I have an english accent, not as cute as yours, but I am from Bexhill Sussex. I hate the way real estate is done in the UK. The fact there are no written contracts, so once your bid is verbally accepted, the seller can accept another from another buyer and “Gazump” you, ie ditch you. This leaves the agent/industry looking tarnished.

Also there is no close date in the UK (until the closing date). You close when the solicitors get around to it and all ducks are lined up in a row. That could be 3-4 months. Here (US) when you get an offer accepted, you know the close date, and price. For a long time (until exchange of contracts i believe, correct me if I am wrong), buyers or sellers can just walk.

when I arrived in the US 15 years ago, I found out about Buyers agency. Exactly what you are saying is not good. I fell in love wiht the idea of taking someone around all the best available homes and working wiht them fright through to the closing. It is such a great experience for buyers and agents.

If you were buying in the US. From out of town. Wouldn’t you want a professional on your side? For example to tell you if the property is $10,000 over priced and to advise you on negotiations. Only a buyers agent can do that. Now instead of contacting every company to see the 6 homes you want to see, you just call your trusted professional, to see them all, you get an unbased assessment from one person who knows they will sell you something, but are not attached to any particular property. Do you see how that can benefit a busy professional seeking a new home?

Hope this sheds some light on your very interesting post.

Guy

You mentioned Century 21 – are there other US based real estate franchises operating in the UK? Are those franchises trying to change things to be more like the US with a MLS?

@John – you did a good job of going a iittle further into detail.

The need for a buyers agent–For example if you were to up and leave London and move to my town of New London NH, where would you decide to buy? How would you find the cool area’s with amazing views of the lakes and mountains? How would you know exactly what’s been happening in the area for values? How would you know if your home inspector does excellent work?

This is where the buyers agent comes in. Whether you are relocating, buying an investment property, or just locals who’ve grown up in the town forever, typically a good agent who is focused in that community will be able to open their eyes to properties that they didn’t even know about or were even an option.

There is no MLS.
Offers are not binding. As John (#13) said, all costs during the process are wasted money until the seigning of the contract in front of a special type of lawyer, called “Notar”.

Buyers agents are not popular – so called “co-brokerages” are possible, if real estate agents were unsuccessful to sell a listed property to the potential buyer and try to find a “matching house” in the listings of different agents.

Difference to the UK: Besides commercial properties “brands” are not representative for real estate service. In germany the “corporational structure” of real estate brokerages depends on two businesses: bank controlled real estate service (”Deutsche Bank Immobilien”) and small offices you would call “pop-and-mom”. Here are some franchise systems for more than 15 years (for example ERA or RE/MAX) but their market share and “brand awareness” is way below their position in other countries.

1. There is no MLS. That means no central place to find all listed property. Granted the Internet has helped. As there is no MLS there is no co-brokerage. You cannot explain to one agent what you would like and have all properties matching the criteria pulled up. What you will get is what that agent’s office offers but nothing else. As there is no co-brokering there is no lockbox or the ability to easily visit when the owner is out.

2. The sales process means an offer is not binding. You tell an agent what you are prepared to pay and they tell the seller. Once there is an agreement you get to order a survey, arrange financing and do some other things that trigger costs. The seller can still back out. The buyer can back out. The costs are just wasted money if one or the other party backs out. The next step is to exchange contracts. The lawyers review the details and a deposit is paid. Up to this point you can see either party trying to change the verbal agreement (raise or lower the price agreed).

3. Lawyers represent the buyers and sellers. Solicitors if you want to use the local term. They help with the paperwork. They have no view as to the property, what is on the market or anything like that. Brits are used to not being represented by a buyer’s agent. Even in the US where both agents could work for the seller their advice can still help. Here you are on your own and the agent only knows their firm’s inventory.

The system in England and Wales does work. It clearly could work better. The idea that it was only 4 years ago that all sales had to be recorded in the public record means there is no history of price data. It takes 6 months before the Land Registry records a transaction and makes the data available. Hard to see what recent sales have been when there is no MLS and the recorded data is 6 months out of date. What do you do for comps? As a buyer how do you get any comparable (comp) data? Sellers can get an agent to offer a view based on their firm’s inventory but they cannot see the full market. The Internet does help with showing what is on the market but not what has sold.

4. There are no apartment buildings in the UK. What would be a condo in the US is called a flat in the UK. You can have a building with 50 units and most or all are individually owned yet rented. No need to make sure the building is 70% owner occupied. That can be bad for repairs and future value as landlords are not going to take the same view as owner occupants. Lots of other subtle differences.

John Corey
Real Estate investor in the US (25 years) and UK (14 years)

The other difference is it sounds as if no one expects to be represented when they’re purchasing a property. That was one of the issues here. People though they were being represented only to discover that they weren’t.

Phil – Very sweet

Carolyn – It does seem confusing and like there are a lot of hoops to jump through in the US, but you don’t need any training/qualifications or anything to sell houses here…how worrying is that?!

Jon – You’re welcome and happy thanksgiving!

Matt – What’s funny in the UK though is that sometimes we hate too much customer service, we’re v.cynical people and so American over the top niceness may seem fake and cheesy here, whereas in America it’s standard practice. We love it when we’re there, but it’s not something I see coming about here any time soon

Matt Richling You’re too kind!

Dan – I don’t know, who pays the buyer’s agent? It seems like a middle man that you don’t really need to me, but that’s having grown up never having them in this country. I guess because your system is more complex, the qualified agents are needed to help. Here, the agents aren’t even qualified, so to add another unqualified middle man seems unneccesarry.