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Q. O.K., I believe you have the best service for me, but how do you get paid?
A. There are a number of ways buyer's agents can be paid, in general
the best way is to have us paid right out of the seller's proceeds
just like a traditional real estate agent. This way you can have
the services of a buyer's agent and not pay any more than if you
had used a traditional agent. (Often you would pay much less
because we are negotiating for you.) There are other ways we can
be paid including hourly and flat fee, the final choice is really
something to discuss with me during our first meeting.
Q. Your
service sounds great but I was talking to a lender and he said you
guys are hard to work with and he would never use you. What did he
mean?
A. Lenders expect real estate
agents to give a buyer very little guidance on rate shopping and
lender choice. Our office actively compares mortgages and junk
fees. Our office also has tremendous leverage with lenders since
we are the largest buying specialist in the world.
You still choose the lender.
But once I gather the information from several lenders and explain
the various service levels, rates, and junk fees, you may find you
will want to use some other firm. Or, we can go back to the lender
you know and pressure him to shave hundreds of dollars off his
rates and fees. That is why few local lenders like us, we are on
your side and they don't like the pressure.
Q. What areas
do you service?
A. All of Shelby County, Tipton County and
Fayette County. This would include Germantown, Collierville,
Cordova, Bartlett, Memphis, Millington, Rosemark, Atoka, Munford,
Brighton, Drummond, Covington, Oakland, Galloway, and Somerville.
If you are interested in other areas give me a call and I can usually direct you to the
best buyer's agents in any given area.
Q. What is
the next step?
A. Call me to arrange for a
no obligation meeting to discuss your needs and how we can help
you achieve your home purchase goals. Call (901) 753.4488, if no
one is at the office when you call, leave a message for me with
times that would be convenient for you to meet. My voice mail
system pages me so I can respond to you fairly quickly, even after
hours.
Q. What do
other agents think about you?
A. When we started eleven
years ago most agents were completely confused by the idea. Then,
most agents became afraid of the idea because it had always been
easy to manipulate the buyer. In 1996 when real estate agents
became legally obligated to tell buyers they were really working
for the seller, many agents took classes to try to figure out how
they could compete with us.
Over the last several years
most of the top listing agents in our area have done business with
our buyers and they have found out I am very easy to work with
once the price negotiation is done. (Unless the inspections find
problems with the house.) As a result, most of the top traditional
agents like to work with me because we have the best qualified
buyers in the market and we don't compete with their lucrative
listing business.
These days the only agents
who still have negative feelings toward buyer's agents are either
old time realtors who still don't understand Agency or companies
who are afraid we will expose some kick-back arrangement they have
(since our office doesn't take kick-backs).
Q. I am going
to sell my home. Do you work with sellers?
A. We offer no listing
services to sellers. However we do have buyers looking for homes.
If you are selling a home it is very smart to send our office a
description of the home you have to sell. If we have any buyers in
the market for that type of home we will call you for a showing
appointment. You have no obligation. You sign no listing contract.
We bring a well informed, well qualified buyer through your home.
I can also refer you to a good listing Agent for your area. It's
important to know approximately 8 out of 10 homes sold are listed.
Now, if the buyer is
interested in your home we will write a purchase offer for the
buyer and present it. That offer may include you paying some
closing costs for the buyer and it may not be at your asking
price. (Since we work for the buyer we are working to get the home
at or below market value.) However, if you don't like the offer
you can always counter us at terms that are acceptable to you.
The net result is that we do
a lot of business with for-sale-by-owner home sellers and they
normally end up saving thousands in commissions and a lot of
frustration.
Sound good? Want more information? Contact me via allentba@aol.com or give me a call (901) 753.4488
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