The benefits of using a buyer's agent
Navigating the notoriously complex New York City real estate market on one's own is something we would recommend only to our fiercest enemies (and luckily we do not have many of those). For all other buyers, we strongly suggest using a qualified and experienced buyer's agent for a number of reasons:
A buyer's agent will help educate you on the market.
For most buyers, purchasing an apartment is an event that happens rather infrequently and thus in the long intervals between one's purchases, the market changes considerably. A good buyer's agent is immersed in the market every day and understands its trends and directions. As a result, he or she can provide invaluable information that will be critical to you in making an informed decision concerning any apartment.
A buyer's agent will save you time and energy.
Quite simply, trying to buy an apartment on your own is a lot of work. Let's say you spend a couple of hours tracking down eight or ten apartments that might be of interest. If you wanted to see each of these apartments and wanted to do this without the assistance of a buyer's agent, you would spend another three or four hours simply coordinating all of the appointments. Next, immediately prior to seeing the apartments, you would have to confirm the appointments, which might take another 45 minutes or an hour in total. Lastly, after you see the apartments, you would be contacted by all of the agents to see how you liked the apartments. At 10 to 20 minutes per conversation (not to mention the inevitable phone tag), this could take another hour or two. In total, you would have invested approximately nine hours to arrange to see the eight or ten apartments, or roughly an hour per apartment. If you plan on seeing 40 apartments, this equates to a week that you could have spent on the beach instead. And this is simply to see the apartments. Once you have found the perfect apartment, the real work begins: negotiating with the listing agent, preparing the board package and dealing with all of the other closing related issues.
A buyer's agent will help you find an apartment.
Some apartments you may be able to find by searching various websites and by using the classifieds. However, not only does this require a substantial amount of work on your part, you simply will not have access to everything that is available. Some of the choicest apartments are sold before they officially hit the market and prior to being posted on the web or in the newspaper. This is because there are certain agents have the inside track on what is coming on the market and they are able to gain access for their clients to the newest apartments as soon as the apartments are officially listed. Presuming that you want to have access to all of the apartments on the market, the best way to accomplish this is to let a buyer's agent do this work
A buyer's agent will negotiate on your behalf.
Once the perfect property is identified, a buyer's agent will negotiate on your behalf in order to get you the best terms possible. Because your buyer's agent will be an expert in the market that you will be buying into, he or she will be able to give you detailed information concerning current pricing trends and recent transactions in the building or other comparable buildings. Most importantly, as described below, your buyer's agent will be representing you and not the seller.
A buyer's agent will represent you - not the seller.
Your buyer's agent will be representing your interests and he or she will be focused on getting you the best possible deal. In this respect, it is important to note the distinction between a listing agent (the agent who is representing the seller) and your buyer's agent: the listing agent has a responsibility to negotiate on the seller's behalf and to obtain for the seller the best deal possible. Therefore, if you contact a listing agent directly (through a classified ad or a listing broker's website), the listing agent will have a responsibility to get the best deal for the seller, not for you. In summary, if you negotiate with the listing broker directly, there is an inherent conflict of interest and that may have a negative implication for you as the buyer.
A buyer's agent will guide you through the transaction.
Considering the complexities associated with purchasing an apartment in New York City, particularly a co-op apartment, having an experienced and trusted advisor guide you through the transaction will spare you from innumerable headaches, expedite the process and, in many instances, save the deal. A buyer's agent will help you prepare your board package and will coordinate all aspects of the purchase (i.e. with the attorneys, appraiser, listing brokers and management company) to ensure that the closing actually happens.
There is no additional cost to you as the buyer to use a buyer's agent.
The buyer's agent is compensated for his or her services by sharing a commission with the listing broker that is paid by the seller. As the commission is usually pre-set in a written contract with the listing broker, it is built into the price of the apartment and it will get paid regardless of whether you use a buyer's agent or not. Therefore, considering that you are in effect paying for the services of a buyer's agent in that the commission has already been factored into the price of the apartment, you might as well take advantage of the services that you are paying for.
They serve as a filter - no other agents will call you.
If you do not use a buyer's agent and instead contact listing brokers directly, all of the listing brokers would continue to contact you. If you were to see 15 or 20 apartments, this would mean that 15 or 20 listing agents would contact you. We have found that most people prefer not to have this volume of incoming phone calls from listing agents. In contrast, when you work with a buyer's agent, none of the listing agents whose apartments you preview will contact you. Only your buyer's agent will contact you. If a listing agent wants to see how you liked a particular apartment, the listing agent will have to contact your buyer's agent and cannot contact you directly. This saves you from the hassle of having to deal with dozens of real estate agents.
In summary, as the New York City real estate market is similar in many respects to the Amazon (think piranhas and alligators), we recommend that only those who are comfortable with navigating through the jungles of the Amazon without an experienced guide should attempt to navigate the jungles of the Manhattan real estate market on their own.
