Should buyers seek help to buy homes in NYC? How complex is the NYC real estate market? Is exclusivity required to work with a buyer’s agent? We’ll discuss all this and more in the following in-depth guide on how to get help to buy homes in NYC.
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You can find out so much about a property online these days, so should you even bother seeking help to buy homes in NYC? After all, how hard can it be to buy an apartment in NYC?
Many first time home buyers will be surprised at just how complex New York City’s real estate market is.
As it turns out, it’s much more complicated to buy co-op apartment shares or a condominium unit vs buying your run-of-the-mill single family house out in suburbia.
Real estate attorneys are necessary
New York’s real estate market is so unique that the state requires lawyers to be involved for the contract review and due diligence process.
Lawyers will play a critical part in helping you analyze a co-op or condo building’s financial statements, board meeting minutes, original offering plan and any subsequent amendments to the offering plan. Your lawyer will also order a title search for you and negotiate a co-op or condo contract and a contract rider on your behalf.
Buyer’s agents do a lot
As you’ll soon realize, the information available about a listing online is only skin deep. You’ll want the guidance of an experienced buyer’s broker at your side from the moment you begin viewing properties and touring open houses.
Your buyer’s agent will provide you with apartment viewing tips and ask insightful questions on your behalf, and your real estate attorney will make sure you’re not signing your life away.
Pro Tip: Figure out if you’ve saved enough cash to buy a home with our interactive NYC Buyer Closing Costs Calculator and our handy Home Affordability Calculator.
Our Discretion, Your Advantage
Our traditional partner brokers never openly discount which means less disruption and better execution for you.
It doesn’t cost anything for buyers to work with a real estate agent. You heard right, it’s completely free for home buyers to have a real estate agent help them with the purchase process.
That’s because sellers traditionally pay a typical real estate agent commission in NYC that’s a fixed percentage of the sale price, regardless of whether the buyer has an agent or not.
If the buyer forgoes free buyer agent representation, the listing agent simply keeps the entire commission. More often however, the buyer will have an agent and the listing agent will split the commission equally with the buyer’s agent.
Pro Tip: It gets better. Not only is it free to have an agent help to buy homes in NYC, you can also get some of the buyer agent’s commission for yourself through a Hauseit Buyer Closing Credit. Discreetly save $20,000 or more on the average home purchase with a credit against your closing costs or purchase at close, or a discreet check written to you post-closing.
Save 2% On Your Home Purchase
Save thousands on your home purchase with a buyer agent commission rebate from Hauseit
No, you should not ask listing agents for help to buy homes in NYC because they work for the seller. And even if both the buyer and the seller agree to dual agency, there will still be many conflicts of interest.
For example, how can a listing agent actually perform his or her job if they must be perfectly neutral and fair to both parties?
If that’s the case, then the listing agent might as well not say anything and simply pass information back and forth without adding any value.
Furthermore, it’s likely that the listing agent may owe more loyalty to the seller because the seller is the existing client with a contractual relationship with the agent. Plus, the seller is the one who actually pays the agent’s commission!
Pro Tip: Read our article on what’s the difference between a seller’s agent and a buyer’s agent to learn more about the roles, incentives and motivations of each type of real estate agent.
No. Not only are the services of a buyer’s agent free, it’s also uncommon to sign any sort of Exclusive Right to Represent Buyer Agreement in NYC.
That means buyers are always free to switch agents or even work with multiple agents if they wish. The latter is discouraged as it’s simply not a nice thing to do.
In fact, the only time you might see an exclusivity agreement signed by a buyer is if the buyer is internationally based and highly dependent on their buyer’s agent.
Even then, there will be tons of agents who’d be happy to work with foreign buyers of NYC property without making them sign an exclusivity agreement.
A Full Service Listing for 1%
Sell your home with a traditional full service listing for just one percent commission.
You should work with someone experienced who specializes in NYC real estate sale transactions. This is equally important when choosing a real estate lawyer as when choosing a buyer’s agent.
The last thing you’ll want is to choose a friend, distant relative or acquaintance who is utterly unfamiliar with NYC real estate. That one mistake can cost you dearly, much more than the relative cost of the professional in the first place.
We recommend working with one of Hauseit’s experienced partner brokers who hail from some of the most established and reputable real estate brokerage firms in New York City.
Best of all, you’ll be able to receive a closing gift worth $20,000 or more on the average home purchase in NYC through Hauseit’s Buyer Closing Credit program.
Even better, because all of our partner brokers are traditional firms who never openly discount their services, no one will know you’re getting a better deal.
As a result, listing agents won’t treat you or our partner brokers any differently. After all, our partner brokers work closely with the wider brokerage community on a daily basis on a variety of deals, many of which are full commission. This means you’ll truly get the real thing for a better deal!
Disclosure: Commissions are not set by law or any Realtor® association or MLS and are fully negotiable. No representation, guarantee or warranty of any kind is made regarding the completeness or accuracy of information provided. Square footage numbers are only estimates and should be independently verified. No legal, tax, financial or accounting advice provided.
