How does hiring a realtor work?

When you are looking to buy a home that is listed with a real estate office a commission is already figured into the price for both the listing agent and the selling agent, so there should be no out of pocket costs for using a Realtor of your own unless you buy a For Sale By Owner, (FSBO). For this reason alone it is a very good idea to find a Realtor you are comfortable with. If you go it alone and call each listing agent about homes you are interested in they are working for both parties in the sale. By finding your own agent you can be sure you have someone who is looking out for you and only you.

Hope this helps,

Josh

You are better off using a realtor.. a realtor will be able to know the legalities of the real estate transaction, will be able to draw up the legal paperwork, work with title companies, do negotiations and also take you on walk throughs. You can't go into many homes for sale without a realtor.. many sellers will only allow realtors to enter their home with prospective buyers. The seller will pay your realtor a commission.. it will cost you nothing accept around $350-$400 for the home inspection. In this market, your realtor can even negotiate the closing costs being picked up by the seller. Make sure that when hiring a realtor though.. do your homework on the realtor. Ask questions, get a referred realtor.. ask for references of people the realtor sold homes for in the past.. also ask the realtor about their portfolio. If they say they sold 20 homes in 2007, ask out of how many they listed. They could have sold 20 out of 20 listed.. a good thing. But if they sold 20 out of 60 listings.. that is bad. Make sure your realtor is experienced. Newbies are money hungry and take any deal that is thrown at them, without doing their homework on the deal or the buyer first. Unfortunately, when I sold my home, I got stuck with a terrible realtor that ended up costing me over $40k in losses because of bad judgement on her part. Best of Luck.

A good experienced Realtor can help you find the home, and help you find a good mortgage company, home inspector and help you thru the process. Part of the process is the negotiating, not just the price but all sorts of terms.

The Realtor is normally paid from the commission that the seller pays so there is not any money coming out of your pocket for your Realtors commission.

There is no out of pocket cost when you hire a Realtor. Realtor's get paid when they close a deal.

Being a buyer, when you buy a house lets just say $300,000. the seller will pay for the commission of the listing agent and the buying agent.(average commission 6%) Total commission would be $18,000.