NEVER Fall For These Real Estate Tactics When Buying a Home

Beware of those pushy real estate agents. Realtors get a bad rap a lot and in this video I want to share with you some red flags that you need to look out for when you're working with a real estate agent if you're buying a home. Now as of August 17th the new rules went into effect with the National Association of Realtors where home buyers are now required to have a signed agreement with a buyer agent. So I wanted to make this video to share with you some tactics you need to be aware of to look out for to protect yourself and to make sure that you are going to be working with an agent that's going to advocate for you and not just sell you a house. So let's get started. Like I said realtors are viewed as useless, greedy, sleazy and some other choice words and quite frankly a lot of viewers have commented on my channel reminding me every day or just you know like how bad realtors are. Look we're not all that bad. There are some that have just made this industry like look really bad. Like we're ranked among there with used car salesmen. But there are those of us, I'm sorry like myself, we are true advocates for our clients. We're in this business to help people. But here are some tactics I wanted to share with you that some agents engaged in and I don't agree with it and I know I'm going to get a lot of crap about this from real estate agents about what I'm saying. I'm not saying you all do this. There are some that do and you know look I'm sorry somebody's got to call them out on it. All right the first tactic you want to be aware of is if the real estate agent is showing you a house that obviously needs a lot of work or it's not in the best location but they're trying to sell you that house and tell you that this is the best thing. The house has a ton of potential and you know you just need to buy this house because you want to start building equity. Like I've seen this. I've seen real estate agents do this and oh my god it drives me crazy. Don't do that. Realtors don't do that because if that person doesn't have the money to put into the renovations or say the value isn't really going to be there because the location is not in the best area. Don't be pushing that house on them and I've seen this and I'm sorry this is where realtors take that sales associate title like really to heart. Like they're selling the house. Like I understand you know yeah this is our job. This is how we make money. But if it's not a good house don't push that on people. Don't. If somebody's willing to buy a fixer upper and there's great potential and it can increase the value and they can make a lot of money down the road yeah I totally get that. But for a lot of first time buyers they don't have the money to shell out to put in major renovations or you know they don't really know like that location of the house may not be the best and it's going to hurt them in the long run when they go to sell the house and yet realtors will still push to say no I would jump on this. This is going to be a great investment. Yeah that's a problem. That's a problem. If they're not listening to your concerns and they're going to try and convince you you should buy this house anyway no run away. Nope. Wouldn't do it. Don't work with them. Another tactic is when an agent is sending you listings of homes that are way above your price point. Back in the day pre-pandemic like this was something we did because if a house was sitting on the market for a while and it was slightly above what your client was looking to spend we would send that listing thinking like okay maybe on this house we could negotiate that price down because it's been sitting on the market for a while because what's the number one reason why a home is sitting on the market? It's overpriced. So we used to do that pre-pandemic. Nowadays if somebody is sending you listings that's way above what you're willing to spend or they know how much you're pre-approved for because let's face it your pre-approvals are going to usually be more than what you're willing to spend. That's a problem because to me that agent is only about themselves. It's about their commission. That's what they're thinking about. They're not thinking about you the consumer that you can't really afford that or you're not willing to spend that even though you may be pre-approved for say $800,000 but you don't want to spend more than $600,000 they're not listening to you. So if you go back and tell them like hey you're sending me homes in this price point and I can't afford that and that's not the price point I want and yet they keep sending you that that's a problem. They're all about themselves. Sorry this is the truth. They're all about themselves and they're looking to make more money. I would not be working with them. Now here's another thing. This is a term that has been thrown around the last I would say almost two years. Marry the house and date the rate. Okay now when this first came out this is came out because the end of 2022 when interest rates started increasing and people are in a panic mode like oh my god rates are over six percent. They're hitting seven percent. They're at one point they were almost at eight percent and I'm sorry I feel like real estate agents were using that term a lot to persuade people to buy the house saying it's okay you're going to marry the house right for hopefully a lifetime and you're going to date the rate meaning that when the rates come back down you can refinance and lower your monthly payment. Now that is true. Yes that can happen. You can do that but I think that term's been thrown around a lot to persuade people to convince them to say you know what you can do that. You can just refinance in a few years and it'd be no problem but here's the problem with this and this term has caused a lot of controversy. There's no guarantee that interest rate is going to drop and drop to a point where it's going to be worth it for a person to refinance because I will tell you if you're going to refinance your loan it's going to cost you several thousand dollars. There's going to be fees and closing costs. You're going to be paying closing costs all over again. When an agent is telling you you know what you could just refinance it it's fine get in now. Okay that's great but here's the thing Realtors my fellow Realtors that's not our real house. If a buyer is thinking along those lines like you know what maybe I you know we can do that I can refinance defer them to the lender and have them run the numbers to see what realistically that is going to cost them and if it would be worth how much should that rate decrease in order for it to be worth it for that person to refinance that loan. The one thing I will say to all my Realtor friends stay in your lane when it comes to the mortgage stuff. That's not our wheelhouse. If your buyer is considering that okay I could refinance later defer them to the lender have them talk to the lender to figure out what that is going to look like but do not be using that line. I would just marry the house and date the rate you can you know but I would buy the house I would buy the house. No do not do not be using that tactic do not be using that line to pressure someone to buy a home and if you're in that situation you feel that's happening I would be thinking twice about that Realtor representing you. Nailed it. Another tactic it's really um the listing agent not so much a buyer's agent when you see a house that's been on the market for a couple of months or longer and all of a sudden the listing agent is saying oh we have multiple offers oh my god yeah no come on. I'm not saying that could never happen it can happen but in my experience that usually happens in the case where if a house has been sitting on the market for a while and there was a price reduction and it generated enough excitement and you know activity where a buyers are like oh you know what it's a lower price we're going to buy it in that case you may see multiple offers but if a house has been sitting on the market and the price has not been reduced and now the listing agent's saying oh we got multiple offers all of a sudden yeah okay here's an example. This happened with one of my buyers early in my career I think I was an agent maybe two to three years at this point I was in the business we went to see a house it was on the market say like 60 days 60 plus days let's say 67 days okay the price was not reduced so but we went to look at it anyway just to see what was up you know and they liked it and it needed some work but they're like you know what maybe we'll consider an offer so I called the listing agent and I said to them that I think they might make an offer you know I just had some questions she said oh you're putting an offer in oh well I'm expecting a couple of offers really it's been on the market over two months oh really she was yeah so I would get that offer in right away so you know I'm not dumb okay I may have been born at night but I wasn't born last night I listen I saw right through that so I went back and I told my clients this is what the agent's saying that she's expecting a couple of offers and we should get her offer in right away and they were a little suspect too I'm like they were on the same page with me we're like yeah let's sit on this for a while so they were gonna mull it over for a couple of days and I kid you not that agent texted me or called me every day are they putting an offer in because I'm expecting other offers I would get that in now so after a few days my clients are like yeah you know what no even if it wasn't true that there were other offers coming in I highly doubted that I knew there was no other offers coming in they felt like they were being taken advantage of by this listing agent by them pushing them you know encouraging them get an offer and I'm getting other offers and yeah now be careful of that tactic your realtor who you're working with should be able to see through that tactic very clearly but anyway bottom line my client ended up not putting an offer in a few weeks later I went back into the multiple listing service to see if that house is still on the market and yet was yeah never had an accepted offer nothing so that agent was using that tactic to try to create some urgency to get my buyer to submit an offer so yeah realtors stop doing that let's not do that another red flag is when your agent is telling you how much you should offer on a house without even looking at the comps that's a problem you should ask your agent to see the comps of what has sold now in the past few years in this pandemic market that has been a challenge to find comps because the inventory was so low it was hard to find sometimes at least one home that had sold right to find out what the market was doing in that particular area because let's face it it was low inventory people were throwing any amount of money at a house so it was very challenging to to come up with how much you should offer on a home now when I'm working with my clients I tell them I can't tell you what to offer on a house I will not do it I will present a range I will look at what's going on in that market and if homes have sold way above asking price you know I give them that information say this is what this home sold for do what you will with that information it's up to them to make that decision of how much they want to offer the house if an agent is telling you this house is going to sell fast you have to put in you have to let go 25, 50,000, 100,000 over asking if they're adamant about what you should offer no no no no they should not be telling you that and if they are I would take a step back ask to see comps you want to look at exactly what's going on in the market now now that the market is shifting right we're getting away from this pandemic market now so we're going to be going back to the old days free pandemic you'll be able to like look at comps so hopefully we get more inventory and more homes are selling you can get a better idea of what homes are selling for so bottom line if that agent is pressuring you to go in way over asking price take a step back take a step back and you don't have to listen to them you go in and you offer what you want don't feel the pressure of making an offer based on what they're telling you now here are some tips I want to share with you if when it comes to choosing a real estate agent first and foremost you want to interview at least three real estate agents yes three and how are you going to find these agents well the best place I feel is getting personal referrals from say friends co-workers family members ask those people who they work with and ask them the questions like you know how did you feel about working with them were they professional did you feel they they did right by you they advocated for you and then at that point you can go and interview these real estate agents and these are the things I would be asking them treat this as a job interview because they're working for you so you're going to be hiring them to work for you so I would be asking them questions like yeah ask them about the number of sales that they've done did they have experience working with first-time homebuyers there are some real estate agents they don't want to work with first time homebuyers they don't and you know it's sad to say but it's true me personally I love my first time homebuyers the other question I would be asking them again this is a job interview I would ask them what was your most challenging transaction seriously ask that question because I guarantee they've had a challenging transaction or two or three ask them how did they get through that what did they do to be able to come to an agreement with the other side you know say if there's there was issues within the negotiations what did they do to make that all better and to get everybody to the closing table and everybody was happy at the end ask that question because I guarantee you they're going to have a few stories to share with you another question you want to ask as far as their communication how are they with communicating and what is your preferred method of communicating is it text is it phone calls is it emails now when I'm working with my clients before we even get started I that's what I asked them what's the best way to communicate do we want a group text I'll text the couple you know the three of us around a group chain do you want phone calls do you want an email let's be on the same page as far as the level of communication now another thing I would do so just like would you do in a job interview you can ask for references ask to speak with their past clients seriously and I would talk to somebody who had their home sold like listed with this agent and a buyer too you want to get a feel for what this agent is all about so you can definitely ask for references to and speak with their past clients and to hear their past clients experiences highly recommend that you do that let's talk about that buyer agency agreement that you're going to be signing when it comes to discussing the fee you're going to have a couple of choices you could either pay a percentage of the sale to your buyer agent or you can pay a flat fee I have seen in some cases where there could be an hourly rate I don't know so much about paying an hourly rate I think that's a little excessive so if this agent's talking about either a flat fee or percentage of the sale what you want to understand is what level of service are you getting if they're only charging a flat fee like what level of service are they offering are they only going to be writing the contract or they're going to be just showing you houses are they going to do any negotiating on your behalf when it comes to the inspections and things like that if they're charging a percentage of the sale I mean I would assume that they are going to be a full service agent from the time you sign a contract to when you get to the closing table they're going to be handling everything so you want to understand exactly what type of service you are getting with that fee I know I'm probably going to get a lot of hate from some agents from what I'm pointing out here but come on you all know this stuff goes on and I got to call it out we got to do a really good job with educating home buyers especially now now that they're going to be signing these buyer agency agreements so I hope you found this information helpful and if you want to understand exactly what's going on with this whole NARA settlement and all the changes that came about you want to watch this video right here it's got a lot of good information in there and I think it'll help you a lot thank you so much for watching me today to get your dose of real estate reality my name is Jackie Baker and I will see you next time