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REAL ESTATE
Do I Need to Pay a Real Estate Agent to Represent Me When I Buy A Home?
The answer isn’t very satisfying
New rules around real estate commissions are pushing homebuyers to ask this question: Do I really need to hire a buyer’s agent who will charge me thousands of dollars?
The unsatisfying answer: It depends. For the 26 percent of homebuyers who purchasing for the first time, hiring an agent makes sense. Same for the probably 70 percent of buyers who are purchasing for a second time, but who probably don’t do a transaction more frequently than once a decade. After all, buying a home is a complicated road filled with financial twists and emotional potholes, and a competent Realtor can smooth some of those bumps.
But what if you’re an expert buyer? Alan Moore, a retired CPA in Florida, says he’d prefer to do it himself. “Why does a buyer even need an agent?” he asks. “I’ve bought a dozen houses in the past by just looking online, Zillow, etc., and calling the listing agent to make an appointment.”
RE/MAX founder Dave Liniger, on the other hand, tells me that when he bought a vacation home, he went out of his way to hire a buyer’s agent who knew the neighborhood where he was shopping. While Liniger had to pay the agent for his services, he argues that a…
