Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At what stage do we do the "shopping around" bit for a mortgage? Do we do that at the preapproval stage or do we just get preapproved before we search and then shop around for the real mortgage when we find the right house?

McLean Mortgage, Mark Bragaw was really good to us. Handheld through the whole process. He was recommended to us by someone else and we are so happy we talked to him. You must include him on your call list. You won't be disappointed. Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RealtorDAD wrote:I would have no concerns at all. At KW specifically, each team is run as an independent business. Each team has different areas of expertise.
It is in YOUR best interest to interview many agents and go with the one that feels right. Remember that you don not pay buyers agents, our commission comes from the sellers agreement with the listing agent. My team charges an administration fee at closing, $295, that is it. Be wary of agents that request a retainer fee.

I hope to hear from you,

Brendon Mills
Brendon@MitchCurtisHomes.com

Be wary of agents who charge an “administrative fee” of $295. If you purchase an $800,000 home. The buyer agent’s Company (not the team) is getting $16,000 to $24,000 in commission. Why do you have to pay them an additional $295?

OP, you should never pay that "admin fee" Brendon is talking about. It's his fee that the agency charges him, not you, and he's passing it along to his client. First-timers get gouged by this fee. I once had a broker try to charge me this fee and I told her, "no." She said, "If you're too cheap to pay this *only* fee for my services, you're too cheap to buy a house." She would have made 30K commission on the house I bought, so why should I pay her an additional $300 fee (note the fee is $295 instead of $300, a shitty $1.99 tactic so you don't think you're actually paying $2.00). You have a choice to reduce this fee by going to a rebate broker and getting 1% to 2% back, or, just hire an hourly broker or attorney. Home buying is not rocket science and nor is filling out a sales contract. You don't need a buyer's agent unless you don't have time to find your own house (you're on Redfin and going to open houses? that means you're doing the work yourself anyway).

Brendon, you seem to have a lot of time on your hands. Maybe you can tell OP what you have to offer over a rebate broker, or an hourly attorney?

Anonymous wrote:

RealtorDAD wrote:I would have no concerns at all. At KW specifically, each team is run as an independent business. Each team has different areas of expertise.
It is in YOUR best interest to interview many agents and go with the one that feels right. Remember that you don not pay buyers agents, our commission comes from the sellers agreement with the listing agent. My team charges an administration fee at closing, $295, that is it. Be wary of agents that request a retainer fee.

I hope to hear from you,

Brendon Mills
Brendon@MitchCurtisHomes.com

Be wary of agents who charge an “administrative fee” of $295. If you purchase an $800,000 home. The buyer agent’s Company (not the team) is getting $16,000 to $24,000 in commission. Why do you have to pay them an additional $295?