Do You Still Need a Buyer's Agent When You Can Find the House Yourself?
Years ago, one of the obvious reasons to work with a real estate agent was access to information.
The agent had the MLS book. Then the agent had the MLS computer. If you wanted to know what was for sale, you needed someone with access to the listings.
That's not the world we live in anymore.
You can sit on your couch tonight and find houses for sale. You can look at photos, maps, price changes, property history and estimated values. Set up an alert and your phone will probably tell you about a new listing before you've finished your coffee.
So if you can find the house yourself, what exactly is a buyer's agent supposed to do?
I think that's a fair question.
Finding the House Isn't the Hard Part Anymore
I'm not going to pretend that my greatest value to a buyer is knowing how to operate a property search.
You can do that.
There are some things I can do with an MLS search that aren't as readily available on the public sites. I can get more specific about certain property characteristics, for example, and we can use drive-time searches when commute time matters.
Those tools are useful.
But if you send me a Zillow link to a house you found yourself, I don't feel like you've taken my job away.
You found a house. Great. Now we can start doing the harder part.
A House Can Look Pretty Good on a Screen
Online listings are advertisements.
That doesn't mean they're dishonest. It means the purpose of the photos and description is to present the property favorably.
A wide-angle lens can do impressive things to a small room. A carefully chosen camera position can leave quite a bit outside the frame. A professional photographer - which I recommend for listing photos, BTW - can do amazing things for a home. And there are things you simply aren't going to learn from 38 listing photos.
That's where another set of eyes can be useful.
When we walk through a house, I'm looking at more than whether the kitchen is attractive. I'm looking at the condition of the property, things that may deserve more investigation, how the house compares with others we've seen, and whether what we're seeing lines up with what you're trying to accomplish.
I'm not a home inspector, engineer or electrician, and I won't pretend to be one. If something needs professional evaluation, that's the next step.
But I've looked at a lot of houses.
That experience should be worth more to you than my ability to unlock the front door.
I Don't Need to Love the House
There's another advantage to having someone involved who isn't going to live there.
I don't need to love the house.
More importantly, I don't need **you** to love it.
If you decide a house isn't right for you, we leave and look at another one. I don't get stuck with the mortgage.
That gives me the luxury of being relatively disinterested about the outcome of any particular showing.
If I see something I like, I'll tell you.
If I see something that concerns me, I'll tell you that too.
And if you're trying to talk yourself into a house that doesn't seem to fit the things you've told me matter to you, I may ask you about it.
The decision is still yours. My job isn't to make it for you.
The Work Gets More Complicated Once You Want the House
Finding a listing and deciding you'd like to own it are very different stages of the process.
Now we need to think about price and terms.
I generally want to talk with the listing agent before writing an offer. Sometimes I can learn something useful about what matters to the seller. Sometimes I can't. Some listing agents are more communicative than others.
We need to think about deadlines, financing, earnest money, inspection, title, HOA documents if applicable, appraisal, insurance and the other pieces that have to come together between an accepted offer and closing.
If an inspection identifies a significant problem, you have decisions to make.
If the appraisal creates an issue, you have decisions to make.
If something unexpected shows up in the title work, you need to understand what it means and, when appropriate, get the right professional involved.
The value of an agent should become more apparent as the transaction gets more complicated, not less.
You Also Need Someone Keeping Track of the Process
Colorado real estate contracts contain deadlines.
Lots of them.
Those dates aren't decorative.
Part of my job is keeping the transaction organized so you know what's coming, what information you need and when a decision has to be made.
That doesn't mean I make those decisions for you.
It's your transaction.
I can explain the real estate process, discuss options within my professional role, coordinate with the other people involved and make recommendations. When something requires legal, tax, engineering, lending or other specialized advice, I'll tell you that rather than pretending my real estate license made me an expert in everything remotely connected to a house.
You make the decisions that belong to you.
So Do You Still Need a Buyer's Agent?
Not because you need someone to find listings for you.
That part of the business changed a long time ago.
A buyer's agent should bring something else to the transaction: experience looking at properties, knowledge of the process, context, organization, negotiation, professional relationships and another person to think through decisions with you.
If all an agent brings to the table is a list of houses you could have found yourself, I think the question is legitimate.
You should expect more than that.