For Buyers

Tools and tips for home buyers.

Home Buyer Tips - how to buy a house.  One of our most popular features.

LIST of Buyer Agents Who Discount.  We are developing a list of buyer agents who are willing to discount their fee.  We have yet to come across an agent who will not pay a 25% referral fee to another broker.  In other words, all agents should be willing to discount by this amount.

LIST of Exclusive Buyer Agents.   If you can find one of them in your area, you should strongly consider hiring them.  And in order to avoid conflicsts of interest, they focus only on buyers and their firms will not accept seller listings. 

Save $300.   One simple tactic will save you $300.

Open House Form for Buyers.  Without a FORM like this buyers risk forfeiting half the commission to the listing broker and losing their right to hiring their own agent.

Articles
Avoid Dual Agency.  Consumers top two reasons for hiring Realtors is to help negotiate price and terms.  Realtors are prohibited from doing both in a dual agency.

Don't Get a Home Warranty.   The limitations on coverage and fees make these warranties a waste of money for consumers.  Realtors often get a $95 sales fee for selling them however.

Negotiating With Buyer Agents.   They are NOT FREE.   If an agent tells you not to worry about their fee because it is free and the seller is paying it, that is your signal to find another agent.   Here we explain some common negotiating techniques.

Avoid Open Houses.  Read this article before you decide to view open houses.  Open houses are for helping Realtors find buyer clients, they do not sell houses.  We also have a form to help buyers who still wish to visit open houses (see number 4 above).

"One Stop Shopping"  Do not ever use services that are affiliated with your Realtor, brokerage or builder firm.  The service industries designed to provide safeguards to ensure healthy residential real estate transactions are now actually owned and run by the firms which have huge stakes in the transaction such as builders, Realtors, and lenders.

How To Search for a Home Online.  Tips and traps of using online search services to find a home.