Over the course of my 22 years of selling real estate I have concentrated on listing properties for sellers, rather than representing buyers. The axiom in real estate is, ‘list to last’, and approximately 9 out of 10 properties I’ve sold have been for sellers. Don’t get me wrong, I like working with buyers and in fact I have two I’m actively working with currently. I especially enjoy working with buyer friends, family, past clients and referrals because those can be the most fulfilling transactions.
The issue of working with buyers vs. sellers is often timing. Take for instance a buyer who I helped purchase a property in Fairfax a few years back. We worked together for about 2 years, showing properties and writing offers on and off before we made it happen. That kind of time frame is not atypical when representing buyers. Some buyers are able to make it happen right away, which is always a blessing, but for the most part when you are representing a buyer you are often in it for the long haul.
When representing sellers, it’s so much different. You propose a marketing strategy, sign a listing, and execute your plan. Sometimes it takes a week to get a property ready, other times it can take a month or more depending on what it needs. The process of representing a seller is usually much quicker than representing a buyer. There’s also the issue of never really knowing if a buyer is going to find what they want, or if and when they eventually do, will they be priced out of the market. When you represent a seller, you know what they are going to sell and when. Depending on the market conditions and pricing strategy, you are practically guaranteed half of a transaction. That is not the case when representing buyers.
In regards to getting priced out, ask almost any agent and they’ll tell you they’d rather be on the receiving end of multiple offers than the giving end. When you get multiple offers, which is typical in our market, you know you are going to sell. When you write an offer that is one of many being reviewed by the sellers, your chances of getting an accepted offer go down with each additional offer on the property. If your buyer is not aggressive, their chances of acceptance are extremely slim. It's not unusual to see properties overbid by $100,000 or more when the market is hot.
Back in 2010 after the market crashed, I represented a couple who wrote 16 offers with me before they got one accepted. That’s a personal record for me I hope never to break. Eventually they ended up doing 5 transactions with me so it was worth it. The biggest issue is the learning curve when writing offers. Buyers and their agents need to learn market values and make compelling offers, rather than just writing low ball offers and hoping one eventually gets accepted.
As I mentioned before, currently I’m working with two active buyers. If another comes along, I’ll make time for them, but I’m a long way from following one broker’s advice. She recommended working with 20 buyers at a time! The broker's reasoning was that most buyers were not active at the same time. In reality, any number of buyers can become active at the same time, and often they are interested in the same properties in low inventory markets. That creates a real dilemma because you can't write offers for two clients on the same property. One of them is going to need to be referred to another agent and feel like they are a second fiddle.
On a personal note, buyers most often look at properties after work and on weekends. There are literally not enough days in the week or time on weekends to work effectively more than a couple of active buyers. Working with a lot buyers at one time leaves little room for a personal life. And professionally I can’t see offering a respectable level of service to more than a handful of active buyers at any one time.