Understanding Agency

Understand Agency Relationships

It’s important to understand what legal responsibilities your real estate salesperson has to you and to other parties in the transaction. Ask what type of agency relationship your agent has with you:

Seller’s representative (also known as a listing agent or seller’s agent)

A seller’s agent is hired by and represents the seller. All fiduciary duties are owed to the seller. The agency relationship usually is created by a listing contract. 

Buyer’s representative (also known as a buyer’s agent)

A buyer’s agent is hired by prospective buyers to represent them in a real estate transaction. The buyer’s rep works in the buyer’s best interest throughout the transaction and owes fiduciary duties to the buyer. The buyer can pay the licensee directly through a negotiated fee, or the buyer’s rep may be paid by the seller or through a commission split with the seller’s agent.

Subagent

A subagent owes the same fiduciary duties to the agent’s customer as the agent does. Subagency usually arises when a cooperating sales associate from another brokerage, who is not the buyer’s agent, shows property to a buyer. In such a case, the subagent works with the buyer as a customer but owes fiduciary duties to the listing broker and the seller. Although a subagent cannot assist the buyer in any way that would be detrimental to the seller, a buyer-customer can expect to be treated honestly by the subagent. It is important that subagents fully explain their duties to buyers.

Disclosed dual agent

Dual agency is a relationship in which the brokerage firm represents both the buyer and the seller in the same real estate transaction. Dual agency relationships do not carry with them all of the traditional fiduciary duties to clients. Instead, dual agents owe limited fiduciary duties. Because of the potential for conflicts of interest in a dual-agency relationship, it’s vital that all parties give their informed consent. In many states, this consent must be in writing. Disclosed dual agency, in which both the buyer and the seller are told that the agent is representing both of them, is legal in most states.

Designated agent (also called appointed agent)

This is a brokerage practice that allows the managing broker to designate which licensees in the brokerage will act as an agent of the seller and which will act as an agent of the buyer. Designated agency avoids the problem of creating a dual-agency relationship for licensees at the brokerage. The designated agents give their clients full representation, with all of the attendant fiduciary duties. The broker still has the responsibility of supervising both groups of licensees.

Nonagency relationship (called, among other things, a transaction broker or facilitator)

Some states permit a real estate licensee to have a type of nonagency relationship with a consumer. These relationships vary considerably from state to state, both as to the duties owed to the consumer and the name used to describe them. Very generally, the duties owed to the consumer in a nonagency relationship are less than the complete, traditional fiduciary duties of an agency relationship. 

Reprinted from REALTOR® magazine (REALTOR.org/realtormag) with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

Disclosure to Buyers

What Should WNY Sellers Disclose to Home Buyers?

 

What to disclose to homebuyers.

By law, real estate professionals cannot fill out any sellers’ home disclosures unless the agent is the seller or a party to the transaction. If your agent can’t tell you, ask a lawyer if you need to sign every disclosure handed you.

Read Also: Things Sellers can do make a buyers day!

Every state has its own laws regarding disclosures, so the forms will be different. A federal disclosure such as Lead-Based Paint is required for all transactions if the home was built before 1978. Chances are in most areas of Western New York you will need this form.   At the time that you sign the listing contract, your Realtor will ask you to fill these disclosures as well.

Resisting a Price Reduction may cost you money

In today’s competitive market the price you have your home listed at is very important to getting sold.  Why is it that some homes sit on the market for others and yet others sell quickly with multiple offers?  It has everything to do with Pricing your home correctly.

I know you thinking to yourself, but if I lower my price I am loosing money. If you haven’t had an offer in the past 30 days and it has been longer than that you can remember a showing it all boils down to the price of the home.   Western New York home appreciation can only be calculated once YOU close on a property that you own.

Read Also: What is Appreciation

Statements like “But Mary and John down the street sold their home for $275,000 (Sold April 7, 2007 -today is July 3, 2008) more than we have ours listed for” or “My cousin (the Civil Defense Attorney in Alabama) says we should have listed it for $25,000 more to give us room to negotiate” and my personal favorite “But on Zillow it is valued for $17,000 more” must be struck from your thoughts.

Those resources are not experts in Western New York Real Estate. They do not have all the facts that I have. As for Mary & John’s sale last year, well they had 750 square feet more than you and an oversized corner lot. Since then there have been two other sales this month, both comparable homes that sold for $20,000 less than you are listed.

I feel your pain and frustration. Those two sales are what an appraiser will use to value your home. Not the sale you want them to use. I am not here to tell you what you want to hear, I am here to tell you what you need to hear.

Read Also: Zestimates Good or Bad

Now how is that good news? Now that you understand Price is the driving factor, you are now empowered to:

1. Make a decision do you really want to sell? If not, take it off the market and wait until there is a change in the market.
2. It allows you to take a long hard look at your price and finally listen to what your Real Estate professional has told you from the start regarding price.
3. There are buyers out there. Buyers that are ready, willing and able to purchase! By making the correct price adjustments for the current market conditions you will be putting yor home in position to get SOLD.
4. Buyers will come to the table with a fair offer and they will remove as many seller objections as possible. Therefore getting you the highest amount for your home enabling you to move on to your next home.

Read also: I just want my home SOLD!

For a moment let’s talk about keeping your home on the market at the current price and condition and the cost to you by doing nothing:

• You are enabling your competition (other homes for sale) to look better because they are priced better and are more appealing than your home. Look long and hard at your competition, see why they have a SOLD sign and you do not.
• We have already established that you are over-priced, because you would not be reading this right now wondering “Why isn’t my home selling?” There is a cost of chasing the market down. Becasue that is what you are doing. Every day you have your head in the sand you are losing valuable time in getting your home Sold. The reality is: The first 30 days are the most likely time a home will sell, if it doesn’t in the first 60 days you have a 50/50 chance of selling.
• They do not have to sell, they are ready to close quickly with nothing but a Home Inspection to be done.
• They know the numbers, they know how much a roof will cost to replace, a bathroom an kitchen remodel will basically cost. They will factor this into an offer.

Read Also: How to feel confident about your home purchase

Admirals Walk November 2009 Market Report

Current Market Conditions for Admirals Walk

November 6, 2009

• There are 6 active condos for sale in Admirals Walk with an average list price of $279,183 ranging from $218,900 to $439,900
• There is one pending sale and no closed sales in the past 30 days
• Year to date there has been a total of 2 closed sales in Admirals Walk with an average closed price of $249,000 spending an average of 36 days on the market
  • Highest sold $300,000 -55 days on the market
  • Lowest sold – $198,000 – 12 days on the market

Admirals Walk Condos For Sale

B294368 307 Admirals Walk Buffalo $ 218,900 B327926 406 Admirals Walk Buffalo $ 227,500 B329998 607 Admirals Walk Buffalo $ 239,900 B343686 501 Admirals Walk Buffalo $ 249,000 B349561 203 Admirals Walk # 203 Buffalo $ 299,900 B313543 704 Admirals Walk Buffalo $ 359,900 B311337 1102 Admirals Walk Buffalo $ 439,900

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Rivermist November 2009 Market Report

Buffalo Waterfront Living at the Rivermist Condos

Posted by Colleen Kulikowski in Buffalo Luxury Home Sales, Buffalo Waterfront, Condominium Living, WNY Market Report

Downtown Waterfront Living

There is a lot of interest in living in the Downtown Buffalo area, especially the Buffalo Waterfront!  The waterfront village consists of over 200 housing units and the development of the Waterfront village began in the 1970’s and was part of the Downtown Urban Renewal Plan.   The Waterfront Village consists of the following communities:

Community	Year Built	# of Units
Harbor Pointe	1981	20 Townhouses
Rivermist	1983	37 Townhouses
Breakwaters	1984	48 Townhouses
Marina Village	1984	24 Condos
Gull Landing	1987	23 Condos
Portside	1988	19 Townhouses
Admirals Walk	1988	52 Condos
50 Waterfront Circle	2001	5 Townhouses

One of these communities in the Waterfront area of Downtown Buffalo is Rivermist.   According to the MLS here are the current market conditions in Rivermist:

Current Market Report

November 6, 2009

• There are 5 active listings in Rivermist with an average list price of $520,320 ranging from $437,000 to $639,900
• There is one pending sale and no closed sales since January 1, 2009

Select Rivermist Homes for Sale

B338625 296 Rivermist Buffalo $ 437,000 B335558 196 Rivermist Buffalo $ 444,900 B327212 208 Rivermist Buffalo $ 479,900 B313018 180 Rivermist Dr Buffalo $ 599,900 B335475 116 Rivermist Buffalo $ 639,900

Review Past Rivermist Market reports »