Buyer Representation (Buyer's Agent)

The age old question when buying a piece of real estate is "Do I need an agent to represent me as a buyer's agent or do I deal with the listing agent directly?" The listing agent is going to tell you that you as the buyer, do not need to have your own agent and you should use him.

As the listing agent sees this, there are two reasons that a buyer should not have a buyer's agent. One is that the listing agent does not have to deal with another agent making negotiations, which is less time consuming. The second is that the listing agent does not have to split the commission with the selling agent.

But before you get involved with a real estate transaction without a buyer's agent, ask yourself these questions:

1. Are you familiar with the property type that you are thinking of buying?
2. Are you familiar with the construction techniques used to build the building?
3. Are you familiar with the zoning that is in place for the parcel?
4. Are you familiar with the zoning what you are intending to use the parcel for?
5. Are you good with reviewing contracts?
6. Do you feel confident in your abilities to negotiate?
7. Do you have good access to sales comparisons?
8. Do you have adequate time to review all the information I have listed herein?
9. Do you think you are being objective to the "deal"?
10. Are you good at inspecting for hidden things in both the contract and in the real estate itself?
11. Who wrote the contract?
12. Who besides you is going to review the contract?
13. If this is an investment property with an income, are you familiar with studying income statements?
14. Are you familiar with cap rate and how they work?
15. Do you know what cap rates are used for a property such is this?
16. Do you know how to access what a property will appraise for?
17. Do you feel confident in how to undertake the due diligence process?
18. Have you done this kind of business in the city that the real estate is in?

If you cannot answer all of these questions with confidence, then you should consider using a buyer's agent. They are FREE for home buyers to use as their commission is built into the sales price of the home and is split with the listing agent's commission. Sounds like there aren't too many reasons not to use a buyer's agent.

For more information about this subject, you can email me directly at dpaladino@landmarkomaha.com

Identifying Character

Over the last couple days I've had the pleasure of spending time with my 26-year-old nephew who is trying to break into the pro golf circuit. He came to Omaha to play in a qualifying match at Tiburon Golf Course, trying to earn a spot to play in the upcoming Cox Classic. Although he didn't play or score well enough to earn a spot this time, he knows what he has to work on and will continue on his quest.

What I personally learned from watching him play is that almost all of the golfers trying to qualify for the Cox Classic shoot the same scores. There will be the few that shoot very well and make it into the tournament and there will be the few who shoot horrible, but the majority of the golfers will be in the middle - not good enough to make the tournament but not the worst scores either. So these "middle" golfers need to work on some aspect of their game that will move them up and out of the middle.

I think the same is true with real estate companies. Essentially all the companies provide the same service, but if you want to be the company that people hire - you need to provide that one additional item - something that distinguishes you from the rest.

Landmark Group certainly does that! We work with all real estate categories, meaning that we not only deal with residential properties but commercial as well. And not only do we just sell real estate, we lease and manage properties. As part of a full-service real estate agency, Landmark employees are exposed to all aspects of the industry, not just one small area - we aren't called your intelligent real estate experts for nothing!