Buying a home can be stressful and complex. With so many steps in the process, including finding the right house, getting funding, making an offer to close escrow, and everything in between, it can be challenging to navigate the whole thing.
Because there’s so much a buyer has to do, it’s easy for them to get overwhelmed. That’s where you, as an agent, come in.
What is a Real Estate Agent?
By being an agent, you understand that you have a critical role in real estate transactions. Being able to represent your client’s interests includes educating them about what you do as a real estate agent.
First, you provide professional advice acting as intermediaries between buyers and sellers of real estate.
Second, you also understand that you are invaluable as a resource for buyers because you can help them navigate the complex world of real estate transactions.
Third, your role includes in addition to providing advice on properties and neighborhoods and helping buyers with home inspections and negotiations with sellers.
You may also provide information on local laws and regulations that may affect a buyer’s decision-making process.
Finally, as a real estate agent, you serve as trusted advisors for buyers throughout the home-buying process.
As a real estate agent, you can significantly simplify the home-buying process for buyers by guiding them through each step with your expertise, insight, and professionalism.
There are vital tasks that you perform as a real estate agent.
From helping buyers research homes on the market and assisting them in making offers, negotiating contracts, understanding loan requirements, allowing them to arrange to finance, and staying abreast of local market trends, there’s a lot of information and expertise that you provide to a buyer that they simply could not do without.
An important role that you, as a real estate agent, play in a buyer's home journey is that with your knowledge, insights, and expertise, you can help buyers save time and money throughout the entire buying process.
You can help buyers locate properties worth looking at, ensure their offers are competitive and provide insight into property values that may only be visible to experts, helping them avoid costly mistakes.
You’re also better equipped to help buyers navigate the complex paperwork associated with buying a home and ensure that all of their legal documents are in order.
Overall, the role of an agent in the buyer’s journey is to be a trusted advisor that helps clients navigate the buying journey in a way that eases the buyer’s sense of overwhelm.
Some of the things you (as an agent) provide a buyer include:
- Explain the process of buying a home
- Offer advice on neighborhoods and identify potential properties
- Show properties that meet buyers’ criteria
- Negotiate a purchase price, submit offers, and assist with financing – Guide buyers through the closing process and ensure all documents are in order
- Explain local market trends and answer questions about the home-buying process
Real estate agents take all of these tasks seriously, meaning they must understand the local market and negotiate skillfully on their client's behalf. In addition, they should strive to provide a top-notch customer service experience.
An excellent real estate agent will perform research to understand current trends so they can provide helpful advice when making important decisions like understanding contracts and other legal documents to complete a transaction.
And once an offer is accepted, real estate agents handle all of the administrative paperwork for both parties involved and facilitate closing meetings, inspections, and appraisals.
By providing these services, ultimately, how much you earn will depend on how successfully you help your clients when performing these tasks.
Buyers vs. Sellers Agents, What's The Difference?
There is a significant difference in the roles of buyers' and sellers’ (listing) agents in any real estate transaction.
In simple terms, a buyer’s agent must act and represent the buyer’s interests in any transaction and is legally obligated to do so without bias.
Practically speaking, this means that a buyer’s agent will seek out homes that meet their client’s specifications, negotiate for the best possible deal on behalf of the buyer, handle relevant paperwork, and provide helpful guidance throughout the entire process.
On the other hand, sellers’ agents are employed by home sellers to represent their interests.
Their role is to advertise properties for sale, assist with pricing strategy (based upon market conditions), manage inspections and appraisals, facilitate progress toward closing, complete relevant paperwork, and answer questions on behalf of home sellers.
While some agents represent a seller and a buyer in the same transaction, in general, it’s not wise to work as both the seller’s agent, who represents the seller’s interests, and the buyer’s agent, who represents your interests, when purchasing a new home.
The main problem is that you could have conflicts of interest that might be outside your best long-term interest.
Since you have a fiduciary obligation to represent the best interest of your clients, having two different interests competing with each other such as a buyer’s interest versus the seller’s interest, can lead to difficulties in best representing your clients.
It’s possible to represent both, but it requires a really delicate balancing act for you as an agent and requires that you have approval from both the seller and the buyer.
What Does A Buyers Agent Do For Home Buyers
Finding the perfect home is a fascinating process, but it can also be daunting. Many people don’t know where to begin or who to turn to for help making the most of their purchases. Working with a real estate agent is a great way to get started on your home-buying journey.
As a real estate agent, you offer invaluable expertise that many buyers can only access with guidance.
Your knowledge about particular neighborhoods and buildings, as well as general market trends, gives buyers the best possible chance at finding the right home for their needs and budget.
Additionally, you often have access to listings before they become available online, giving prospective buyers a better opportunity to beat other potential purchasers to the punch.
And by staying up-to-date on changes in regulations, negotiating on behalf of their clients, and providing relocation assistance and legal counsel should any issues arise during the purchasing process.
Overall, your buyers are better off having a real estate agent by their side through the entire home-buying process than without one, which is essential for starting the process on the right foot.
As an agent, you provide three crucial things for your clients.
First is finding the right home based on your market knowledge and client’s needs.
Next, negotiate a contract that will be in your buyer’s best interest and fair to the seller.
Finally, be able to explain and guide your clients with paperwork and meet deadlines.
- Find the right home to meet the buyer’s needs
Finding a home can be an exhausting process. So when you’re working with a client, remember that the most important thing you can bring as an expert is patience. For you, this may be your first, third, or hundredth client, but for your buyer, this may be their first time shopping.
By providing your expertise, you’ll save them a lot of time, energy, and headaches if you start by asking all the necessary questions to understand better what they are looking for in a property.
From the location, neighborhood, and school district preferences to the number of rooms and size of property they desire, you will be able to tailor your advice to their specific individual needs, which will significantly simplify their search.
Once you find some homes that match the buyer’s needs and interests, the actual showing of homes is just one small part of the job.
As an agent, you’ll work tirelessly to find the perfect property by continuously scanning through listings on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and focusing on locating potential homes more efficiently. The vast database of available homes, both on the market and not on the MLS yet, will save your client time and energy during this demanding process.
By offering top-notch service to your clients, including your expertise and knowledge, you’ll make the home-buying process smoother and much less stressful for buyers.
- Negotiate offers
One of the most essential services you provide for your clients is the ability to use your expertise and market knowledge to negotiate a contract that is in your client's best interest and has a good chance of being accepted.
For buyers, negotiating an offer on a home can be tricky, and the stakes are high.
As an agent, you must choose the right purchase price to ensure you get the best deal without offending the seller or paying too much. Finding and determining the sweet spot in the transaction is part skill and part art– but is part of what you, as an agent, offer your clients. The sweet spot is the amount in an offer, terms, and request for repairs and other conditions that won’t be so demanding or low that it will be rejected or cost more than is necessary.
By understanding pricing trends and current market conditions, you can better estimate how much other buyers may offer so that your client's offers are the most attractive.
- Make sure all paperwork is completed on time
In real estate transactions, it can be a lengthy process that requires an array of paperwork that must be completed in a timely manner. As an experienced real estate agent, one of your primary tasks is helping educate your clients about what paperwork needs to be filed and when. Then, you will guide them through all the paperwork, from documents to contracts, ensuring that everything is filed correctly and securely.
You can also help “translate” the industry and legal jargon that may be foreign to your clients, explaining what each document means so they can make the best decisions when buying their new home.
Another crucial aspect of your role in the home-buying process is to help explain counter-offers, terms, and conditions and provide helpful advice if there are any problems or delays during the closing process.
Being a buyer’s agent is hugely beneficial for your clients to achieve a successful transaction. Bringing a level of expertise and knowledge of the market, researching neighborhoods or towns of interest, scheduling viewings for potential homes, negotiating prices, and offering professional advice throughout the entire process are just some of the more valuable features you provide.
And your expertise and knowledge will help your buyers if there are any potential problems related to buying a property, such as title issues or hidden repairs needs, by investigating further with inspections and other due diligence efforts before the closing day comes around.
As a buyer's agent, you provide comfort, negotiation power, knowledge of the market, and experience during this vital purchase process which can take time and be stressful at times.
To recap, as a real estate agent, you act as a trusted advisor and a market expert. You provide your clients with a variety of different benefits, including;
- A deep understanding of the local market.
- Provide valuable insight into the home buying process and can help you negotiate a comfortable price
- Suggestions of other properties that better fit your client’s needs and budget
- Familiar with concessions such as closing costs, etc., that may be available to help you save money on your purchase
- Recommendations for lenders, home inspectors, and other professionals involved in the process
- Advise when viewing homes to alert the client about potential problems or issues that may arise
As an agent, you provide an invaluable resource that iBuyers and apps can’t. You personalize the process for your clients and help them navigate every stage of their home-buying journey, making it seamless and easier and helping avoid potentially damaging legal liability in the transaction.
For real estate agents, representing a buyer is rewarding both in potential earnings and also being able to help people achieve their dreams of homeownership.
