As you begin your home search, you should be aware of the difference between brokers and Realtors (with a capital R or with the Realtor trademark). The Realtor appellation tells you that the broker is a member of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the major professional trade association for the real estate industry. That affiliation implies at least some degree of professional commitment and suggests that the broker has access to the educational programs, information and support services that the trade association supplies in abundance.
One major advantage of dealing with a broker who is a Realtor as opposed to one who isn`t is that Realtors have access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) offered by their local real estate board.
The MLS is a bulletin board (computerized, in many areas) of home sales, through which member brokers cooperate in order to provide sellers with the widest possible exposure of their property and to give buyers the broadest possible selection of homes for sale. (In some areas the Multiple Listing Service is owned privately and is open to non-Realtor members) According to the NAR, approximately 70 percent of all home sales nationally are displayed through the MLS.
As a condition of membership in the NAR, Realtors must subscribe to the Realtor Code of Ethics, which requires, among other things, that they treat buyers and sellers fairly. The Realtor affiliation does not guarantee fair or professional treatment, but I think it does at least improve the odds.
Go shopping
The only way to find a good broker is to shop for one. You don`t want to hitch your house-hunting wagon to the broker who just happens to answer the phone the morning you call to ask about an ad. So get referrals from friends, use the classifieds to identify brokers who seem to be active in the areas you`re interested in, and then take an afternoon to interview two or three or four who pass your initial screening-that is, who come highly recommended and/ or have no history that you can discover of being in trouble.
When you talk to a broker, try to find out the following:
1. How long has he or she been in business?
2. Is the firm well-established in the markets you`ve identified as being of interest to you?
3. Does the firm have a number of listings in your price range?
4. How professional does the broker appear to be? Does he or she ask intelligent questions and really listen to your answers?
5. Can the broker answer basic questions about the tax rates, development trends, school systems and municipal services in the markets you`re considering?
6. Does the broker seem willing to help you find the house you want, or does he or she seem more interested in pushing whatever listings happen to be on hand?
7. Is the broker available during the times that are most convenient for you to look at homes?
8. Does the broker have ”exclusive listings” that can be seen by the buyers working with him or her before they are advertised more widely? That is, will using this or that broker give you any particular advantage?
How many brokers?
Unlike the seller, who is often locked into listing the house with just one broker at a time, a buyer is free to approach as many brokers as he or she wants. Certainly, if you`re interested in communities that are a considerable distance from each other, it may make sense for you to rely on a different broker in each of those areas. And if you see a property advertised that the broker you`re using can`t shown you, you should by all means feel free to follow up.
But in most cases I think you`ll find that getting involved with more than one broker creates an unnecessary and confusing duplication of effort. Chances are that all the brokers you select will be plugged into the same Multiple Listing Service and so will be trying to show you the same properties. If you find a broker you like who seems to be doing a good job of covering the areas you want to see, there`s probably no need to look further. On the other hand, if you`ve been driving around with the same broker for weeks and still haven`t seen anything you like, it`s probably time to find another agent, one who either has a better selection of homes or is more attuned to your needs.
How big?
The size of the broker`s firm really isn`t critical. Nor does it matter, usually, whether you deal with an independent agency, one that`s affiliated with a national company (such as Coldwell Banker or Merrill Lynch), or a franchise of a national chain (such as Century 21, Realty World or ERA).
A large firm or a franchise affiliate may be able to offer a broader array of services-access to a mortgage banking subsidiary, for example-but a small firm may know more about the specific community you`re interested in. Far more important than the size of the firm, in my view, is whether you`re comfortable with and have confidence in the broker you`re working with.
At their best, good brokers can function a lot like analysts, helping you to read your own mind. As one broker told me, ”If I see that the buyers are close to `yes` but faltering, I`ll just ask some questions to zero in on what the problem is. Once that gets to be clear, then maybe I can suggest other ways around it. Is the house too small? Well, how about building a new room over the garage? Is it too dark? How about a skylight?”
That kind of feedback from the broker can be positive and can help you sort through your preferences, set your priorities and identify the home you want.
There are some brokers, however, who cross the line between guiding you toward a decision that you want to make and pressuring you into a decision that you`re not sure of. These are the brokers, naturally, that you want to avoid at all costs.
Steer clear of brokers who:
1. pressure you to buy a property ”before someone else grabs it.”
2. purport to represent you in the transaction.
3. advise you not consult an attorney.
4. are evasive or ignorant when asked to provide detailed information about the property.
Remember that Realtors are required to disclose adverse information on properties they represent. This is established by the Realtor Code of Ethics and in most areas by state law. How far the broker has to go to discover that adverse information is something of a gray area of the law. But as a general rule, brokers are not permitted to misrepresent the condition of a property or to withhold any vital information they know about it. If a hazardous-waste dump has been discovered in the back yard, for instance, or if the basement becomes an indoor swimming pool whenever it rains, the broker is obligated to tell you.
This doesn`t mean that all brokers will be completely forthcoming about problems such as these, but it does mean that you`ll usually have some recourse against those who aren`t.
