What NOT To Say To An Agent When Selling and BUYING a Home

This video is a follow-up to a video I did a few months ago about what not to say to an agent when selling your home. I received a lot of comments asking for what not to say to a buyer agent because after all home sellers can be home buyers and I heard you loud and clear. There are certain things that you want to keep to yourself when you're talking to a buyer agent for the first time and due to the NAR settlement there have been a lot of changes in the area of buyer representation and to be honest it's about time. I have said it before on this channel that I believe that 80% of the agents in the real estate industry are not well-trained professional agents that will put your needs ahead of their own. However, 20% of the agents are worth every penny they earn and will do everything they can do to help you reach your home buying goals regardless of how much time it takes and how much money they earn. But how do you know the difference between an 80% agent and a 20% agent? Unfortunately it is hard to know whether you're dealing with an 80% agent or a 20% agent when you first meet them. So in this video I'm going to share with you the top things you don't want to share with a buyer agent when you meet them for the first time. Remember the goal is to find the right agent. An agent that's going to look out for your best interest. But before we dig in I just want to do a quick overview of the changes in the area of buyer representation that went into effect August 17th across the country. Now as a buyer there are just a few things that you really need to know. The first thing is is that all buyer agents are required to have a buyer agency contract signed with a buyer when you go view a home. However, you don't need a buyer agent contract to go to an open house and you don't need a buyer agent contract if you're meeting the listing agent directly. Now if you call the listing agent directly to request a showing and they ask you to sign a buyer agent contract they're ultimately asking you to enter into a dual agency agreement. Now I've done videos on this. I strongly recommend that you do not enter into a dual agency. Essentially that means that they're representing the seller and you at the same time which doesn't work. So aside from dual agency the listing agent can show you the property on behalf of the seller without a buyer agent agreement. Now I do believe that a good buyer agent provides a ton of value a ton of protection when you're buying the biggest investment in your life. However, until you know whether that agent is a 20 percent agent or not there are some things that you don't want to share. And the first thing is you don't want to commit to an agent without a proper interview. The best agents are not going to just jump in a car and show your property without having any idea of what you're looking for. When I first hear from a buyer the first thing I do is I set up a phone call or a zoom call because I want to understand what their wants and needs are. What is it that they really must have what their non-negotiables are versus what they would like to have. An agent that understands what your non-negotiables are what are the things that absolutely every property must have they're not going to show you properties that don't have those non-negotiables. And that's wasting your time and it's wasting their time. Now just like you're hiring a listing agent when you're selling your home I recommend interviewing at least three agents. Yes it's a lot of work it's more things to do on your to-do list but it's worth it to understand and find that right agent. And when you're interviewing them I would tell them that you're interviewing and talking to other agents. You're going to ask questions like what are you going to do for me? What exactly does your buyer representation plan look like? What does it include? Are you going to do comps? Are you going to walk through the property for me? How many properties have you sold in the neighborhood? All of these things are important and good to know during that interview process. And during the interview process you don't want to show all your cards. You want to be vague until you find the right agent. Once you find the right agent and you're locked in and that's the agent that you're going to be working with then you can be transparent give them more information. But until then you want to keep your cards close to your chest. You don't want to tell them everything about what you're looking for what your goals are. Now if you're not quite ready to start interviewing agents and you just want to take a look at this one property it's a property in a neighborhood that you've been watching for a to do so. The second thing that you don't want to do with a buyer agent is don't allow the buyer agent to dictate the time frame of the buyer agent contract. Now you will need to sign a buyer agent contract when you meet that agent however they are probably going to try to push you into a 30 day or 60 day 90 day time frame. Do not agree to it. You tell them that you will sign that contract for that property only. You could even say that property only on that day only and say if you were looking at two properties you could do two properties on that contract and that's it. This is a great way to test drive an agent. It's a great way to find out how that agent operates. They know that you're only committing for that one property and a good agent is going to want to make a good impression until you actually have a chance to do an interview and I would absolutely encourage you to do an actual interview process. If you meet with a buyer agent for that one property and you really click with that agent I would absolutely set up a phone call or a zoom call after the fact and go through the whole process. Tell them exactly what your wants and your needs are. A good agent will actually ask you to set up a phone call or a zoom call after the appointment so they can go over everything that is important to you. Now even if your appointment goes well and you're impressed with this agent I would still interview a couple more agents. It's like getting multiple bids on a contractor. You meet one contractor they give you a bid you say gosh I really like the work this guy's doing he has a good reputation. You still get multiple bids just to cover all your basis because you want to make sure 100% sure that you are dealing with the absolute right agent for you. Now I do recommend that you only sign the contract for 30 days and a good agent's not going to have a problem with this. You can renew that contract every 30 days as needed however if that agent you thought was a 20% agent turns out to be an 80% agent you don't want to be locked into that agent for a long period of time. Now the third thing that you don't want to tell an agent when you first meet them is you never want to reveal your urgency to buy. If you are under any time pressures maybe you have a job relocation or you have a lease ending or some type of circumstance that is an urgent situation where you do have a tight time frame where you have to make a decision you don't want to share that with an agent yet. Once you find the right agent you can share that information but when you first start working with an agent you want to kind of keep that information yourself because a buyer agent that's not looking out for your best interest will potentially push you towards properties that are at the top end of your budget or maybe properties that really don't meet your non-negotiables list and areas that you really would not be your first choice and if the agent is doing that then they potentially could also be sharing information with the listing agent and if you get to a point where you're making an offer on a property and that listing agent knows that there is an urgency to buy they're going to tell the seller and that will impact your negotiations. It will potentially cause the seller to kind of dig their heels in because they know you have to buy. The other thing that could happen is the agent could avoid showing you properties that maybe meet your needs that are a good value but are not a quick closing. Maybe it's a little bit longer to close but you could get a potentially better deal and they may not show you those properties. The other thing that could happen is the agent could rush through the offer process if they know that time is of the essence maybe they won't recommend certain contingencies that would protect you certain negotiation tactics that maybe will get you the property at a little bit lower price or maybe have a better protection a better layer of protection for you but would take a longer period of time and they're going to rush through that process a little bit more than you would like and maybe you won't be able to understand all the facets of the offer because they're not taking the time to explain them to you. So when you first meet the agent I would not share with them what your time frame is. Now ultimately the goal is to find your 20% agent your good agent and then when you do that absolutely then you can trust that agent with that information and then be transparent so they can help you stay within the time frame but also meet your goals your home buying goals without sacrificing anything based on your time frame. A lot of you have reached out to me because you're having trouble finding an agent or you just don't know the difference between an 80% agent and a 20% agent and I'm happy to help you with that. Over the years I've put together a list of all of my personally vetted out agents across the country and I'm happy to share that with you. Just click the link down in the description there's a short form to fill out I'll get back to you with a list of questions that I'll need to get from you to be able to match you with the right agent. This service is free of charge it's my way of helping you connect with a 20% agent. Now the next thing that you don't want to share with an agent on the first meeting is you don't want to share what your maximum budget is. Now your maximum budget or your maximum pre-approval amount is the top end of what you're qualified to spend on a home and a buyer agent that knows this number might steer you towards that upper end of the budget and not show you properties that maybe are in the more comfortable range of where you really should be looking and they may encourage you to spend more on a property than you actually should. If you decide to make an offer on a property and they know that you are pre-approved for the entire amount the entire list price of that property they may tell you to go ahead in at list price instead of maybe making a lower offer. You know that will depend on the area if you have a property that's been on the market for more than two weeks three weeks four weeks and there's no activity then yes maybe you make an offer that's a little bit lower than asking price but they may not do that they may push you to make an offer at full price because you can afford it and then the other side is that if they are not putting your best interest in mind that means they may also share that information with the listing agent and if the listing agent knows the seller knows and if the seller knows that you can afford more than what the offer amount is the seller may dig their heels in and be less willing to lower the price and if the agent knows you can afford the house they might not push as hard on negotiations. My recommendation is to get a pre-approval amount for the amount that you're comfortable spending when you meet with a lender and you find out what your max pre-approval amount is they're going to issue you a letter do not share that letter you'll ask the lender for another pre-approval letter and say you're pre-approved for six hundred thousand but you're really only comfortable spending five hundred thousand get a pre-approval letter for the five hundred thousand the right agent will always ask you what you are comfortable spending not what's your max pre-approval amount so i would keep your financial information close to the vest i would not share your max pre-approval amount don't share your your down payment amount or any of your credit information until you know it's the right agent once you find your right 20 agent then yes transparency is key because that's how they're going to protect you to make sure that you don't overspend when i meet with a client that's the question that i ask i say great that's your pre-approval letter what is actually comfortable for you on a monthly basis to spend and then i have that number in green so that when they start asking for properties that are more expensive i bring them back to that conversation to make sure that they're not being swayed by the extra amenities or the flashy upgrades on a property that is getting their emotions they're getting excited about the property i want to make sure that they get back to that core question of what is comfortable and a good agent is going to do that for you now the next thing that you don't want to do is when you're touring through a property you don't want to share your thoughts on that specific property until you know that this is the right agent you want to keep your emotions in check you want to keep your thoughts in check and you really want to share that information that feedback with that buyer agent at a very high level you want to give them just basic information we liked it we didn't like it it was too big it was too small you don't want to get too granular with the feedback and the reason being is that if you are meeting with this agent on a per property basis they may start steering you towards certain types of properties or they could potentially push you into purchasing that property if you come out of that house and you are absolutely in love with the property you are this is the prop this is the one this is the one you've been looking for so long and you'll do anything you'll sign over your first born to get this house and you tell them that they're going to leverage a lot of things potentially leverage things against you they're going to push you to spend your max they're going to push you into making an offer maybe not negotiate as much in on your behalf you don't want to have that added pressure and on the flip side if you come out of a property and share all your negative feelings on a particular property it may not be that specific type of property that you don't like maybe there's some features but an agent may misinterpret that and say well they don't want three bedrooms so now i'm only going to show them four bedrooms when in reality you would look at a three bedroom if it had a bonus room or an additional room but you were so strong on your feedback about the fact that it only had three bedrooms now they've adjusted that search criteria incorrectly and you don't want that to happen because then you'll miss out on properties so when do you share that information when you have the 20 agent and to be honest a good 20 agent will already have had a phone call or zoom call with you and be aware of that information when i meet with a buyer for the first time mar phone calls the zoom calls it's about an hour and a half maybe a little longer because we get granular i want to know really what it is that they're looking for i want a three bedroom great why i want a big yard great why i want to understand the whys behind all the criteria that they give me because there may be other properties that will suit their needs that they don't even realize exist there might be different configurations that would get them to the goal why do you want a big yard i will have a dog okay well if we had a little bit of a smaller yard but it was fenced or a little bit of a smaller yard but it abutted some nature preserve and it was fenced could that work yes that would work those are the questions that a good agent's going to ask you and but until that point keep that information to yourself don't share too too much information with that buyer agent until you know whether that's the right agent and the last thing that you don't want to share with an agent is you don't want to tell them you're working with other agents now ultimately the goal is to find the agent the 20 agent which will be the only agent that you work with but in the meantime you might find yourself working with or coming in contact with several agents you meet one agent you look at one property you meet another agent you look at one property and that might be the way it goes until you have a chance to interview and find the right agent if you tell them that you're working with multiple agents an 80 agent will pull back they're not going to do anything for you they're not going to look for other properties for you they're not going to negotiate hard on your behalf their only concern is that one property can i sell you this one property and get paid and if that doesn't happen they're out because they don't know what other agents are doing for you they're thinking well other agents are doing all the work why should i duplicate it and i'm probably not going to get paid so what's the point and that's because they have their needs putting put in front of your needs now it's important to know that working with more than one buyer agent is not necessarily a great strategy yes you have the freedom of not walking into an agent you don't have to be worried about that agent taking advantage of you you can kind of keep everything close to the vest protect yourself however aligning yourself with a good agent one agent that knows what your situation is can give you advice can give you strategies negotiation tactics that agent that may be well versed and have a lot of transactions under their belt to be able to maybe advise you on strategies that you've never even heard of that will help you get to your goal maybe put more money in your pocket maybe reduce the stress load maybe be able to find properties that you're not even aware of properties that are off market listings properties that are not yet hitting the market coming soon properties uh maybe even give you an inroad to negotiation with the seller there have been situations where i have negotiated on behalf of a buyer and because of my tenure in the business in this industry in this area the local agents know that when i bring an offer to the table they know what to expect and having an agent that has had experience in a particular area you have a leg in as opposed to an agent that maybe is from outside the area that's presenting an offer that the listing agent has no idea no experience with the other thing is that you have duplication of information if you are telling an agent one thing you tell next agent another thing another agent another thing it gets confusing on which agent knows which information and then not any one of those agents is really going to go to bat for you because they know you're working with multiple agents and an agent that has one client that has committed to them is absolutely going to work 10 times harder for that one agent because of their loyalty a good agent will so it's something to take into consideration as you're going through the process you may have a couple of agents until you find that right agent but i wouldn't have that as a long-term strategy i think you're much better off looking and finding that right agent in the long term because i think the results are going to be significantly better the bottom line is you need to tread carefully when you're first dealing with a buyer agent until you've properly vetted them out interview three agents talk to three agents set up a phone interview a zoom call have that conversation ask a ton of questions write down how many questions they ask you if they are not asking more questions than you're asking them then that's not the right agent you want to pay attention to their interactions and see are they sincerely interested in your success are they concerned about how long it's going to take are they pushing you to make a decision sooner than you're ready it is more effort than just picking up a phone and calling the agent on zillow and having them show the house but it will be worth it in the long run now if you're interested in more videos about real estate red flags you're going to want to check out these i'm jen sylvester and i'm here to help you be a savvy home seller