How are we paid????

So, the question always arises….. IF, I involve you as my buyer’s real estate agent, how much does that cost me? When we always respond, NOTHING, they seem a little perplexed. The reputation that many real estate agents have as nothing more than a used car salesman is always looming somewhere in their head…… We offer a unique experience for buyers in that we receive no compensation from the people we represent. If one of our clients decides to purchase a property, we are paid a referral commission by the seller/developer. Further, we are not paid any marketing or presales fees by any of the developers we represent, hence we have absolutely no bias. By remaining independent we believe we are positioned to offer our clients an objective and impartial evaluation of alternatives.

Restoring Ethics in Real Estate

We continue to hear “war stories” about real estate transactions that result in less than optimum results for the buyer involved. For the members of our team who have corporate backgrounds, these stories drive us crazy. The foundation of our business was to restore ethics and integrity to the real estate market. A recent example concerned a buyer who was coerced to make a quick offer because there was a bidding war. In the past decade those situations did exist, but are rare today. While working with clients spending $200,000 to over $2 million, we carefully evaluate the entire situation for them prior to making any offers. We make sure that our client understands the ENTIRE situation of what they are proposing to buy. This often includes the history of a house for sale: when it was bought and the price, what is the current market of the neighborhood and what the best price we might be able to negotiate for our buyer. We also want to understand our client’s motivation. Is this their dream home they have finally found or is this a potential investment that they can easily walk away from if a very low bid is declined?

Introduction

Our blog is intended to give our views on the current real estate market in Western North Carolina, as well as, offer advice for our large client base that is located outside of the area. It seems the farther we travel from Asheville, we always hear the same thing “What a cool place to live….Can you tell me more about what is happening there?”. Today, buyers are more cautious before making real estate investments and while sales in this area are strong, many of our clients are waiting until they sell their home in Florida, New York or Michigan. We are a buyer’s consulting agency focused on putting our clients’ needs ahead of our own. We know that this approach will ultimately grow our business.