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What does a buying agent cost? And what exactly does he/she do for that money? We’d be happy to explain a little more about this to you! If you start googling what a buying agent costs, you’ll get completely lost and still not find a concrete answer to your question.

No worries, in this article I am going to tell you WHAT a buying agent costs and more importantly, what it can cost for your situation.

But first I’ll explain to you what the cost depends on are.

The price mainly depends on:

  1. The price range you are looking for.
  2. How many time spent in the search and purchase process

Re 1. The price range

Your buying agent carries a heavy responsibility in legal terms. You hire him as a professional to assist you with actions and choices that involve an awful lot of money. If mistakes are made, then the purchasing agent can be held liable. The more expensive the home, the higher the risk for the buying agent and the higher the brokerage fee.

Re 2 How much time is involved?

How easy or how difficult is it in the area where you are looking to buy a home? In our region (Haarlem) the craze is so bad that you are often bidding against 20 others. Because of this, there are on average many hours in a purchase process and therefore we charge on average higher prices. The cost for a search and purchase process starts with us at approx. €4000,- and this increases according to the more time there is in the process.

There are also regions where there are more rates of around €2500,- will be charged because the trajectories are on average for a shorter period. Thus There is a broker in Purmerend who usually succeeds within 3 negotiations.

Purely as an indication, you will find a table below to give you an idea of the Get an idea of what the buying agent can charge you:

  Price Range >>>  
Buying opportunities: €200.000 – €300.000 €350.000 – €500.000 €550.000 – €750.000
Fast (< 5 check it out) € 2.500 € 2.500 € 4.500
Fair (5 – 8 times look) € 3.000 € 4.000 € 5.500
Difficult (> 8 times watching) € 4.000 € 5.000 € 6.000

Percentage of prices

Above we talk about fixed prices to make things visual for you. Often, brokerage fees are charged as a percentage of the purchase price. In practice, the final cost (at the bottom line) often comes to a similar amount.

Ingrowth prices

Here the brokerage fee depends on the number of viewings and/or negotiations that the broker has to do. For example, there is a fixed basic brokerage fee of €2500, – which includes 3 viewings with broker. For each additional viewing after this there will be an additional €100,-.

Performance prices

You see this a lot in a buyer’s market. There is a fixed brokerage fee and on top of that the broker gets a bonus fee of, say, 20% of every euro he can buy the property for under the asking price.

What does the buying agent do all for that money?

  1. He will conduct a search interview with you, take stock of your search requirements, provide advice on this and draw up a search profile.
  2. He will make contact with your financial advisor or he will get you in touch with a good advisor that suits you.
  3. Based on this search profile, he will actively search for you on a daily basis and the search will be automated. You get emails with homes are that suit you even before they are on Funda.
  4. If there is a nice home you want to see, the real estate agent will make an appointment for you to go see that home together.
  5. During that viewing, you will walk through the home with the realtor and he will point out areas of interest in the home.
  6. He will also do his best to obtain as much information as possible from the selling broker at that time, which is of strategic importance later on when negotiations have to start.
  7. After the viewing, the property is discussed in detail.
  8. The broker will prepare the negotiation for you. An important part of this is making a valuation of the home. He will look and compare using reference properties to determine the best possible value.
  9. The real estate agent is going to do his research, which amounts to digging out the title deed, the division deed, the land registry, the state of the soil, the questionnaire the sellers filled out, the list of things, etc. etc. If there are any peculiarities in or about the house or the plot, your buying agent will bring them to light.
  10. After this, your real estate agent will determine a strategy on how to most successfully purchase the home and discuss it with you.
  11. He conducts the negotiations and does all the communication with the selling broker.
  12. If there is a sale, then he makes sure that the selling broker gets all the items to draw up the purchase agreement and it is checked thoroughly by him.
  13. The real estate agent will go over the purchase agreement with you and he will explain it in an understandable way, after which you will sign it with him.
  14. The broker arranges for an appraiser to be assigned to quickly appraise the property.
  15. The broker will arrange (if so agreed) for a building inspection to be scheduled. Here your purchase broker is present and he asks critical questions. If any details come to light, your broker will take care of it for you and make sure he does everything possible to agree on the best solution with the selling party.
  16. The broker connects you (if necessary) to a suitable notary and he ensures and supervises that he receives all the documents needed to prepare the transport and the mortgage deed of the house.
  17. In the meantime, while you are already preparing for the move, your real estate agent will act as a resource and helpline for any problems, questions, or regulatory issues that may come up. I practice this happens with every purchase file.
  18. The broker monitors whether the deposit is at the notary on time and whether your mortgage application succeeds on time (or whether a postponement must be requested).
  19. On the day of delivery your broker goes with you to the house to check if everything is okay. In addition, he records the meter readings.
  20. He goes with you to the notary for the key transfer
  21. After this, he will remain your point of contact and control for a long time in case of questions or problems. It happens in a lot of cases that something still comes to light that needs to be fixed.