How a buyer's agent can save you time and money

In fact, in a recent survey, moving house was revealed to top the list of most stressful life events. Although this is easy to understand when you consider the amount of money involved and the large range of properties on the market, there are certain ways to reduce the stress and even turn the event into a positive and exciting experience.

The key of course is having the right help on hand and knowing which expertise is truly worth taking advantage of. One example of such a role is that of a buyer's agent.

What is a buyer's agent?

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If you are wondering how an agent is going to save you both time and money, then it is possible that you first need to understand exactly what it is that a buyer's agent does. As the name suggests this particular real estate position is responsible for the interests of the buyer and the individual works for them in numerous ways. The work they take on covers many areas and aspects of the property purchasing procedure and they tend to take on roles throughout the process. The aim of what they do is to assist the buyer in finding a property that meets all requirements and to proceed in helping them to secure the property for a fair and reasonable price. Ultimately, buyer agents will save the buyer a considerable amount of time and hopefully a significant amount of money. This is achieved in various ways.

Saving you time

Most of us, living in this modern and hectic world, don't have an awful lot of spare time on our hands. Unfortunately, house hunting is a fairly time consuming activity, and given the amount of money that is potentially going to be changing hands, you don't want to skimp with regards to the amount of time you commit to the search. What you can do however is leave the time consuming parts of the job to the buyer's agent, leaving you with enough time to do the important jobs. This essentially means allowing the agent to trawl through the endless numbers of listings and to create a list of properties that tick all of your 'wants' and 'needs' boxes. You can then spend your valuable free time reviewing this shortlist and visiting the ones that pique your interest. This is a major time saver, but there are many other tasks that they are able to carry out on your behalf, such as speaking with vendors, negotiating prices and bidding at auction.

Saving you money

Of course, as well as time, we are all looking to save ourselves some money wherever or whenever possible as well. This is the other big benefit of investing in a buyer's agent, as long as they do their job properly, they may well save you some bucks or certainly help you get the most out of the money you spend. Negotiating can be considered a skill, and is not necessarily one that we all possess. Agents however, have the experience and industry insight that provides them with a definite advantage when it comes to negotiating for the best price. They also have the emotional detachment that allows them to walk away from the deal when necessary.

When it comes to a buyer's agent fee, it generally makes the most sense to pay a flat out sum and make the most of your agent throughout the entire process. Don't expect to pay individually for services unless there is just one very specific area that requires expert help or assistance, such as bidding for a property at auction. This is one area that sometimes even the most experienced property buyers find that they would rather leave to the hands of the objective and unemotionally attached professionals. In general however, homebuyers are able to recognise the benefits of having a buyer's agent offering them support and advice throughout every aspect and stage of the property hunt and transaction.