Do I need an agent just to go see a house (one-off) not during an open house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you can absolutely use a buyer's agent for just the one house, or one day, one week, whatever. A good buyer's agent, like the one we have, will not make an issue of signing forms right away, in other words, they are prepared to give you a "sample" of their services before you "buy.". Good ones will not pester you. We love ours, and he did not ask us to sign an agreement until just before we put in an offer (which btw has been accepted, hurrah!).

As for your other question about seller/buyer agents from the same firm, you may find that around here it is hard to avoid. One large firm has a lot of the market sewn up. Pros and cons--nice coz they all know each other, makes things go smoothly. Lots of associated services (like mtg broker, homeowners insurance' settlement firm), but you are free to use others. You do wonder a bit whether there is not some collusion going on, but our experience has been very good--we have felt very well represented.

One other thing--if one or both of you is not a US citizen, it may be tricky to get a mortgage (if you need one). One of us is not, and we ended up having the mortgage just in one name.

Good luck and welcome!!

I am one of the PP. just to add my experience. we bought a house in 2010 and I am not a US citizen, I had a green card (my husband is a US citizen). no problem in getting a Jumbo mortgage . my hisband has excellent credit and my redit is excellent (around 800) but not very old because I moved to the US only in 2000. so I think it is not as much as beign a citizen. the credit score adn lenght of credit history are important and your overall financial /employment situation that are relevant

[Anonymous]

pp poster here. we are both on the mortgage, although I am not a citizen

[Anonymous]

We brokered a deal where we negotiated with the listing agent to only take 4% of the entire commission vs 6%. We told them this is 1% more in commission they would receive if we used our own buyer's agent.

[Anonymous]

thanks all - very helpful indeed! On the mortgage, one of us is not a US citizen, but I think we'll be ok on financing, anyway.