Representation: should you have it?
Go with your gut, or get some advice?
One of the huge differences between home buying here and in the US is buyer representation (and being open 7 days/week, but that’s another story!). This means that in the US the buyer has the option to have a Realtor as their business representative, typically paid at closing by the seller.
While this adds to the cost of the sale, it has a number of advantages:
In a complicated or very active market, it’s good to have an expert. In most US states attorneys are not involved in a typical house transaction. The Realtor is licensed and regulated to take the transaction to ‘the closing table’.
The buyer’s agent has no loyalty to a particular seller - they can typically propose any house that’s for sale to the buyer. In the UK, agents for Acme Properties can only propose homes listed with Acme Properties - in the US a Realtor can look around and recommend any house that’s for sale to the buyer.
The buyer can therefore have a single point of access to the market and does not have to create a relationship for every house they see.
The second plus is that the buyer - if they’ve picked the right Realtor - can feel confident they’re getting the best set of potential homes on the market, not just Acme Properties’ ones.
There is an increasing number of buyers’ agents -at least around London - now. They can be associated with a large estate agency, or lone wolves paid entirely on commission. The buyer pays for their service, and their pitch is that they can save enough money by good negotiation to cover their fee. I haven’t tested their premise, although anecdotally it seems to have worked out. Lots more to say on that subject, but that’ll do for now!
