[quote=matt-waiting]
Someone please tell me of an example of where they would have lost $ if they didn’t have a buyer’s agent.[/quote]
Matt, I think these examples are many and varied, but all fall under the category of an unrepresented buyer not having the knowledge of some detail.
This is just a small example, but an example of what I think the risks are. I bought a house about twelve years ago. The house was priced attractively, and the market was heating up in the area I was looking, and because the seller’s were confident they could get another offer if mine feel through, when accepting my offer I was told, “feel free to do an inspection, but the seller’s aren’t going to fix much of anything.” (The house was in pretty good condition and had already been checked for termites) During the inspection it was found that the heater didn’t work.
Now, without an agent would you have known the repercussions of this? What would you have done?
Turns out a furnace not working is a big deal. You can’t get a loan on the house without a working furnace. My agent knew this, and was able to demand that the heater be replaced before I bought the house. After all, the heater was going to have to be replaced prior to a sale regardless of who the buyer was. (With the exception of an all cash buyer. Something that was not common in this neighborhood at the time)
Now, is that a big deal? It saved me a good bit of headache and maybe a grand or two. Not a huge deal, not some horrible risk. But this is a very real example that happened to me.
I’m not experienced enough to give you a really big loss that you might incur, although if there is something fishy with the title would you know?
As another example, suppose you wanted to build or remodel. Your buyer’s agent might be able to warn you about problems that would be unique to the property. (Whether they would or not if they knew or if they would even be educated enough to know would depend on the quality of the agent)
But the bottom line to this is you assume some risks representing yourself. In most cases those risks are small. In a very few cases, those risks are larger, maybe even very large. A buyer’s agent might help avoid some of those risks, and in worst case scenario it would at least give you someone to sue to try and recoup losses.
But for me, the real issue is that more than likely as an unrepresented buyer, one of two scenarios is going to hold true.
1) The listing agent isn’t going to get extra commission, but will get extra work, so they don’t want your offer to be accepted. They will discourage the seller from taking your offer.
2) The listing agent is going to get the extra commission, so will encourage your offer to be accepted. Fine, except you have gained nothing and lost the chance to have someone represent you.
Unfortunately, you won’t know which of the two scenarios is gonna be true until it’s too late.
