Why Use A Buyers Agent When Buying Real Esate in and around Burlington VT

Burlington VT - March 1st, 2011

To answer this question, let me begin by asking a question. When you are in a legal proceeding, would you have the lawyer representing the person sitting across the table from you represent you as well? The answer is so simple. Of course not.

Why then when buying a house or property which for many people represents one of the largest financial decisions of their lives would you utilize the Realtor who represents the Seller(s) to safeguard your best interests as the Buyer(s)?

In Vermont, we do not have “dual agency.” Some states do allow this (where one Realtor represents both sides of the transaction while maintaining “neutrality”) but for the life of me I do not understand why. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. There are simply too many places for conflicts of interest to rear their head.

In Vermont, Realtors must represent only one side of the transaction - either the Buyer(s) or the Seller(s). Often, Buyers aren’t clear on this point. They see a sign in front of a house for sale or a listing online. Call that Realtor and utilize that Realtor to facilitate the negotiations of price, terms and conditions when that Realtor represents the Seller(s). Do you see where this is completely problematic? Be sure to ask if the Realtor you are speaking to is the Listing Agent. If so, thank the Agent and tell them you want representaion, hang up and find another Realtor who can represent you and your interests. Keep in mind, good listing agents are experts in finding out information from prospective buyers without you even being aware of it. They can ask questions that ultimately compromise your negotiating position. Thank them politely. Hang up and find a Realtor to be your Buyer’s Agent.

When Sellers agree to list their property they agree to a commission which is paid to both the Realtor who lists the Seller’s property and the Realtor who brings the Buyers to the table. A typical Realtor commission these days is either 5 or 6%. Thus, this commission is split in half (i.e. with either 3 or 2.5% going to the buy side Realtor). Buyers should not think because I am represented by a Buyer’s Agent I am incurring an additional expense to pay their commisssion. The commission is already taken into account by the Seller(s) in their Listing Agreement with their Listing Agent. All Sellers are willing to split the commission between the Realtor representing them and the Buyers Agent representing the Buyer(s). Sellers do this to facilitate the transaction and in this market they are happy as can be to have buyers brought to them.

Let me further clarify. If there is no Buyer’s Realtor involved, the Listing Agent consumes the entire commission of 6 or 5% with no split whatsoever. Now do you see why listing agents so love it when buyers call them directly? On a house that costs say $300,000 with a 6% commission, the Listing Agent would receive an $18,000 commission. If there is a Realtor representing the buyer(s), the listing agent would have to split their commissions.

There are many other reasons why you would want to utilize a Buyer’s Agent when buying real estate in Vermont. Here they are:

• Full Access To Our Regional MLS - Until you have made it clear to your Realtor you want to be represented by a Buyer’s Agent and entered into that Agreement in writing the realtor you are communicating with is ALWAYS representing the Seller(s). They cannot give you information that otherwise comprimises the Sellers ability to get the most money for the sale of their home or property. This could include the number of days on the market as a great example. These days this is a critical number to know. Further, listing agents have this game they play when the “re-list” thier listings it sets the odometer back to zero for “days on the market” accuracy. Only a Buyer’s Agent representing your interest will research the history of the property you are interested in buying to let you know exactly how many days that property has been on the market and with whom.


• Negotiating Power - As your Buyer’s Agent, I will run a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) to determine a prospective home’s Fair Market Value (FMV). In simpler terms, as your Realtor I will look at similar homes in the same neighborhood that have sold recently. This way, you will know whether or not the seller has their home priced fairly. If the home is priced over Fair Market Value, your Buyer’s Agent can present your “under asking price” offer with plenty of firepower – and a greater chance that the offer will be accepted. In addition, the terms and conditions of your offer are important as well.


• Representation - As your Buyer’s Agent, I am there to make sure YOUR best interests are accounted for. With your Buyer’s Agent in your corner, you can rest assured that you’re on, at least, even ground with the home seller. Similarly, Listing Agents enter into a legally binding agreement that require them to ALWAYS act in the best interest of their seller(s). They are the seller’s “coach” and will make sure that their clients’ best interests are looked after.


• Industry Contacts - It takes a lot of people to close a real estate transaction – Buyer’s Agent, Listing Agent, Loan Officer, Home Inspector, Property Appraiser, Insurance Agent, General and Sub-Contractors, and sometimes more! A good agent will come with a strong, professional closing team that has performed in the past, and will continue to perform. A transaction is only as strong as its weakest link – with your Buyer’s Agent & their closing team, you can rest assured that you will have plenty of support to make the buying process as smooth as possible.


• Maximize Your Time - While driving neighborhoods is an excellent idea to help you decide which locations you prefer, it’s not a very efficient way to find your new home. Gas is expensive, and your time is valuable. Your Buyer’s Agent will listen to your needs, make fantastic suggestions based on your likes & dislikes, and provide you with a list of homes and communities that ALL match your wants & needs. Your Buyer’s Agent has helped MANY new homebuyers through MANY purchases, and will help you better organize your search & decision making process – saving you valuable time.

If you are considering buying a home or condominium in or near Burlington Vermont, please visit my website: Burlington Vermont Real Estate, give me a call on my direct line at 802.238.5256 or email me to discuss representing you, our current market conditions and your needs/wants in a new home and community. I would be delighted to assist you.

As always, please feel free to post any thoughts and comments about downsizing right here below.

Armed with solid numbers, buyers and sellers alike can manage their expectations and the current realities of our local market.

Record Monthly Snowfall Set at Burlington Vermont

Burlington VT - February 28th, 2011

It’s official!

A new record snowfall of 42.8 inches for the month of February has
been set at Burlington VT. This breaks the old record of 42.3
inches set in 2008.

Time to either go sledding or head south for Spring break depending on your perspective.

If you are considering listing your home for sale or buying a home or condominium in or near Burlington Vermont Real Estate or Chittenden County, please give me a call or email me to discuss the market and your options. I would be delighted to assist you. Feel free to visit my website at ChrisHurdVT. I can also be reached on my direct line at 802.238.5256 or email me at Chris@ChrisHurdVT.com

As always, please feel free to post any thoughts and comments here below.

Armed with solid numbers, buyers and sellers alike can manage their expectations and the current realities of our local market.

South Burlington VT Schools Earn Superior Ratings

South Burlington VT
February 26th, 2011

One of the barometers many real estate buyers look towards before buying a new home is the quality of public education within a specific town/community. The quality and performance of public schools helps drive home values and in this economy certainly helps maintain them.

Several school rating services can help you in determing the health of public education wherever you live currently or are contemplating moving to.

In South Burlington VT, residents there already know they have outstanding schools. To back that up, take a look at this link at GreatSchools.org and this one at NeighborhoodScout.com which offer FREE top rated school reports. These reports validate what is common knowledge amongst S Burlington Vermont residents in the know. At NeighborhoodScout, they rate South Burlington schools as better than 97.7% of all school districts in the entire United States. They cite the average pupil to teacher ratio at 12:1. Proficiency scores in reading and math far outpace averages for the state of Vermont.

Of course, there are additional towns within Chittenden County that also possess excellent schools systems as well. Please feel free to call or email me with your questions or explore the two links I provided above to acquire third party information to help you in your decision making process.

Additionally, last summer, an article in the Wall Street Journal detailed several key points connected to this topic. Michael Sklarz, president of Collateral Analytics, a Honolulu based firm that specializes in real estate data analysis stated that “areas with good schools tend to be more affluent and were less susceptible to the sub-prime mortgage debacle so saw fewer foreclosures. What’s more, homes associated with great schools generally sell faster, in good markets and bad”.

If you are considering listing your home for sale or buying a home or condominium in or near Burlington Vermont Real Estate or Chittenden County, please give me a call or email me to discuss the market, schools and your options. I would be delighted to assist you. I can be reached on my direct line at 802.238.5256 or email me at Chris@ChrisHurdVT.com

As always, please feel free to post any thoughts and comments here below.

Armed with solid numbers, buyers and sellers alike can manage their expectations and the current realities of our local market.

My Top Ten Fun List of Things To Do in and around Burlington VT Late Winter 2011

Burlington VT

February 25th, 2011

Here is my highly subjective Top Ten List of Fun Ideas if you’re in serious need of a lift as this snowy winter shows no signs of losing her grip on our weary, hunched-over, snow shoveled backs.

10. Vermont Maple Open House Weekend at Shelburne Farms March 19th and 20th,

9. Vermont Flower Show at the Champlain Valley Exposition March 4,5,6,

8. Dinner at the ‘Trat and don’t forget to try the profiterole for dessert,

7. Visit the Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont,

6. 25th Anniversary of Arts Alive March 21st downtown Burlington,

5. Sweeten your day at Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory,

4. Go Sledding at one of Hammerhead Sleds recommended hills across the entire Northeast,

3. 16th Annual Mardi Gras Parade in downtown Burlington VT Saturday March 5th at 3pm,

2. Take Someone You Love to The Flynn Theater

1. Splurge For A Day of Downhill Skiing at Jay Peak Resort for $49!

If you are considering listing your home for sale or buying a home or condominium in or near Burlington Vermont Real Estate or Chittenden County, please give me a call or email me to discuss the market and your options. I would be delighted to assist you. I can be reached on my direct line at 802.238.5256 or email me at Chris@ChrisHurdVT.com

As always, please feel free to post any thoughts and comments here below. Share your ideas of what would be on your fun list!

Armed with solid numbers, buyers and sellers alike can manage their expectations and the current realities of our local market.

Vermont Foreclosures Lowest in USA - January 2011

Burlington VT
February 22nd, 2011

RealtyTrac, the leading online marketplace for foreclosed properties, is a major source of information about foreclosed properties in the United States. In their January 2011 report, they declare that the state of Vermont had 21 foreclosures (yes, that’s for the entire state) or 1 in every 14,487 homes. This analysis shows Vermont foreclosure numbers are way below other states by a wide margin. Compare this number to the other states chosen randomly for the month of January 2011:

Florida had 21,671 foreclosures or 1 in every 406 housing units,
New York had 2,885 foreclosures or 1 in every 2,765 housing units,
Connecticut had 837 foreclosures or 1 in every 1,724 housing units,
California had 67,072 foreclosures or 1 in every 200 housing units,
Arizona had 15,757 foreclosures or 1 in every 173 housing units,
North Carolina had 3,040 foreclosures or 1 in every 1,382 housing units,
North Dakota (2nd lowest of all states in USA) had 25 foreclosures or 1 in every 12,533 housing units.

These statistics continue to tell an important story about Vermont Real Estate.

If you are considering listing your home for sale or buying a home or condominium in or near Burlington Vermont or Chittenden County, please give me a call or email me to discuss the market and your options. I would be delighted to assist you. I can be reached on my direct line at 802.238.5256 or email me at Chris@ChrisHurdVT.com

As always, please feel free to post any thoughts and comments here below.

Armed with solid numbers, buyers and sellers alike can manage their expectations and the current realities of our local market.

First Night in Burlington Vermont

This New Year's Eve, celebrate First Night in Burlington Vermont! If you haven't been to a First Night in Burlington yet, keep it in mind this year. Where else can you pay $18 to get into so many, many venues? Okay, a few of the choice concerts at the Flynn Theater added $3 more to the night per person per event but it's laughable how much fun can be had for such a modest outlay.

For a brief history, First Night originated in Boston Massachusetts in 1976 by a small group of artists who sought an alternative way of celebrating New Year's Eve, creating an event where the consumption of alcohol is banned. First Night is an indoor/outdoor artistic and cultural celebration which occurs from afternoon until midnight. The intention of First Night is to celebrate that community's local cultures often showcasing music, dance, art, comedy, parades
and fireworks.

For more information including schedule, list of events, and to buy your buttons go to: First Night Burlington Vermont

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If you are considering buying Burlington Vermont real estate (or surrounding areas), please give me a call on my cell at 802.238.5256 or email me to discuss our real estate market and your options.

National Real Estate Market Slow; Vermont MLS Volume Up

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I was interviewed last week for my views by the reporter from the VPOR. Below is the article in full...

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NATIONAL REAL ESTATE MARKET SLOW; VERMONT MLS VOLUME UP

National reports on property sales and prices tell a familiar story for the last months of the summer: a market varying from month to month and location to location, but in no hurry to recover from the market plunge of recent years. By comparison, Vermont’s market still looks better than most.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) offered the most optimistic report, announcing on October 25 that sales of existing homes nationally rose in September by 10% over August (by 10.1% in the Northeast), “affirming that a sales recovery has begun.” However, the national median existing-home price for all housing types was 2.4% below a year ago, the NAR said (the median fell 1.4% in the Northeast).

As the previous article discusses, foreclosures – and homebuyers’ wariness of them – threaten to further suppress the market, according to the Associated Press. It reported that 23% of the Realtors it surveyed had clients who were declining to consider foreclosed properties, out of a concern that such purchases might be challenged on the basis of flawed foreclosure practices.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported on October 26 that U.S. housing prices rose 0.4% from July to August. But on the same day, Standard & Poor’s announced that home values overall had decreased from July to August, according to its Case-Shiller index of 20 major markets. An S&P spokesman called the report “disappointing,” noting that “home prices broadly declined in August.”

If these inconsistent, sometimes contradictory, reports prove anything, it is to substantiate Burlington-area Realtor Chris Hurd’s maxim that, like politics, “All real estate is local.”

Hurd, proprietor of Akin Associates, deals in residential properties in Chittenden, Addison, and Grand Isle counties, with a focus on Burlington, Shelburne and Charlotte. To his surprise, he said, 2009 turned out for him to be “a very strong year,” one of his best as a Realtor. 2010 has been a different story; he expects that when all is said and done it will turn out to be an average year, but deals are taking an unusually long time to gel.

Normally he’s wrapping things up in the fall after a busy summer – and the summer of 2010 was, indeed busy. “But this year,” he says, “everything is late. It’s primarily because people have spent months and months testing the market, testing the sellers, waiting for the fall and getting close to winter to see if they can eke out every last dollar from the seller.”

The sellers are in no hurry, either. “Vermonters are a funny group,” Hurd said. “They tend to hunker down and wait. They’re not going to give away the store.” The result is a kind of stasis.

Statewide, the real estate market has shown some signs of improvement this year. The number of single-family homes, both primary and vacation, sold by Realtors from January through September this year is up 7.7% from the same time period in 2009, according to the statewide MLS system. The single-family median price has edged up from $199,000 last year to $200,000 in 2010, according to the same report.

But, in his work, Hurd has seen a big change in the focus of market activity. He said that not long ago he was selling homes for $600,000, routinely. Now “the bulk” of his market comes in at $300,000. “If you get a buyer over that, it’s an anomaly,” he said.

Because of Vermont’s relatively better economy and relatively smaller foreclosure problem, Hurd sees prices remaining stable. But he does not think a robust recovery in Vermont’s real estate market is imminent. Historically, Vermont has had a tendency to lag behind the economic trends of the rest of the country, Hurd said, so he expects it to be some time before the market emerges from this depressed cycle and regains its former vitality.

Reprinted with permission from
Vermont Property Owners Report

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If you are considering buying Burlington Vermont real estate (or surrounding areas), please give me a call on my cell at 802.238.5256 or email me to discuss our real estate market and your options.

Top Ten List for Burlington Vermont

A purely personal list subject to change (guaranteed!) of my favorite things to do in Burlington Vermont throughout the year:

10. Summer picnic pilgrammage to enjoy a sunset at Waterfront Park on Lake Champlain,

9. A show at the Flynn Theater followed by profiteroles for dessert at the "Trat",

8. An evening stroll down Church Street,

7. Finding a parking spot,

6. JazzFest in June,

5. First Night,

4. Burlington Bike Path,

3. Coming in by boat to the Community Boat House to hang out on the docks for a sunset, dinner, drinks or all 3,

2. Christmas Lighting Ceremony on Church Street,

1. 4th of July fireworks on the waterfront.

If you would like to add a comment or add your favorite Top Ten list, please do so by posting a comment here

If you are considering buying Burlington Vermont real estate (or surrounding areas), please give me a call on my cell at 802.238.5256 or email me to discuss our real estate market and your options.