My name is Jon Boyd; I am a nationally recognized home buying expert and the manager of a real estate company called The Home Buyer’s Agent of Ann Arbor. We help buyers without the conflicts of interest that regular real estate companies have because we never list homes and we never work for sellers. This is called Exclusive Buyer Agency in the real estate business.

Over the last fifteen years have helped hundreds of renters become homebuyers.

However, we have also seen many renters who mistakenly believe they can’t buy a home of their own. This is unfortunate.

We’ve collected a list of their biggest mistakes. I published the first four last month and I am going share the last five with you right now:

Mistake 5. Not understanding whose side the agent/broker is on.

This is a big issue right now. We introduced the idea to the Ann Arbor Michigan area that you, the buyer, deserved a real estate company working on your side. When it started to become popular virtually all the traditional companies wanted to copy us. Well, they really can’t copy us since they want to get listing business and make money from sellers. What they found they can do is claim to be buyer agents but with no loyalty. In other words, they will claim to be a buyer agent until they have a chance to make twice as much money, then they become a dual agent. Of course they rarely tell you all this up front, but if you read the fine print it is always there. Now they even confuse the issue more by disguising dual agency as “designated agency”. In designated agency instead of having the company and all the agents on your side as a buyer, you only have the one you are working with and a supervising broker. Until you want to buy one of the company listings, then all the supervisory brokers become dual agents again and the designated agent you started working with sometimes becomes a dual agent.

Note that in designated agency offices the company also often gets kickbacks on title insurance, home warranties and mortgages.

Designated agency is very confusing to buyers, sellers and most Michigan real estate agents I have talked to. It is really classic double-talk and if you don’t believe me, once again, just read the fine print on their contracts and disclosures. It is a lower level of service than buyer agency.

In contrast, our company is always on your side. No double-talk, no bait and switch. It can make a big difference when you are moving from just renting to buying your own home.

Mistake 6. Thinking that a lawyer or financial planner is qualified to guide you through the buying process.

Here is the deal; it is true that a lawyer or financial planner can be an excellent source of information on buying a home. But, they don’t get out in the field, they don’t watch home inspections, they don’t know values, and they won’t know how you feel about one house compared to everything else in the market. Sometimes they are too arrogant to even know what they don’t know.

As an example, we recently were negotiating with a local real estate lawyer who called me up to negotiate a counter offer before he had even read the standard contract language. He started challenging me on things and I had to point out that he didn’t understand the contract. And he calls himself a real estate attorney! I was embarrassed for the guy but I felt worse for the seller who was probably paying him $150 an hour to learn about standard contracts.

The bottom line is, it is typically a whole lot easier if you get the help of a knowledgeable any loyal real estate agent and use the lawyers and financial planners for what they know about, law & financial planning. Reviewing title work during a purchase contingency period is a great example of where a real estate attorney should be involved.

Mistake 7. Not buying now because you think prices will drop in the future.

Well, nobody can see the future. As I write this we don’t know if the overall market has bottomed.

So, nobody can give you any guarantees, but the idea that you should wait until it is obvious that prices are moving up again is like hoping you are going to win a million dollars in the lottery. It is possible, but it is probably about a one in a million chance.

Mistake 8. Thinking that traditional sales agents respect your time as a buyer.

Unfortunately, the “culture” of real estate tends to be focused on the seller or the agent making money. The culture is generally not respectful of you as a buyer. Here are a few examples you should be aware of:

First, real estate companies routinely leave “for sale” signs on properties long after the home is sold. This is because it generates phone calls and business for the company who has the listing. To me, I feel that if they were respectful of your time they would at least put something on the sign that said that home was no longer available.

Second, the Internet is filled with listings that are sold. The cable TV shows are the same way. Once again, it wastes your time because when you see a home there you spend time thinking about its features and how it might work for you. Well, there is a pretty fair chance it is already gone. But having it up there might get you to call the listing office and then they can try to sell you another home. So again, it is good for their business but disrespectful to you.

Third, there are tons of real estate training materials that teach agents to lie to buyers or trick buyers into buying homes. I was really shocked by this when I first got into this business, there was one book distributed by the State of Michigan that even taught new agents how to lie to buyers.
Just be aware, you are a buyer and we are exclusive buyer’s agents, we are on the same team. Other companies? They routinely work to get the seller the highest price and best terms. Now you have been warned.

Mistake 9. Thinking that because you have had some credit problems in the past, you don’t deserve to buy a home now.

A lot of people miss this last mistake. But once again, we’ve helped hundreds of renters become homebuyers by helping them fix credit issues. Now, if you are currently late on your payments it will take a big down payment to get you going. But if you have been current on your bills for the last year we can usually get you into a home with a low down payment even if you had some problems in the past.

The first four of the “Nine Mistakes” is available at our website along with other important information for home buying at: http://buyersagentannarbor.com

So, There you have the “9 deadly mistakes that keep renters from becoming home buyers”.

Hopefully you’ve also noticed that we are the real estate company who is on your side. We serve the Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Brighton, Canton, Plymouth and Saline areas.

If you are interested in learning more about home buying give us a call at 734-662-6240. My name again is Jon Boyd, and we can set up a no-obligation meeting to talk about your needs and what we can do to help you.

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