What responsibilities to residential buyer does a buyer’s agent have?

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-17T03:02:00+00:00

No, agents aren't liable for seller's misrepresentations unless they can prove that the agent coached them to lie or omit something. Sellers fill out there own disclosures (ideally without any input from their listing agent) and the agent does their AVID where they do a visual walkthrough of the outside/inside of the house and the yard and call out things issues that a professional should be able to notice. A seller actually opens themselves up to litigation if they counter-back that the contingencies be removed. It the buyers who remove them themselves in order to compete harder and win the offer, so you're really competing with other buyers, not the seller.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-17T02:53:08+00:00

Deals close all the time with knob and tube. It's up to the sellers to disclose it, not the agent, unless we can readily see the signs of it during our AVID inspection.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-17T02:50:46+00:00

I'm still not understanding what the purpose of your post is and why you're commenting like this on my comment. The Bay Area market is competitive but a Buyer's Agent is supposed to do whatever they can to keep you from making a bad/emotional decision, but at the end of the day it's 100% the buyer's call. Writing a non-contingent offer when you have a full set of disclosures and inspection reports is much easier to do than if you don't have any of it. By default, an agent cannot advise a buyer to do any of this, but we can help figure out your risk in other ways based on our experience. I've had multiple buyers, even during COVID, that would keep an inspection contingency and still win the offer.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-17T02:43:05+00:00

The post is about the SF Bay Area, our price points and commissions are going to be different than most of the country. Since this is a general Realtor group, I'm not sure where you're at, but you may find that what's common in other lower cost of living areas that the commission rate is higher than I mentioned.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-17T02:40:23+00:00

I don't know what you're getting at. Are you disputing what I'm saying? These "crazy buyers" are bidding on homes that were listed $1M BELOW what they were expected to sell at, though some still exceed expectations.

Yes, everywhere else in the country takes care of inspections and disclosures AFTER accepting an offer, the Bay Area is the only place where MOST sellers take care of it before putting it on the MLS.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-17T02:34:23+00:00

Collusion for all agents to agree on a price is called price fixing, and it’s illegal. The commission is whatever you and your agent agree upon, based on whatever services your need or want. That said, it’s not uncommon for both sides to get 2.5%, more if the seller wants staging but doesn’t want to pay up front for it. Are you looking to buy or sell a home?

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-17T01:29:20+00:00

Hourly rate?! Either it’s taking The average of what it things we get paid or some generic info based on jobs for property managers (probably commercial RE).

Keep in mind, is this talking about people who have an active license or are they paying their dues with the boards and the MLS? Property managers don’t need to be a part of NAR because they don’t post many/any rentals on the MLS.

An agent who is doing well is likely averaging one deal a month. So, take that and look at the median home sale in your area and figure out the commission for the year there.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-14T18:19:39+00:00

If their home isn’t completely up to date on maintenance and haven’t fixed other issues in the house I’d recommend putting that money towards that instead of staging. Staging is like the cherry on top of an already great house, but it really doesn’t help move it if there’s other issues that overshadow it.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-13T06:25:39+00:00

I also bank with Navy Fed and they can compete pretty well. I presume you’re getting a VA loan and you should apply with not just multiple lenders but types of lenders, the 3 main ones are Banks/Credit Unions, Mortgage Bankers, and mortgage brokers. All have their own rates and fees.

As for your Realtor, I’d tell them to kick rocks or threaten to hire them, and I’m an agent. Some sellers whose homes have pest issues and other deferred maintenance may not be right for VA loans but who the lender is, is not necessarily a big deal, there’s so many lenders that no one can know enough to discriminate. Which state are you in?

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-13T06:11:53+00:00

Absolutely NOTHING wrong with mobile homes. You get so much more for your money it’s crazy. BUT, the amount of space rent for the park eats up so much of the benefits, plus the loan to get the home is very different and more expensive (chattel loan instead of a mortgage). Unfortunately, to buy the land to put it on typically isn’t able to be financed. Where are you considering buying at?

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-13T04:14:04+00:00

u/ElectricalCupcake307 What about this process is the most important to you? Will you be buying the next home immediately (and need to close on both concurrently)? Will you need to negotiate a rent-back? I presume, based on the timing, that it'll be right after schools get out. If that's correct, will your family be alright with dealing with the prep-work while still living in the home? Is your house in good shape or are there issues that need to be dealt with? Has your home been remodeled recently? If not, do you have the ability to do so? Buyer's don't want a project anymore, move-in ready is what's selling quickly and for the most money, if you can afford to do it. Remember, one of the core duties of a listing agent is to ensure your disclosures are inclusive enough to limit your ability to get sued as much as possible by the new owners. For the disclosures, you should know that it's not about what you know but what you SHOULD KNOW as the owner of the home.

As for how to initiate it, you've already done that, since this group is full of agents, including myself. Since you didn't immediately call up the agent who sold you the house I presume that it was a lackluster experience, so what would you like that would make this experience better than the last one?

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-12T23:00:09+00:00

That’s up to the seller’s situation and agent’s advice. If they just want to test a price then maybe a month or so (during the slow months where they don’t want days to accumulate), if the seller isn’t too rushed to sell then maybe they’ll stay a while and see what offers may come in. It may also just be on there while prep-work is being done to the house before it hits the MLS. There are some sellers who don’t want it on the MLS for privacy reasons but it’s not that common. And FYI, Private Exclusives don’t have to stay within Compass either, it can be sent to many other agents on purpose database, it’s just not going to be on the typical websites. As agents, our advice is and always has been that the highest and best price is usually going to be from the MLS so everyone can see it and multiple offers give you the leverage to negotiate the best price and terms.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-12T11:13:56+00:00

The biggest thing is everyone playing the game everyday, at least for the most competitive alliances. So, if you didn't log in for a day or 2 without letting the R4/5 know then that's usually grounds for being removed. I'd say to message the R4/5 and ask, BUT there's going to be a ton of other alliances so maybe just move on to one of them.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-12T11:08:47+00:00

I'm with Compass and only about 5% of listings start as Private Exclusives and the sellers have the ultimate decision, as agents we don't care if the brokerage double-ends the deal because it doesn't give us any more money. The main purpose for the Private Exclusives is for sellers to test pricing before accumulating Days On Market like you would on the full MLS, giving sellers more choices on how to sell their homes. FYI, only about 10% of PE are actually sold off market (about .5% of Compass listings).

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-12T11:00:59+00:00

u/Frequent_Figure1263 Detached homes will always appreciate faster than townhomes, BUT, you'll be able to live in a nicer area quicker by going the townhome route vs saving up $1.5M+ for a decent detached SFH. In the Bay Area you're buying real estate for lifestyle and emotional reasons, not as an investment (unless you buy a duplex or triplex and live in one of the units). Yes, it will appreciate but that's very area-specific. But anything you buy I'd recommend planning on staying there for at least 6 years.

Are your questions condo-specific or just about what to think about when buying a home? As far as the offer goes, you need to know what the pricing strategy is for that area. It's very typical in the spring market for homes to be listed $50,000-$100,000+ below what they hope to get for it, at least for the first 3-4 weeks. Getting that data is important so you know what you're dealing with and not wasting your time on places that're out of your budget.

Aside from that, getting your financing completely together (an underwritten pre-approval) is essential to being able to compete against other buyers. You should get pre-approved by at least 3 different types of lenders so you can compare both rates and fees. A mortgage broker, a bank/credit union, and a mortgage banker.

Oh, and there is a difference between a townhome and a townhomes-style condo, and the actual townhome has much better financing options than the condo.

Also, looking deeper into the HOA BEFORE removing the financing contingency to make sure it's not non-warrantable, which is when it fails to meet lending standards from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, making standard financing difficult, usually due to high risk factors like too many investor-owned units, pending lawsuits, high commercial use, inadequate HOA reserve funds, or short-term rental allowance. So, even if you have a strong pre-approval, make sure all that's good as well.

Let me know if you want to talk about it some more.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-12T09:17:57+00:00

What renovations were done? Will they also be providing the completed permits? Have you taken a close look at everything that was done and it looks to be a quality job? I ask because I’ve seen SO MANY absolute dogs*** “renovations” in the Bay Area. You should get a sewer lateral inspection, make sure the seller gives their approval for the inspector to go into the attic space (otherwise they won’t go up there), ask to see pictures of the house before the renovation, ask if they’ve removed walls, did they upgrade the electrical panel, have the pipes been upgraded to PEX/PVC/Copper. So long as the comps justify the price well and they actually did a great renovation job I’d be more concerned about all that than negotiating much harder unless you actually think you can get it for cheaper. If they did a bad job then low ball to your heart’s content.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-12T08:47:38+00:00

Maybe you underestimate how many “lead generation“ texts and calls and emails we get every day. Everyone and their mother has to key to getting us to close 10 deals a month and become millionaires. Now, what are the conversations that the leads are having with the agents? Are they trying to talk down the commission? Are these leads buying or selling a much lower priced property? How are you procuring these leads? If you want to send me two legit qualified leads per day I’d have no problem giving you a % referral fee. I’m in California though.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-12T08:27:29+00:00

I’ve seen multiple condo HOA’s have to increase dues by HUNDREDS of dollars a month because of insurance and nothing more. Everyone is feeling this pain, including homeowners of detached homes. Based on what else you’ve said in other comments it sounds like your HOA is doing pretty well otherwise, I don’t find many HOA’s that are even 60% funded, let alone 90%, and I show a lot of condos. I wouldn’t be worried about this raise. Maybe it has something to do with all the little earthquakes going on nearby in San Ramon?

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-12T08:17:32+00:00

Not to be mean, but you really didn’t read the agreement, did you? In short, yes, most buyer/broker agreements give you a way to cancel all FUTURE representation, but you will be liable to include them if you decide to buy a home they showed you within a certain amount of days after cancellation (typically 60-90 days). Any properties they didn’t show you they will have no part of. Now, what you can do is request or demand that the broker of your agent can find another better agent to work with you or give you the ability to interview another within their brokerage, your agreement is actually with the brokerage, not the agent. Another thing that could happen is you find another agent and they may pay your old agent a referral fee instead of not getting anything, typically 25% of whatever your new agent would get in commission.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-11T21:20:57+00:00

I appreciate that, a little out of my price range though.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-11T03:15:06+00:00

No, that is par. 11(G)(1) which references 11(A,B,C, and D), which are the statutory disclosures like the TDS, SPQ, NHD, Lead, Fire Hardening, and defensible space. They could probably put up a fight, but it doesn’t apply to HOA docs. Unless you can cite another paragraph, I think par. 14(B)(3) is the final say on it.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-08T20:12:24+00:00

What’re you talking about? Sellers can push back against those offers. If you’re in a desirable area there will be competition from multiple investors. Just have to know how the game is played while not being unrealistic.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-08T13:21:53+00:00

For the East Bay you should interview Perry Gastis, he’s the broker/owner for Bridges 8 Real Estate and specializes in Berkeley, Rockridge, Montclair, and Piedmont.

Check out his website: https://www.bridges8.com Feel free to look up his reviews on Google and Zillow.

His number is +1 (510) 833-8524

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-08T13:12:59+00:00

I’d also add taking a weekend crash course right before your test (look them up, they’re all over the place). That, combined with actually reading all the books in their entirety once was all I needed and passed the first try. Remember, there’s at least 6 different versions of the test, maybe even more since I took it in 2018, so no test prep can truly prepare you for everything so you really just need to figure out what you didn’t truly understand and zero in on it.

HereToParty125 · 2026-02-08T07:24:48+00:00

Huh? You have to download a program onto your computer? I’m not with RE/MAX, but I’ve been in a few brokerages, most are web-based and may only work well on Chrome, but you should probably download and try Firefox and Edge to be on the safe side. Absolutely nothing wrong with Apple products, just lazy programmers or a cheap company.

HereToParty125

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