Ron is a pretty smart guy. In this market, he thought he'd find a low-priced foreclosure home to buy for under $100,000
He got his master's at Stanford and was well on his way to a great career in solar technology. He was out on his morning jog one crisp fall morning when something caught his eye. He'd passed this real estate office a dozen times in the past month, but this time he recognized a building only a block from his rental apartment. There on his right was the picture of loft condo for sale, and it said it was a foreclosure property.. He couldn't help himself. He made a U-turn and walked right into the office to find out more about the property.
Ron had a bit of life experience under his belt an thought he'd ask right away for the manager or owner of the company to tell him about the foreclosure condo. He was in sales and knew that the regular working sales force typically had to break out a fairly significant portion of their commissions to the company. He'd learned at his old job that the more experienced sales people or managers usually had to give up much less of their commission split to the company hierarchy, and thus might have a bit more "wiggle room" when it came to final negotiations.
The person at the front desk greeted him with big smile and said the manager wasn't in that day, but that she knew Angela had all of the details of that particular condo right at her fingertips. Would he like to talk with her?
Angela had overheard the conversation and was already headed his way. What could he do but extend his hand and say hello? Angela told Ron that property had just been listed and she was free right then to give him a quick tour. Ron hesitated a minute--his gut told him he shouldn't be doing this. But his curiosity about the condo was overwhelming, and it was so close by, he could take a quick look & still have plenty of time to get to work.
He saw the loft with Angela, and an then she showed him an even better one in the same building. Angela was extremely engaging and enthusiastic and offered to help him compare this condo with other properties to see what a great value it was.
Ron had to get to work, so she gave him her card. She said she had been in real estate for 2 years and would love to help him further. He started feeling loyal to Angela as she had gone out of her way to assist him on no notice.
Once Ron got home, he realized he'd forgotten all about proactively choosing a real estate agent. He looked up her bio on the internet and found out that while she had her license, other agents within her same office had some impressive-sounding designations. One salesperson, Robert, looked like an awesome agent who had also graduated from Stanford! He also had a whole string of educational designations next to his name: ABR, CRS, e-Pro, CIPS...It also appeared he had grown up in the very neighborhood where Ron lived and said he was very knowledgeable about foreclosures. He couldn't tell from the web site who the manager or owner was.
Ron had a sinking feeling in his stomach that it would be impossible to switch over to anyone else at this point. He was convinced this was a great deal and that he should take up Angela's offer to look at more comparable properties that week. But Ron had read in the Kipplinger guide that he should have a buyer's agent BEFORE going to look at properties, and he knew in this market he would need a person with top negotiating skills. So....NOW what to do?
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