Blog, Home Buyer Tips
The REALTOR’s role as a Buyer’s Agent
January 2, 2010 by Doug Francis · 11 Comments
Image by S Migol via Flickr
The role of a REALTOR changes depending on who the client is, buyer or seller. This list points out some of the typical jobs your “buyer agent” will perform during the process of buying a home. A typical real estate transaction will involve about twenty people, and a key roll of the agent will be to help manage that process.
The Buyer’s Agent checklist:
- Pursue the interests of the Buyer Client
- Agency Agreement, it’s like a basic job description
- Helps explain the process, sequence, contracts, mortgages, pre-approvals, closings
- Reviews Closing Costs on a HUD-1 Estimated Worksheet
- Explain Earnest Money Deposits, Escrow, and Default
- Listen and answer questions
- Shows client homes that client found on the internet or agent found doing research
- Generates comparable data for Buyer to understand current pricing
- Reviews and explains the Regional Sales Contract, Jurisdictional Addendum, Disclaimer Form, Contingencies Addendum, Additional Clause Addendum
- Completes, with Buyer, and presents any offer to Seller or Seller’s Agent
- Explains counter-offers, makes sure contract is ratified
- Helps schedule home inspections, radon tests, termite inspections etc.
- On new homes, schedule option selections
- Gets contract to mortgage lender and settlement company
- Gives Buyer insight into home owners insurance, locking mortgage rate
- Makes sure appraisal has been ordered within time frame
- Reviews Home Owner’s Association or Condo Documents and presents them to Buyer for review
- Contacts Title Company for updates, such as title or survey issues
- Contacts mortgage lender to make sure loan is in process, and provide any missing information
- Helps resolve Buyer or Seller issues that may delay closing or void the contract
- Schedules contractors to evaluate or any repair issues from inspections
- On new homes, contact builders rep for estimated closing date
- Schedule closing time, walk-through inspections, walk-through issues
- Review “rent-back” agreement if necessary
- Confirm with Title Company that Buyer’s loan documents and Seller documents are ready to be signed
- Ensure Buyer has Certified Funds for amount due at closing
- Be available at closing.
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Today's Real Estate sites all show you the listings, but home buyers and sellers need real, strategic advice more than ever. You can start right here! Northern Virginia areas like Vienna, Oakton and McLean have some excellent home buys right now. My blog has plenty of insight into today's market, some practical advice, ideas to get you moving, and also a way to search for homes. I live here, know the market, and look forward to talking with you about real estate. Also search for homes totally free, see "REsources" below. Cheers! 
Wow! I just left a long, detailed comment and didn’t quite type in the Captcha code right and it obliterated it.
Needless to say, this is a great list that provides just a general outline of all the things buyer’s agents do for their clients. Listening to their needs, wants and dreams and helping those come true with the most favorable terms for the buyer is a big part of it!
Ken Montville´s last blog ..“Normal” Real Estate
Fantastic checklist Doug! Both home buyers and realtors need this kind of information. Very useful, no doubt. Keep it going.
Jeff Green´s last blog ..Financial Questions and Answers
Excellent list!
For some reason this checklist is often a top Google pick on the subject of home buyer agent inquiries. And it is often linked to be other bloggers… maybe I need to analyze this one a bit?
Or is just excellent content?
Doug Francis´s last blog ..Home Inspection Reports Really Matter
This is all excellent, but people still do not often appreciate the role of a buyer’s agent, and do try to circumvent us. I had someone last year who wrote an offer on a place without me, after I spent about 50 hours with them. After the deal closed, there were no appliances in the home, which came as quite a shock… A hostile relationship developed between the buyers, sellers, and sellers’ agent, but there was likely no recourse, as appliances were not written into the offer… The wife called me crying, wanting my help, but there really was little I could do for them. For them, it was too late, but they did finally realise the value of a buyers’ agent.
These folks would not sign a buyer’s agency aggreement, and I should have heeded the red flag. I no longer will work with people who will not offer me the same level of commitment I offer to them… Very nice people, but the did not appreciate how much time and knowledge is involved in what we do. Being on the listing side has huge advantages.
An interesting thing is that people don’t want to be “sold”, and fear that all real estate agents are going to pull a fast one on them. Yes, we make our living selling homes, but the majority of agents are thinking long-term and, if they do a good job, their clients will naturally refer them to friends and family.
Again, I have found that this isn’t the case. Buying or selling a home isn’t surgery, right?
Right, it isn’t Doug. (am I talking to myself in the 3rd person?)
But there is such a thing as buying “the wrong house”. I see it all the time in new home subdivisions where the builder’s rep sold that last lot to some nice person who thought they were getting the deal of the century. Meanwhile their friends are like, man, did they get “sold” a crappy home.
Okay, enough of that rant… remember consumers, having a buyer’s agent who was referred to you by a friend or family member is the smart way to buy a house in Vienna Virginia or in Vancouver BC!
Doug Francis´s last blog ..Trimming your neighbor’s tree