In the age of the internet, do I really need an agent to help me buy my home?

When buying a home, selecting an agent can be one of the most important decisions you make. One of the many parts of the home buying process where your agent is your most powerful asset, is when it comes to the negotiation strategy when a buyer makes an offer, in order to help secure the home you want to buy at a reasonable price, or to secure the property at all in a highly competitive bidding situation.

In this case the house of our clients’ dream was sitting on the market having had 2 previous price reductions.   Although they loved this house their dream offer price was 20% below the last reduced price.  

My advice as their buyer’s agent, was that the risk in coming in so much lower than the seller’s now reasonable listing price, was that our offer could be used by the listing agent as leverage to solicit other offers from other buyers, and actually possibly even drive the price back up again.

We decided that a better approach would be to write an offer that was closer to the seller’s current listing price, after having confirmed that recent comparable sales supported the seller’s current offer price.  But, we also wanted to ensure that the offer was good enough to begin a counter offer dialog with the seller, as opposed to coming in so low with an offer price that we risked the seller would not even engage with us. 

Our initial offer fit that strategy perfectly, because the seller did counter our offer, and after we countered back, we ended up at a price that both the buyers and the sellers were happy with.  By this time the seller was relieved that his house was sold, albeit at a price he never thought he’d sell it for. 

Elements of our offer that convinced him to accept it were not only the price but the terms of our offer.  Those terms included a relatively clean offer with short time frames on contingencies for inspections.   It was also an all cash offer, so the seller knew we were strong buyers and this motivated him to to compromise on price even more, because it was highly unlikely that he was taking a risk on buyers who had to obtain financing making their offer less certain.

In this way both our buyers and the seller were happy, and both accomplished their goal.  My buyers got their dream home and the seller was now able to move on in his life knowing he had the perfect buyer who loved his home and closed with no hiccups in the transaction.   A win/win for everyone involved.

To learn more about what the important criteria are to choose a real estate agent, and the many reasons a real estate agent is so important in the age of the internet, visit our Begin Your Home Search page.