What Is A Buyer Consultation?

How Can A Buyer Consultation Help You?

When determining how to choose the right real estate agent, there’s no one-size-fits-all process. You could go off recommendations from friends and family or online reviews, but sometimes there’s no substitute for a one-on-one meeting with someone, whether in person or virtually.

Having a sort of interview process will help you determine whether you and the REALTOR^® or real estate agent are a good match. While not comprehensive, here’s a sample of questions you can ask an agent:

• How much experience do you have working in the area I’m looking to buy?
• How many home purchases have you negotiated in my budget range?
• What should I understand about the local housing market?
• Knowing my situation, what’s your biggest piece of advice?
• When are you available and what’s your preferred method of communication? If I’m ready to make an offer, how quickly can you make that happen?
• What services are you offering?
• How would you be paid? What’s your fee structure?

Are Buyer Consultations Free?

Real estate agents usually don’t charge for buyer consultations because it’s a chance for you and the agent to get to know whether you would be a good fit to work together in your home buying process.

If you move forward and sign a buyer’s agency agreement, the cost of this initial meeting may be contemplated in their fee. But you likely won’t have to pay if you don’t move forward after the initial meeting.

What Does A Buyer Consultation Cover?

When interviewing agents during a buyer consultation, expect to cover the following topics. Use these as a guideline to make sure you get your questions answered.

Home Buying Process And Timeline

As table stakes, a real estate agent should demonstrate that they have full understanding of and can answer all your questions about the home buying process. Some of these things may come up naturally as you go over your situation and where you’re at in the process, but expect them to touch on the following issues and traits unique to your market:

• Preapproval
• Home pricing and value trends
• The offer process
• Appraisal
• Home inspection
• Closing

They also need to have a full understanding of your timeline so that they can negotiate with sellers if you need to move in right away or build more time in to potentially get children through the school year, for example.

What To Expect From Your Market

The agent should be able to discuss in great detail what you can expect in your market. Whether it’s a buyer’s or seller’s market has a major impact on the negotiating leverage you may have.

Among the things they should know in addition to what price houses are selling for is what you can expect to pay in terms of an earnest money deposit to hold the house under contract while you go through the mortgage process. Others include how common seller concessions are and the leeway you might have to negotiate based on issues that come up in the home inspection.

When And How To Get Preapproved

The agent will be able to go over when and how you get preapproved and what preapproval actually means for you. The terms prequalification and preapproval are often misused, even by people who do this for a living.

A prequalification is merely you providing a lender with a verbal or written estimate of your debts, income and assets to determine what you may be able to afford. A preapproval involves verifying income and assets through documentation and pulling your credit report to get your credit score and a full picture of existing debts.

Rocket Mortgage^® calls preapproval a Verified Approval¹ to avoid confusion. But it’s worth noting that many sellers and their listing agents won’t consider your offer unless it’s backed by a documented preapproval. This helps put them at ease that you have the resources to follow through on your offer.

What You’re Looking For In A House

Based on your description of what you’re looking for and the needs of you and your housemates, a good real estate agent should be able to go over additional questions that come to mind for them in determining the type of house they should be looking for on your behalf. If they’re not asking questions, it may be an indication that they’re not going deep enough.

What Can The Agent Offer?

We’ll get into payment in a minute, but regardless of who does the paying and how much it costs, you’re interviewing someone whose job it is to provide you a service. So they need to sell you on what they can do for you at what cost. You should make sure you have all of your questions answered. Make sure you feel comfortable with what they’re going to do for you.

Fee Structure And Payment

To attract the biggest potential pool of buyers, sellers in the past have often paid the fee for agents, who were paid on commission out of the sales price, with a split between the agents.

Agents may still be paid on commission, but you may also pay them in a flat fee for various services offered on an à la carte basis. You should also look for how long you might have to work exclusively with them in your search before changing agents if it’s not working out.

One of the most important things to know is that how much you pay and who pays is negotiable between you, your agent and the seller. It may be possible your offer may be accepted if you’re offering a slightly lower price, but you pay all or part of the fees for your agent. That all plays into the math a seller has to do.

Meeting Online For A Buyer Consultation

Assessing The Meeting: Did Your Consultation Go Well?

Once you’ve met with one or several real estate agents, you can ask yourself the following questions to determine who would be best for you to move forward with?

Was The Real Estate Agent Easy To Talk To?

You’ll be working with this person for quite a while in undertaking one of the biggest personal decisions and financial transactions most people will ever deal with. Given that, having good communication and getting the right vibe from this person isn’t to be underestimated. You should be on the same wavelength so that you can get the house you need.

Did The Agent Give You A Clear Picture Of The Home Buying Process?

While some people have already bought and sold several houses by the time they interact with a particular agent, having someone who understands the ins and outs of the home buying process can be a good indicator that you’re making the right move. Someone with command of the process can be a problem solver and help you pivot or figure out how to overcome a hurdle if unexpected issues come up.

The home buying process is also complicated and everyone deserves a guide who can serve as part teacher, part psychologist and part expert negotiator.

Does The Agent Understand Your Needs?

A real estate agent who instinctively gets what you want and need after initial conversations can be invaluable because there’s both unnecessary time and stress placed upon you if you attend a bunch of open houses and showings for homes that don’t come close to matching the vision you have in your head.

Funds are never unlimited, and it’s not always realistic that you’re going to find a house that has everything you want within your budget. But a good agent will find the best match between your resources and your list of needs and wants from your abode.

The Bottom Line: Use A Buyer Consultation To Help Choose Your Agent

A buyer consultation can help you determine whether you and the real estate agent are a good fit. Don’t be afraid to interview several agents. You want someone who can help you through the entire process, understands your needs and is easy to talk to. Also make sure you understand how they will be paid and how long you have to work with them if it’s not working out.

One of the most important things you can do is get a mortgage approval early on so you and your agent have an understanding of how much you can afford when house shopping. If you’re ready, you can apply with Rocket Mortgage!

¹ Participation in the Verified Approval program is based on an underwriter’s comprehensive analysis of your credit, income, employment status, assets and debt. If new information materially changes the underwriting decision resulting in a denial of your credit request, if the loan fails to close for a reason outside of Rocket Mortgage’s control, including, but not limited to satisfactory insurance, appraisal and title report/search, or if you no longer want to proceed with the loan, your participation in the program will be discontinued. If your eligibility in the program does not change and your mortgage loan does not close due to a Rocket Mortgage error, you will receive the $1,000. This offer does not apply to new purchase loans submitted to Rocket Mortgage through a mortgage broker. Rocket Mortgage reserves the right to cancel this offer at any time. Acceptance of this offer constitutes the acceptance of these terms and conditions, which are subject to change at the sole discretion of Rocket Mortgage. Additional conditions or exclusions may apply.

² Rocket Homes^® is a registered trademark licensed to Rocket Homes Real Estate LLC. The Rocket Homes^SM Logo is a service mark licensed to Rocket Homes Real Estate LLC. Rocket Homes Real Estate LLC fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act. For Rocket Homes Real Estate LLC license numbers, visit  RocketHomes.com/license-numbers. California DRE #01804478. Hawaii License # RB-23371. TREC: Information about brokerage services, Consumer protection notice.