Use a lawyer instead of a buyer's agent?

Advice
1

I am skeptical about the value of a buyer’s agent (for me, the buyer), so I am considering hiring a fixed fee real estate lawyer instead. I have two concerns:

  1. Will some sellers (or their agents) refuse to show me their house if I have a lawyer instead of a real estate agent? Will they assume that an unrepresented buyer will be more burdensome (in some way) and not worth the trouble?
  2. How will most sellers react to the following offer: “Since you will not have to pay anything to my agent, at closing give me a credit of 50% of the buyer’s agent commission that you are offering, which saves money for both of us.” I have heard that sometimes, if the buyer doesn’t have an agent, then the seller’s agent pockets both the seller commission and the buyer commission, in which case my offer wouldn’t help the seller at all.

Note that I am looking for houses in a moderately priced city where the market isn’t especially hot or cold.

5 Likes
2

Whether you have an agent or not a lawyer is a good investment, they have a fixed fee and no skim in the game they are only there to serve you.

1 Like
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I am letting my sellers decide whether or not I will show unrepresented buyers. I am not willing to spend an hour or more for every lookie-loo or wanna-be buyer that is trying to evade paying me for my time.

If my seller wants to pay me to take time for them, I absolutely will do that. The house I listed yesterday was the first actual listing where I’ve needed to discuss this with a seller. My seller’s response was that he would prefer me to tell buyers they must obtain their own representation in order to see the home. (In my areas, attorneys may sign up for access to homes, and so they can show them if they want to.)

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4

Who are you going to be asking to show you the home?
Is the lawyer you spoke with going to be writing up all of the offers individually or just handling it after the offer is submitted by you? (I find it funny I’m getting down voted for asking legitimate questions. I don’t care either way and assumed it would be open houses. But be mad?)