5 Best Reasons to Have a
Buyers Agent Represent You

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5 Worst Questions to ask
Your Buyers Agent

When you ask your Buyers Agent questions, the answers you
get should help you establish fair market value. The answers
to these gems however, never help but only get in the way. Avoiding these
questions will take confusion out of the business at hand which of
course is establishing current fair market value for the home.

Worst Question #1.

"What percentage below asking price should I bid"?

My advice must be to first find a Buyers Agent you trust.
With a little bit of grade school math and some common sense
he  can  arrive at a number that makes the asking price look
like a wild guess. Your Buyers Agent should be able to give you 
the  fair market value within 5 percent. The fair market value may
be higher or lower than the asking price but we are going to 
ignore the asking price. The number your Buyers Agent comes
up with only takes 15 or 20 minutes but that will be a number
you can hang your hat on if it was arrived at statistically and
hopefully not influenced by personal opinion or conjecture.
If you want to check your Buyers Agent's figures ask him to
show you all the sold units he did or didn't use in his calculations.

Worst Question #2.

"How much did the seller pay?"

Absolute nonsense! Could any number be more
irrelevant to the job of establishing fair market value?
What if he bought it from his mother for one dollar? The
answer to this question always hurts and never helps
establish fair market value. Not only does it not give us a
number we can use but it opens the door to a myriad of
negative human emotions. If the price paid by the seller was
low, this information can inspire jealousy and resentment in
the unenlightened buyer. Then the ego gets going and I hear 
" Well I'm not going to pay 500K when the seller only paid 350K,
2 years ago, he's making out like a bandit!" Whatever someone
paid for a property has absolutely nothing to do with what it's worth today.

Worst Question #3.

"When did the current owner buy the property"?

Again another question whose answer can only confuse the
basic issue for buyers, which is the current fair market
value of the home. Whether it was purchased yesterday or 30
years ago is totally irrelevant if what you are looking for
is objectivity. Fair market value is based on comparable
units that have sold in the last 6 to 12 months and when the
current owner bought the property has nothing to do with that.

Worst Question #4

"How long has this property been on the market?"

Whats the difference if it was put on the market yesterday
or 2 years ago? Again the answer to this question won't help
anyone. Any assumptions you might make as to how negotiable
they are are strictly conjecture. Some sellers keep the same property
on the market for 5 years without reducing the price. He may be
no closer to being "open to negotiation" now than he was 5 years ago.
I can't find any possible conclusions the answer to this question can
inspire that affect current fair market value for the home.

Worst Question #5

"If I buy this property, will the value have appreciated in
five years when I want to sell?"

The answer to this one calls for a fortune teller. It can't
be answered! Where will the DOW be in 5 years? The five year
time frame is the minimum we are taught to use with real
estate. As an asset class the returns on real estate average
5 to 6% per year but that doesn't mean we can't have 15
straight years of decline or many years with consecutive
double digit gains. This is a market and there are risks involved
and there is always the risk of the fair market value of the home
that you buy going down for years to come. Or maybe this current
dip in the real estate market is the dip that should be bought.

Boston Real Estate Agent
Jeff Persons

Find out more about how I can save you money during your Boston real estate
search by contacting me today at: 617-512-3443

 
BUYERS BE REPRESENTED, NOT SOLD!