Highlands County Talk

What? Buyer Agents work for FREE?

This question comes up quite often when working with buyers, especially if they are from out of town or from out of state. Now before we go any further, let me say this:

Every state has their own rules and regulations regarding buyer agents and listing agents.
Every region within every state might have its own customs regarding many things pertaining real estate.

This is how it works in Highlands County, Florida:

Generally, buyers do not pay their buyer agent! The buyer agent gets a percentage of the commission the listing agent earns from the seller.

Let's say you are from up north and are looking to buy a retirement home in Highlands County Florida. You call us up and we discuss your wants and needs. After we have identified several properties that are of interest to you, we go out and take a look at them. As I have said in an earlier post, we are not limited to our own listings or office listings. We will show you any home for sale through any agent and any office. Now, once we have found your dream home and have written up an offer that was accepted by the seller, we move towards the closing table. You will not have to pay us a dime! Our services are completely FREE to you, the buyer!
The listing agent offers a split of their commission to acooperating broker once they enter their listing into the MLS. This is how the buyer agent gets paid. It will show up on the top portion of page 1 on the final closing statement and it will be paid out of the seller's proceeds.

Now it makes even more sense to call us to help you find that dreamhome in Highlands County - it doesn't cost you dime to work with a pro!

We are often puzzled by how little the general public appears to know about how the  real estate business works. Many buyers seems to believe that any particular agent will only show them his or her own listings or at best; all office listings. It also appears that many sellers believe that their listing agent should be the one to sell their home, not a cooperating agent.

We do not know how other agents work but here's what we do:

Example: A younger couple calls us to help them find a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 car garage home for under $150,000 in Sun'n'Lake of Sebring. Yes, our own listings come to mind first. That's because we know them better than any other listing within our office and within our MLS. If we do have a listing that matches the buyer's criteria and we believe could be of interest, it goes on the mental list. Next are our office listings. We know these listings from caravans and from talking to the agents in our office. Again, if there are office listings that matches buyer criteria, the go on the mental list as well. Thirdly, we check the entire MLS. Our search reveals 30 listings that match the buyer's initial criteria. We invite the buyer's to meet us at our office so we can go over some more details and try to narrow down the search a bit more. After we have weeded out homes that are not of interest to the buyer, we grab our list of finalists and start making phone calls to arrange for showing appointments. If  our own listings or office listings are among the finalists, that's great. If not, then it doesn't make a difference either. Why? Because it doesn't matter to the buyer whether their next home was listed by ERA or Remax or ABC Realty. Therefore, it doesn't matter to us! Yep, it's that simple!

A few months ago we worked with a young couple that made an offer on one of our listings. Because it was a short sale and because their living arrangements were really just temporary, they decided to abandon their offer and find a "regular" home for sale that could close faster. Honestly, we felt early on that those buyers weren't likely to wait through the short sale process and we knew they needed a quicker solution. They were surprised when we didn't mind showing them other homes. They were surprised that we showed them all the homes their previous agent for whatever reason refused to show them.

Just yesterday, we received a call from a buyer who had an offer in with another agent on one of our short sales. Because they couldn't match the bank's counter offer, they decided to let it go and find another home. Because we are in the business of selling homes, we gave the buyer's agent a list of similar homes we had listed within the same neigbhorhood. The buyer didn't know about any of these listings until they called us up yesterday. We will show them ANY listing that meets their criteria and it won't matter to us which sign is in the front yard. It's not about us, it's about the client. Always!

Most of our closings are mail-outs and we hardly get to see the closing table. Yesterday, I had the honor of taking some very dear clients to the closing table and hand them the key to their new home. Priceless!

It had been a very eventful transaction from the time we first met with Paul & Judi. They made an offer on one of our listings, a short sale in a very active and well kept adult community in the heart of Sebring. They loved the home and they were very familiar with the neighbors. In fact, the neighbor across the street from our listing called Judi on the phone the second my husband Darrin put our sign in the frontyard. Goes to show that sign in the front yard IS important!

Paul and Judi were in the process of selling their previous home and the offer we wrote was not only contingent upon financing but also on the sale of their home. We submitted to the lender an addendum of removal of "sale of home contingency" after their home sold. Soon thereafter, our clients grew impatient with the short sale process. They had moved in with Paul's lovely Mom and not knowing whether or not the sale would be approved and how long it would take made them antsy.

We started looking at other homes, priced within their range and without the short sale waiting time. Why do they call it s-h-o-r-t sale anyway? This is a rhetoric question! After we had looked at a number of homes, Paul and Judi zeroed in on a lovely 2 bedroom home in a nice neighborhood. The privacy fenced yard was perfect for their two little dogs and what do you know...the screened lanai had a doggy door, perfectly sized for the bubbly pooches. We wrote an offer after getting a release from contract on the previous home.

The initial offer was countered by the sellers and after some soul searching, our clients accepted the seller's counter offer. Paul and Judi were happy and so were we! The home appraised for purchase price, homeinspection only revealed some minor issues, no termites found - ready to close!

We're happy to see our clients move into their new home. We're happy to see them excited and we're happy we were able to help them along the way. We will miss them and we hope Judi will continue emailing with us. Btw, if you are in Highlands County and looking to get beautified, stop by Judi's Place of Hair and Nails, 271 US 27 N (inbetween Highlands Today and the Chamber of Commerce). Call ahead for an appointment: 863-382-9911