Buyer Beware

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Probably like most Americans of a certain age, I first heard the phrase caveat emptor in the Brady Bunch episode in which Greg buys a car he was told would be easy to fix up but isn’t.  Like “Find out what you do best and do your best with it”, “caveat emptor…let the buyer beware” is a Brady maxim I like to live by.

Back in the days of sub-agency (everyone worked for the seller and no one represented the buyer’s interests in a real estate transaction), all real estate was very much a buyer beware proposition.  Now, however, the buyer has the right to representation by an agent who is working on that buyer’s behalf.

The buyer pays for this representation when they purchase the house.  Their money, which goes to the seller, is then used to pay the brokerage and its agent who listed the house and the brokerage and agent that brought the buyer.  The cost of representation is all part and parcel of the purchase price of the home.  Therefore, doesn’t it make sense that the buyer of the property….the person spending a HUGE chunk of money, should have someone representing them in that transaction, escpecially since they don’t have to pay extra to get it?

In today’s Tri-City Herald we learned about some people taken for a ride by a developer. This developer does not work with Realtors.  It kills me that these people didn’t seek the advice of a Realtor.  It kills me that they thought they were in good hands with someone who was clearly not acting in their best interest.

I’m not saying every single developer who doesn’t work with Realtors and licensed agents is out to take every penny a person owns.  I just want people to remember ol’ Mike Brady’s words of wisdom; caveat emptor…let the buyer beware.

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About The Author
Cari McGee

My husband and I came to the Tri-Cities in 1994, and we thought it would be a temporary stop on our way to larger cities. He was a television sports anchor at the time, and we planned to go wherever the "next step up" took us. Twenty-plus years later, we're still here and we've loved every minute of it! We have two children now, and we've found the Tri-Cities area is a wonderful place to raise a family. It's a great place to do outdoorsy things -- I like to hike Badger Mountain or run along the river path. I also love reading ... by a cozy fire in the winter or a beautiful picture window in the summer (with the A/C on!). I've been a licensed Realtor since 2004. I earned my managing broker's license in 2016, which means I can run my own brokerage, or create a team of real estate agents and supervise them, which is exactly what I did when I formed the Cari McGee Real Estate Team in 2018! We have administrative and marketing personnel, as well as additional agents to serve you. I became a director of the Tri-Cities Association of Realtors Board of Directors in 2016, became Secretary/Treasurer of the organization, and was elected to Vice President in 2019. Want to talk about real estate? Click here to schedule a meeting with me!

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