Is My Agent Working for Me? Part 2

In Part 1 of the series “Is My Agent Working for Me?” I shared with you that both Realtor and Seller/Buyer asked themselves if they were being dealt with honestly. If you are a first time buyer you might wonder why an agent would question the honesty of the Buyer/Seller’?

Is the voice in the back of your mind asking, with an annoying little spear in it’s hand, “Is my agent lying to me?” What do you think the agent’s experience might be with Sellers or Buyers? If their experiences have lacked a large dose of trust…maybe your agent is asking….”Are my clients lying to me?”

Consider the time you bought your car or used dinette set from the guy on Craigslist. If you are like me you went in with your game face on and planned to pay as little as possible. You made him an offer and he countered and back and forth it went. It was hard, but you got the item(s) at your price. Or did you pay his price? I bet you never told the Seller what you were, really, willing to pay for it, Right? Good! He probably never told you what he was willing to accept either.

After weeks, maybe months, of home shopping  you have looked at dozens of homes and BAM! There it is! The most perfect neighborhood, the lawn is so nicely manicured and the front door is painted your favorite color. You walk in and the kitchen and ahhh, the kitchen. It’s sunny and bright. Perfect. You want this house! As soon as you sit down with your agent to make your purchase offer a funny thing happens. You get ’The Game Face’. You tell your Realtor you are only willing to pay price X for the home. Uh Oh!

Your agent provides a Market Price Report or Comprehensive Market Analysis (CMA), call it what you want, and the “market” price is between X and Y.  Your agent thinks you aren’t paying more than X.  Meanwhile, the purchase offer is written, with your X price, and your Realtor submits the offer exclaiming to the Seller you will pay not a penny more. This is the time when you need a large dose of hope. Problem is hope won’t buy the perfect house for you.

Preparing to compromise and discuss your specific options would be your best course of action.

Mary Weintraub, a leading Real Estate tipster and prolific blogger writes…”Nobody wants an agent who is going to order them around and bark demands, but it is perfectly acceptable for a client to be given all the options by an agent…”

What about the client?   They should be discussing all of their possible options too.

Somewhere, in the vast darkness of unconscious reality, the trust issue has already raised it’s ugly head. That CMA or Market Sales Report (MSR), you know…the stack of sales data your Realtor provided for you…remember the Seller probably has similar information. You are about to experience the Deer in Headlights look!

Part 3 … How you can get what you want