This is part 2 of our 8 part series on how to buy a home without a realtor. This guide will help you understand how to tour homes without a realtor.
After August 17, 2024, all agents will be required to sign a buyer’s representations agreement before they can show you a home. I’m sure a lot of people will be concerned about getting into an exclusive relationship with an agent so early on, since a lot of us already have obvious commitment issues :-).
But at the end of the day, we still want to see the home before making an offer on the home. Pictures just don’t do it, and not every home will have a video tour. Seeing the home with our own eyes will help us see more than what a video shows.
So here’s how to tour a home without a realtor. I will include an unethical method to tour homes as well. Whether or not to use it is your decision.
This is the most straightforward option. Going to a scheduled open house on a Saturday or Sunday is the easiest way to tour the home. In fact, agents love it when you go to their open house. It gives them someone to talk to.
There are some downsides of waiting to see a home during open house. One is that during a hot market, the home might be listed on Tuesday, with an open house scheduled on Saturday.
In a hot market, this home might already received an offer by Wednesday and is under contract by Thursday. And you just missed out on an opportunity to submit an offer on this home.
The chance of this is small but not impossible.
This brings us to the second method of seeing a home without a realtor — seeing it with another realtor.
The listing agent is another realtor/real estate agent who represents the seller.
Typically, the listing agent doesn’t show the home to buyers, that’s what a buyer’s agent do.
Since the listing agent represents the seller, and they have a fiduciary duty to the seller, if you asked a listing agent a question about the home while you are touring the home with them, they will act in the seller’s best interest when talking to you.
This was a big reason why buyer’s agency was created in the first place.
A long time ago, buyer’s agent and seller’s agent both held fiduciary duties to the seller.
But with real estate regulations, buyer’s representations are created and buyer’s agent have to keep the best interest of their buyer in mind.
Before the NAR settlement, buyer’s agent have been mostly been compensated by the seller, even though they represent the buyers. Now with the NAR settlement, I think a lot more sellers will opt to not offer buyer’s agent commission, meaning the buyer will be paying out-of-pocket at closing. The effect is unknown but I think this will make home buying even more difficult to the middle class.
This is a longwinded way of saying, you can ask the listing agent to schedule a tour. But when you tour the home with the listing agent, keep in mind that they work for the seller. Any information you give out could be used during negotiations. And any information you get from the seller’s agent I won’t put too much weight into them.
The above are the ethical ways of touring a home without a realtor. The following method is somewhat in the gray area so do it at your own discretion.
Due to the NAR settlement change, brokerages are now required to sign a representation agreement with the buyer before they start working together. And touring the home is part of working together.
But I’m sure many buyers will not want to sign an exclusive agreement with an agent just to tour a home. This is where Zillow comes in.
Zillow, to my surprise, really put forward an innovated way to make help buyers and agents work together. They are promoting a non-exclusive agreement that buyers can sign with Zillow agents to tour homes. This agreement also doesn’t require compensations for tours, doesn’t require exclusivity and it expires after 7 days.
Whether you consider this an unethical way to tour homes if your eventual goal is to buy a home without a realtor as we teach here at diyhomebuyer.com is really up to you. One could argue that Zillow put in place a system that promotes this behavior.
But if you want a better way to tour a home without a realtor, I am working on this exciting new way to tour homes.
Here at diyhomebuyer.com we are focused on creating a world where you can buy a home without a realtor. We are working on solutions that help you navigate the entire home purchase process by yourself, including our latest product offering how to write and submit an offer without a realtor.
We also partnered with www.lawyersrightnow.com to help you find certified flat fee real estate lawyers to help you write and submit an offer without a realtor.
Now we are working on a solution to allow buyers to get access to tour homes without a realtor. We are working with folks at CLEAR, yes the airport identification people, to allow its members to get access to tour homes without a realtor.
This is an exciting development but I need your support. If you are interested in early access of this product, sign up for DIY Unlock today.
