In the past, property buying agents have often been seen as the preserve of the extremely wealthy, celebrities and the like. However, they are actually a perfectly viable option for a wide array of property hunters. As well as improving your awareness of off-market properties and providing you with in-depth information about the local area, a property buying agent can save you money in a variety of ways. Here are some of the key advantages.
How A Property Buying Agent Can Save You Money
Property Viewings
It might not seem obvious at first but viewing various different properties in person can prove to be an expensive endeavour. This is particularly true for anyone looking to move a great distance or even back to the UK from overseas.
Think about all the costs associated with viewing a house. Depending on your availability you may need to take time off work, eating into your limited annual leave. You then have to travel to the property, costing fuel. If you’re based overseas, this might mean buying airplane tickets for yourself and any family. Once you’ve arrived in the UK you’ll then have to either hire a car or rely on public transport, not a particularly cheap option these days.
Costs can be reduced by booking multiple viewings in one general area for the same day but there is no guarantee that an estate agent or homeowner will be able to accommodate your specific timings.
Unfortunately, having spent all this money travelling to a property, it still might not be what you’re looking for. The marketing materials produced by estate agents often give a rather rose-tinted view of a property, and so it is easy to fall in love with a building that doesn’t live up to those expectations in reality. Whilst we believe that no property viewing is time wasted as it can help you further refine your thinking about what you are looking for, we do understand that you’d like to minimise any unnecessary costs.
A property buying agent can save you money by charging a set fee for a property viewing. They will visit the house on your behalf, take true-to-life photos and upon request, video. Following the viewing, they will write a detailed written report of their observations and feed it back to you, either verbally or over email. This option removes the need for you to take time out of your busy life to travel across the country until you’ve narrowed down your options much further.
Negotiation
Going into any negotiation, it helps to have expert industry knowledge and extensive experience on your side. Naturally, you’ll want to try and secure the best price possible on the house you wish to buy, but securing that lower price is not always easy. A property buying agent is the best placed person to conduct the negotiation. Just as the estate agent represents the seller, a property buying agent will represent you.
At Buying Agent Partnership, our entire fee system is designed in such a way that it actively incentives our property buying agents to secure you the best deal possible. We will either charge you 1.5% of the purchase price or 15% of any negotiated saving. The larger the discount we are able to secure for you, the more we benefit. For comparison, many London based property finders will charge between 2 and 3%.
If you would like to learn more about how a property buying agent can save you money across the entire process, get in touch today or phone us on 0330 223 6339.
