How an Agent can Help you Buy | Real Living Real Estate
 
 
 

How Real Living Agents Help Buyers

When it comes to buying a home, tapping the expertise, focus and energy of a Real Living Sales Professional will make the process much easier.

Your Professional Real Living Buyer Agent can be a partner, your industry insider and your guide through the transaction. When you select a Real Living Buyer's Agent, you get someone who will help you find the right home and work with you to get it at the best possible price.

Your Buyer’s Agent will research the market and find as many suitable homes as possible. (And if there are other homes that are not on your Sales Professional’s list, be sure to point them out for discussion.)

He or she can search through active listings, expired listings and even foreclosures to make sure you see the broadest section of the market.

After that, you and your Real Living Sales Professional can narrow the number of choices based on your preferences and price range. Not only that, but your Sales Professional also will find comparable prices on the type of home you’re looking for so you can get a feel for your negotiating range.

When you’ve selected some target homes, your Sales Professional will arrange tours and join you as you visit the best homes on your list.

When you find one you like, your Sales Professional will become your best consultant on price and terms and even do the negotiating for you. Once the contract has been agreed, your Sales Professional will help arrange for home inspections and recommend lenders, if need be, and start working on all the background paperwork that it takes to get you to the closing table.

This is what your Real Living Buyer Agent lives for – to get you into the right house on your best possible terms.

Single Agent, Dual Agent or Both?

Your Real Living Sales Professional is limited by state law and company policy in how he or she can represent you.

If he or she represents you exclusively, she is called a single agent.

Single agents must:

  • Be loyal and act in your best interests.
  • Obey your lawful instructions.
  • Protect your confidences.
  • Exercise reasonable skill and diligence when answering your questions.
  • Be accountable for handling funds and paperwork.
  • Present all offers in a timely fashion; and,
  • Execute other duties as outlined in your listing agreement or buyer's agency contract.

Most states allow real estate professionals to serve both sides of the transaction simultaneously, but only one side as a fiduciary. In that case, the agent is called a transaction facilitator and this is often called dual agency.

Transaction facilitators must:

  • Treat all parties to the transaction fairly.
  • Disclose any material defects in the property.
  • Facilitate the sale of the property following contract acceptance; and,
  • Disclose the party, whether seller or buyer, in whose interest she/he is working. This disclosure is usually made in writing via an "Agency Disclosure Form" and/or broker document.

Ask your Real Living Sales Professional about agency relationships, and he or she can explain how the laws work in your state.