In today’s episode of the Stephen Cooley Real Estate Show, Stephen and Sharon Salisbury talk about the advantage of having your own agent when buying a new construction.
When you hire an agent they’re working exclusively on your behalf from the beginning all the way to the end, not just signing the contract or finding a home. The on-site agent works exclusively for the builder, so they are legally bound for the builder to be their best interest.
Have you heard of our ‘Love it or Leave it‘ program? When The Stephen Cooley Real Estate Group represents you in the purchase of a home, we guarantee that you will LOVE it. If, for any reason, you do not love it in the first year, we will come out and sell the home for FREE. That means you do not pay us a commission. We will then happily sell you the home of your dreams.
For more useful information watch this video:
STEPHEN: Hello, I’m Stephen Cooley and welcome to the Stephen Cooley Real Estate Show. On today’s show I’m very excited to have Sharon Salisbury on the show. As most of you know Sharon’s one of the top agents here at the Stephen Cooley Real Estate Group representing buyers and sellers and certainly one of the best experts in our marketplace in real estate. Welcome to the show.
SHARON: Well, thank you Stephen.
STEPHEN: Today Sharon will be talking about one topic, even though you’re diverse on every single topic in real estate, is buyer agency when buying new construction. 3 or 4 years ago there was new construction available, new construction is now back in the market, a big percentage of buyers are buying new homes. That’s wonderful, Sharon, everybody knows when you buy a traditional house get a buyer’s agent.
SHARON: That’s right.
STEPHEN: That’s been around 20-25 years and all the reasons why you don’t want to work with the listing agent, you want a buyer’s agent, but then folks are walking on these new site places and only working with the on-site agents. I want you to come on today’s show and just tell us why that’s not a good idea.
SHARON: Absolutely, one of the big reasons is you want your own representation. When you hire an agent they’re working exclusively on your behalf from the beginning all the way to the end, not just signing the contract or finding a home and the on-site agent works exclusively for the builder, so they are legally bound for the builder to be their best interest.
STEPHEN: Absolutely and those on-site agents are great, they’re very nice, they’re very informative but you forget when you’re a buyer that they’re representing the seller just like you’re walking onto a car lot you know that car salesman is representing the dealership but you forget that that own site agent is solely looking out for the builder and looking out for the builder they’re trying to get top dollar under the absolute best circumstances and you do sign something and that mountain of paperwork when you buy new construction disclosing that they’ve told you that they’re looking out for the seller only. So again a reason to make sure you don’t forget to take an agent with you like Sharon and buy one of these new homes and share with folks how that agent gets paid because it’s free to the buyer.
SHARON: It is, it’s free so we actually get paid by the builder so it doesn’t cost you anything to have your own representation and what would you rather have with the biggest investment: someone representing you or someone representing the other side of the seller? So, it’s a free cost to the buyer.
STEPHEN: And all the expertise that you’ve built up over the years working with hundreds and hundreds of folks you give them that expertise, I just want to use one of these is home inspections. A lot of people don’t have them on new houses.
SHARON: They think it’s a new house and therefore they don’t need to get it inspected but that’s such a myth. There are several stages in the construction process and a home inspector can even come and check during those different stages.
STEPHEN: Once the wiring’s put in, they can come and check it. I just saw one take a photo and posted on Facebook and if the house had been completed without him catching this wiring problem before the sheep brought run-up the home would have caught fire one time. So Sharon knows the right inspectors based on the new construction and as a buyer’s agent you can recommend all those to the people and again I just want to say is the buyer’s not paying for this representation, the sellers pay for it.
SHARON: That’s right and when you hire an agent one of the benefits to you is you get a negotiation expert. Sometimes it may not be getting a lower purchase price but you’ll get a lot more in value. Builders are one that will do sometimes landscape packages or incentives of back patios or even extra rooms.
STEPHEN: But that on side agent doesn’t have to tell you they just did it for the buyer who walked in an hour earlier. Their job is to get you the most and by the way they’re doing their job. You want someone doing the job for you too.
SHARON: And we can come in and help get you the most for your money and the other thing is market knowledge. When you hire a good agent they know what has recently sold in that neighborhood, how long it took to sell and you want to know that to make sure you’re making a good investment.
STEPHEN: One of the most valuable things I’ve noticed when you’re working with buyers on new construction, Sharon, is going to the design center can be absolutely overwhelming and there’s a lot of things you can pick and some of those things have no resale value so being able to say Sharon if I do this electronic system, if I do this landscape package, if I do these cabinet upgrades and that costs 10, 15, 20, 30, 50 thousand dollars in upgrades what can I see is your estimate on a resale value of these upgrades five years from now because a lot of times we go into these neighborhoods and one home had 30, 40, 50, 60 thousand in upgrades, the other one didn’t and they’re reselling for the same price.
SHARON: And those design centers are candy stores. It’s easy to go way above what you originally thought you were going to come in and buy a house for.
STEPHEN: Absolutely, another good reason you want a buyer’s agent with you or at least if you go out there and you like the model home, making sure that you tell them that you’re working with an agent, then you can give Sharon a call or one of the agents here on the Stephen Cooley Real Estate Group, so we can recommend them.
SHARON: We’re here with you to the end so even when you’ve unpacked that last box the on-site agents moved on to another neighborhood because they’ve now closed out that one we’re still here for you so if you want to know what is continuing to sell in your neighborhood we can help you with keeping you updated on your market in your neighborhood.
STEPHEN: Absolutely, great information there. Thank you, Sharon, for that information. Let me just throw 2 more quick reasons that are extremely unique to the Stephen Cooley Real Estate Group. We provide a moving truck that you can use for free when you use us as your buyer’s agent and also we have the love it or leave it program where if you buy a home and you don’t love it in the first 12 months, we’ll come out and sell it for free and sell you the home of your dreams so we offer that and don’t know of anybody else who offers that program and Sharon has all the information on that. Sharon tell folks how to reach you if they’re interested in buying or selling real estate.
SHARON: Please, contact me. You can call or text, my cell phone number is 803-207-7001.
STEPHEN: And a website sharon.stephencooley.com. Great information on today’s show, we’ve got beautiful homes for sale in your area, please stay tuned we’ll be right back. I hope you’ve enjoyed watching the Stephen Cooley Real Estate Show. If you’re interested in advertising your business on the program, please give us a call at 803-326-2777.
Join us next week for more discussions on real estate topics and help in finding your perfect home. Thanks for watching.