5 things you need to know before hiring a Buying Agent
If you’re looking for a new home, but you don’t want the stress, time, and expense of having to search the market, view properties and navigate the transaction by yourself, hiring a buyer’s agent is worth their weight in gold.
A buyer’s agent is someone who represents your interests when buying a home. They can help you find the right property, negotiate on your behalf, and help you navigate through the entire buying process. However, before hiring a buying agent, there are some things you need to keep in mind as there are some misconceptions about how buying agents serve clients, how they get paid and how buyers can make sure they’re hiring a reputable one.
What are a Buyer’s Agents fees?
At Buying Agent Partnership, we always prefer to discuss your requirements in detail before quoting a final fee, but we would typically charge a Retaining Fee followed by a Success Fee. The Retaining Fee partly covers our time and travel costs to commence your search, and it also serves as a sign of commitment between both parties.
What a buyer’s agent service includes:
- Finding suitable properties: We’ll search for homes that will suit your budget and requirements. This might include properties that are not even on the open market from sellers who prefer a more discreet, private sale. Our extensive network with local estate agents also means that we often hear about properties before they come onto the property websites like Rightmove, giving you first and exclusive access.
- Set up viewings: We’ll view properties on your behalf and create a shortlist of those we think are suitable. This is a huge time saver for our clients, particularly if they are travelling a distance.
- Help you make offers: Once we’ve found the right property for you, we’ll advise on how much you should offer based on the property and our understanding of the local market.
- Negotiate with the seller: We’ll negotiate on your behalf with the seller’s agent, or directly with the seller (if they’re not represented) and put your best interests forward as a suitable buyer for their property.
- Refer you to other professionals: We can refer you to other professionals that are necessary throughout the house sale, such as solicitors, mortgage advisers, and surveyors. There’s no obligation for you to work with them and we don’t receive any commission, but it does help if we have a good working relationship with them to help everything run smoothly.
How to find the right buyer’s agent
There are many ways to find a buyer’s agent. The most obvious is via the internet or asking friends and contacts for recommendations.
Many of our clients hear about us from word of mouth or by searching on the internet. Some use us regularly for different members of their family. Following a phone conversation with us you’ll get a feel as to whether or not you want to work with us. Purchasing a home is a very personal matter and you want to feel comfortable about working with us and establish a good rapport.
It’s important that your Buying Agent has good local knowledge of the area you want to move to and can dedicate the time and focus to your property search. To that end, we only work with a few clients at any one time which allows us to deliver a high level of responsiveness and personal service and ensures there is no conflict of interest.
What accreditations should a buyer’s agent have?
A reputable Buying Agent should be registered with The Property Ombudsman (TPO). This provides a free, fair and independent service for buyers in the unlikely event that you have a complaint or that can’t be resolved directly with your buying agent.
Finally, it’s important to understand that whilst we work very hard for clients to secure the right property, we are not magicians! If your perfect property doesn’t exist in your preferred location or budget, we will tell you. In some instances, it may mean you having to be a little more flexible with what you’re looking for or remaining patient and waiting for the right property to come available.
We do have an excellent success rate, and the reason we are selective over which we clients we work with is because we want to feel confident that we can secure you the right property.
If you’re interested in working with us to find the right property? We’d love to help you! Contact us today to find out more.
