How to be sure of getting a complete list
of the houses that meet
your needs
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Duncan
Pollock Broker of Record Duncan Pollock Real Estate Broker, Brokerage 427 Gate Street Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada L0S 1J0 Tel: (905) 468-3154 Cellular: (905) 704-9037 Fax: (905) 468-3812 e-mail: duncanpollock@sympatico.ca 
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Important: Please note that I changed my e-mail address with effect from November 3 2007.
(If you tried sending any message to the old address (dsp.pru@sympatico.ca) from October 29th that year onwards, it will NOT have reached me and, if you don't mind, needs to be resent to duncanpollock@sympatico.ca )
Getting at the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Just as you probably wouldn't think of using a seller's lawyer to look after you in order to get a deal to close successfully, it doesn't altogether make sense to depend on a seller's agent for information ahead of it all.
For instance, if
you're being shown a property, the listing agent's objective is to have
you make an offer on it. If you insist, you'll
be told what other homes are available, but this information
isn't going to be readily volunteered. Nor, unless
you make a decided issue of it (or even then), are you going
to learn whether the asking price is more than it really ought to
be. And, of course, there's nothing wrong with all this.
It's simply in keeping with the principle of a listing agent looking
after the seller's best interests.
On the other hand,
a Buyer Agent has an obligation to tell you what other homes
you could take a look at and to let you know how realistic
their listing prices are. In fact, this information must be given to
you if your best interests are to be properly taken care of.
Thus, you're entitled to have a thoroughgoing list of properties that
fit in with your needs and wishes and to be advised of their true value.
And perhaps best of all, using a Buyer Agent gives you access to a one-stop
and time-saving source of information: details of every house that
catches your fancy without the need to call all the
listing agents separately.
This doesn't mean, of course, that your Buyer Agent will stand in the way of your buying a house that appeals to you. It will, though, ensure that you're aware of all the choices and how they compare with each other. Not the least, it will give you the confidence of making an offer based on an objective and dependable opinion of a property's value, which is unquestionably better than running the risk of paying more than you really should!
Increasing the odds in your favour
Relatively new though
the Buyer Agency idea may be as far as the residential
market is concerned, it has for some long time been
the rule rather than the exception in the commercial real
estate field. Business people see the sense of having someone on their
side, and you have every right to take the same approach.
Thus, even if you've
seen a house with its listing agent or at an Open
House,
there's absolutely no
reason why you shouldn't use a Buyer Agent to prepare
and present an offer for you. The access that this will
give you to additional -- and especially pertinent -- information
will reduce the risk of paying more for a house than you
need to do. The listing agent may not be wildly excited at the prospect,
but the only
person you ought to be worrying about is yourself.
Using a Buyer Agent
can also help you if a property is
offered for sale privately. All too often, the asking
price is higher than it ought to be and the seller is certainly
not bound to advise you of any defects you could miss. Even
so, few people will refuse to look at an offer and will
only occasionally object to paying a commission. When
they do, it's usually possible to reduce the offered price
accordingly and to pay a fee separately (and directly) to
the agent.
The essential point,
though, is that a Buyer Agent has the job of helping
you make the best possible purchase. You aren't
confined to a handful of listings you run across by happenstance.
Rather, you can get hold of an optimum picture of the marketplace
and avoid the mistakes that can ensue because of a lack of
sufficient information.
Establishing a client relationship
In essence, then, a client relationship comes into being when you engage the services of a Buyer Agent -- which is something you've no hope of happening if you put yourself in the hands of listing agents and/or salespeople serving the seller. It isn't that they won't be honest with you. It's just that they aren't going to be honest enough -- and are, strictly speaking, prevented from volunteering information that doesn't serve their seller client's best interests.
A fine point though this may be, it can perhaps be seen as the most compelling one in the argument for using the services of a Buyer Agent!
Note added September 2008: During what is now six years of working solely for buyers, I've increasingly realized how the Buyer Agency concept calls for a very different approach to the marketplace. Some of my thoughts in this regard were the topic of my April 2006 newsletter. If you wish, you can reach the text of it here.
Back to the beginning
Getting the most house for your money
The Buyer Agency Agreement
Who am I?
Additional information
Finding a home anywhere,
arranging a mortgage, the ins and outs of home inspection,
legal considerations and closing costs, regional and municipal
facts and figures, commercial real estate, etc.
Of this, that, and the
other ...
A collection of websites I've
run across at various times. Most are real
estate related. A few are not.
However, they all contain information
you may find interesting and helpful.
| You can add yourself to my mailing
list if you wish. I send a newsletter out each month that deals with a variety of issues related to the process of buying property. There's nothing hard sell involved, I can assure you. Rather, the idea is to share my thoughts with you about how I believe buyers can be better served by the real estate industry. And to get a sense of the contents, you can take a look at some of my previous mailings by clicking here. |
Note:
If you have an interest in buying or leasing
industrial, commercial, or investment property, you may
find it useful to browse an alternative website that I was
recently encouraged to create. It explains my role
in offering exclusive buyer representation for purchasers and
lessees of ICI properties and deals with a number of factors
that call for attention when you're involved with the non-residential
real estate market.It also provides links to several databases of currently available broker and private listings of industrial, commercial, and investment properties. Together, they cover an extensive range of property types and locations throughout North America and in different countries around the world.
You'll find the site at http://www.iciniagara.com and you can use its pages to directly e-mail me for complete details and/or to arrange a viewing of any listing that appeals to you.
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Internet Directory of Real Estate Professionals
SearchSight Directory / Allthelink Directory / Business Plexus Directory
Canada Real Estate Directory / Universal Real Estate Directory
City Wide Pages St. Catharines / Proudly Canadian Business Directory
Premier Directory / SeekOn/Niagara-on-the-Lake
As a complete change from all you've seen/read so far, you can, if you wish, take a look at My In Tray.
- A number of the photos used in this website are the copyright (and used with the permission) of WebGraphicsZone.com and iStockPhoto.com.
- The copyright to this web site as a whole is claimed and retained by me as its author, but permission is hereby granted for you to print out and/or distribute the site in its entirety or in part(s), provided that due acknowledgement of my authorship is included.
- The opinions expressed in this web site are primarily mine and, to a large degree, reflect conditions in the Niagara Peninsula -- at least as I see them -- rather than elsewhere. They do not, however, necessarily agree with the views held by some of my colleagues in the real estate industry.