTOR®, e-Pro®

 

The vast majority of my posts look at the home sale process from the perspective of the home seller, but in this instance, I thought I'd turn the tables and look at the home buyer perspective. I was recently looking over an article that took at look at the most trusted (and least trusted) vocations in America. It was based on a fairly large polling sample, and I have no reason to doubt it's overall accuracy.  And what did this particular study indicate? Well...let's put it this way...it's not pretty if you're a real estate agent or broker. According to this study, only 22% of the polled population regarded people in the real estate profession as being trustworthy. Ouch. While not at the very bottom of the ladder, it's certainly close enough to make you cringe. Even lower? Politicians at 13%. Quite frankly, I was surprised to see politicians rated so high. LOL. On the opposite end of the spectrum were nurses (82% of the population regarded them as trustworthy), and military officers (78%...not too shabby).

 

Having been in the real estate business for three decades, I think I've got a pretty good idea of why the number is so low. For starters, real estate is a sales position, which stands in stark contrast let's say, to a firefighter, or a nurse. A firefighter is brave, puts out fires, saves lives, and helps out the community. A nurse also saves lives, cares for the sick and wounded, and works tirelessly helping others. OK...I get it. So naturally, anyone in the sales profession is likely to rate far lower on the trustworthiness spectrum than a firefighter, nurse, or even an electrician (rates an incredibly high 66% on the trustworthy scale). Any profession whose success is measured by how well they separate you from your hard earned money is bound to run into snags.

 

Here's the problem. As a real estate salesperson, we're already down three touchdowns going into the fourth quarter. For starters, real estate is one of the few professions in the world where the salesperson (agent or broker) has absolutely no control whatsoever over the quality of the product being sold. Whether a salesperson takes a listing of a $40,000 shack in Aroostook County, Maine or a $10,000,000 oceanfront estate on Long Island Sound in Connecticut, the listing agent really knows very little about the product. How could they? They've never lived there. How can the listing agent possibly know if there has ever been water in the basement? The listing broker spent two hours at the home, taking photos and making notes, and they're supposed to know how much water was in the basement after Hurricane Sandy slammed the Northeast in 2012?

 

Like most professions in this world, the vast majority of agents and brokers out there plying their trade are honest and trustworthy, so when asked by a prospective home buyer: "Has there ever been water in the basement?" and the agent answers: "I don't know", there's a very strong possibility they simply don't know. They're not trying to be deceptive, or evasive; they simply have no idea, and are relying on what the seller has told them, and what has been communicated in the Seller Disclosure Statement. But heaven forbid there's a torrential summer downpour after the new buyer moves in, and finds water. In this litigious society, I can assure you there will be many people on the lawyers target list, to include, the listing broker, the buyer broker, the appraiser, the home inspector, and the home seller.

 

Buying a home is all about the judicious use of common sense, and exercising due diligence. Buyer brokers are very good at what they do (targeting closely matching properties, offering tactical negotiating advice, handling the massive flow of contractual paperwork, etc.), but they are not home inspectors. Similarly, real estate appraisers are not home inspectors. So don't expect the buyer broker, appraiser, or listing broker to be able to answer all your questions or to spot every potential physical defect or deficiency. Similarly, don't expect the home inspector to know every detail. A home inspector is only there for three or four hours. That's it. And while a great deal of valuable information and clues can be gathered over three to four hours, even a home inspector can not spot every potential problem. Most home inspectors come from the construction trades. But no one is skilled in all the trades. He might have been a former builder, or an electrician, or a plumber...whatever. The point is, most home inspectors are generalists. If they've entered the business via the home contractor route, they might know a lot about framing, load bearing walls, cantilevered decks, etc.) but they may just know the basics with regards to the National Electric Code [NEC]. Yes, even a newbie knows you need a GFCI protected electrical outlet on kitchen counter top surfaces.

 

At Landfall Properties, LLC, our core business is buyer brokerage, but our business model is dramatically different from anything you've become accustomed to in this industry. We list home sellers in their respective Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for free and save them $14,413 on average across New England when they successfully sell their home (anywhere in CT, FL, MA, ME, NH, and VT), coming soon to RI and NY). We save our sellers five figure money by eliminating the listing side sales commission. As you might imagine, when you save someone five figure money, it builds a tremendous amount of goodwill, and nearly 70% go on to engage Landfall Properties, LLC as their buyer brokerage for their downstream purchase. And in each and every instance, no matter what market you're targeting, from Caribou, Maine, to Greenwich, Connecticut, you're going to want to engage a highly experienced home inspector. Landfall Properties, LLC assists you in targeting the best, and most highly rated inspectors in your particular market.

 

When inspection day comes, don't just say: "Let the home inspector go through the home, and let me know if there are any problems." Tell me you won't do this. My recommendation is to take the day off from work. Wear some beat up clothes, and prepare to get dirty. You should follow that home inspector around like a lost cub...not getting in his way, but asking probing questions when appropriate. There's no such thing as a dumb question. You don't do this for a living. But guess what, that home inspector may have limited knowledge of certain specialized systems. So when you visit the electrical service panel with your inspector and the incoming wiring looks more like a ball of yarn after a cat's had a go at it, take the extra step of getting a licensed electrician in there to provide specialized expertise and recommendations. The bottom line is this: No one is looking out for your interests more than YOU. Not the listing broker, not the buyer broker, not the appraiser, not the home inspector, not your lawyer, and not the lender. If you want to save yourself a lot of trouble down the road, follow this advice: If in doubt about a particular system or component in the home, go the extra mile and hire a licensed tradesperson to check it out. A little money spent on the front end will save you a pile of money on the back end.

 

Last but not least. If your licensed tradesperson uncovers a substantive problem in the home that's going to require a significant cash outlay to rectify, you're going to want to get multiple quotes. Never commission a job without at least three quotations. You would be amazed at the wide disparity in quotations for seemingly identical work. And make sure your contractors are quoting "apples and apples". Having been in the home flipping business for a nearly a decade after the 2008 financial meltdown and foreclosure crisis, this advice has saved me, many, many times.