Friday, January 06, 2012

63% of Americans use a buying agent to help find their dream home



Earlier this week I had a most interesting Google+ "hangout" with some of my colleagues in the FrenchEntrée property finders network.

One of the agents, Sophia, was telling us about her experiences in America where she lived and studied for a while.  She was saying that it is the norm for buyers to have representation when looking for a house - it's probably the biggest expenditure they will ever make so this makes perfect sense.

I looked it up and, according to this article in Wikipedia 63% of Americans do indeed instruct a buying agent.  The article goes on to say:

"Most Buying Agents specialise in a particular location: a large part of their expertise is derived from local knowledge, personal contacts with local estate agents, and inside-information about properties that are not yet on the open market".

This combination of local knowledge and contacts is doubly important if you are looking to buy a property abroad.

For example, if you are currently living in the USA, Australia, South Africa or the far east there is simply no way that you could expect to fully search the market here, or indeed gather the comparable evidence needed to help you negotiate the lowest price possible.

We are seeing an increasing amount of business coming from international clients and whilst it is hard on my telephone bill it is also comforting to know that we have such a robust and long standing business model.....one that more and more UK buyers are adopting.

http://www.cognacproperty.com/

2 comments:

Jasonjay said...

Buying a home is a real experience,

becareful. Make sure you choose a home you

like, and a home with some things in it that

you have always wanted.Tax breaks, ( ? ) Read

them good.
Read the fine print on any loan offer and

ARM loans, Theses days getting a mortgage

loan is not like it was just a few years ago.

Sub prime loans are mostly out.

I would stay away from variable interest

rate mortgage loans because they may go up on

you. I Worked for a well known 8 th largest

lender in the U.S. during part of the

mortgage refinance boom around 2002 and 2003

and they started to focused on selling

variable interest rate mortgage loans around

2003 or 2004 which seemed more affordable at

first with some cash out, it looked good to

the customer in the short term. Our company

did alot of business and I saw a few years

later how the interest rates went up and some

people just could not pay their increased

house payments. This is a big part of what

happend back around 2003' 04 and 05 which I

believe led partly to the way things are now

and how things went in 2007 and 2008. The

company I worked for processed about 500 to

900 loans per day. Stay away from variable

interest rate mortgage loans.
Learn more. and good luck. ; )

my real estate blog said...

Many home buyers consult or use a buying agents because they may help refine their search and save their valuable time.
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