Benefits of Using a Buyer’s Agent When Buying West Linn Real Estate

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There are some common misconceptions when you are buying West Linn real estate. Two that come to mind are that you can either do a better job yourself in sourcing a home for sale,  or that you are going to get a better deal if you approach the listing agent directly.  Lets be clear about the first line, these are misconceptions.

Let’s imagine West Linn home buyers trying to find a home on their own.  For this post we’ll call them Mr. & Mrs. Buyerson.

Mr. and Mrs. Buyerson start their search online looking at every imaginable site out there.   While I do not fault them for wanting as much information as possible, a buyer should be careful of where they get their information.

The Buyerson’s can’t always find the correct phone number of the listing agent.  Many times they have contact information that is not for the listing agent.  Once they do happen to get the correct number, getting a callback can be challenging.  Trying to get 10 different

listing agents to show them their properties and lining up all the appointments may not be as easy as one would think.  Then again, the more the merrier, right?

They might also call only to find that the property is no longer on the market.  Many of these online sites are not up-to-date.  They may have wasted time and got their hopes up by looking at properties that are not available.

Now, Mr. and Mrs. Buyerson may be sophisticated enough to recognize a property listed as a short sale and understand the some of the ramifications of buying one of these properties, but many other West Linn home buyers don’t.

They may even be thinking that they will be getting a deal using the agent that comes with the house.  Now let me take a moment to tell you how agency works when buying West Linn real estate.   You either have an agent who works for you and your interest(a buyers agent) or you have an agent that works for both you and the other party involved in the transaction, in this case the listing agent would be representing both the Sellerby’s and the Buyerson’s.   Mr. Sellersby is paying the listing agent to sell his home at the highest price.  Lets think, in who’s best interest is it for Mr. and Mrs. Buyerson to go directly to the realtor listing the home?  The buyers? The sellers?  The Listing Agent?

There are way too many things that can go wrong when West Linn real estate buyers try to buy a home by themselves.  I will point these out by showing what can go right if West Linn real estate buyers use a West Linn buyer’s agent.

Let’s see the benefits of using a West Linn buyer’s agent:

Mr. and Mrs. Buyerson sit down with a West Linn buyers agent and together they discuss the criteria for the search.  One of the first thing that the West Linn buyers agent will ask is that the buyers talk with a lender and get a pre-approval.  Without this nothing can be accomplished.  The buyers agent will know the limits of the search and they buyers will not be disappointed by having set their heart on homes they can’t afford.

Their buyers agent will build a search that will update at least daily and send out new listings to him which will not include homes that have been sold.  And trust that most everything that is on the market will be on the MLS so the buyers don’t have to worry that they are missing something, although I am sure they are still going to peek.

The home buyers make themselves available to visit the homes at appointment times that the West Linn buyers agent has set up for them.

If any of the homes are a short sale, their buyers agent can find out the background.  How many liens are on the property; what kind of experience the listing agent has with short sales; has the process been started; all important things to know in order to decide whether making an offer on the property is viable.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, their West Linn buyers agent is going to be representing Mr. & Mrs. Buyerson alone.  When a listing agent is representing both sides of the transaction impartiality is a problem.  Remember who is paying the commission – the seller.  Put yourself in the position of someone trying to negotiate both sides of the deal while not divulging to one party what they know about the other one.

Last but not least, hiring your own West Linn buyers agent is going to cost you nothing. Searching for you next West Linn real estate purchase with you own West Linn buyer’s agent is the best money you will never spend.

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Rich Peralta is a real estate professional in the Portland Metro Area, including Lake Oswego, Tualatin and  West Linn Real Estate.

He can be reached at 503.961.2181 or by e-mail at rich.peralta@exprealty.com

Contact him  for more information on Portland,  Lake Oswego or West Linn Real Estate!