One of the questions that we tend to get from from home buyers here in Queens is, “what listings do you have”? When a buyer calls in and speaks to one of our team members, one of the first things that they usually ask us is what listings do you have? In our experience, this question is most common among home buyers who only want to deal with listing agents. These buyers typically think that they’ll “get a deal” or get inside information if they go directly through the listing agent.
Now, there are different ways to answer this question because as listing agents, the answer is easy. If you want to know what listings we have, just visit queenshometeam.com and you can see all of our active listings right there on the homepage. You can also search for Queens Home Team on Streeteasy, Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, etc and you will also be able to see our listings.
Now, the second way to answer this question is “why do you ask?”. Reason why is because this question usually comes from a home buyer and if you are looking for a property in Queens, then the question you should be asking is probably “what listings do you have access to?”. For example, most agents are members of an MLS (Multiple Listing Service) and as a result, they have access to all of the listings in that MLS. In our professional opinion, if you’re looking for a property, you should not be asking agents what listings they have, instead, you be asking them what listings they have and what listings they have access to. This will give you an idea as to whether they can help you find the right property or not. For example, our team is a member of the Queens & Long Island MLS (MLSLI), as well as REBNY (Real Estate Board of NY), OLR (Online Residential), and Brooklyn MLS (BNYMLS). This gives us access to ALL of the properties that are on the market in NYC. Not all agents have access to the same listings so this is the question you want to ask when you speak to an agents about available listings.
Hopefully that answers the question of “what listings do you have?” Something else to consider is the fact that going directly through listing agents is not advisable because they will have no fiduciary duty to you and as a result, they will not be looking out for your best interest. You may think it’s not a big deal, but you’d be surprised at the kind of horror stories we hear from people who went directly through a listing agent to buy their property. Everything from overpaying, to not doing an inspection, to not having any communication during the process, pushiness to close quickly, finding out about major issues after closing, etc. This is one of the biggest purchase you will ever make so the last thing you want to do us make a bad investment, all because you wanted to go directly through a listing agent. Our advice, find a good buyer agent that you feel comfortable with and they will make sure you are looked out for the whole time. In addition, this person can become a great resource for you in the future, especially if you want to buy investment properties down the road.
If you want to know about our exclusive listings, just visit search.queenshometeam.com/idx/featured or do a search on any of the real estate sites for Queens Home Team. And if you need a good agent to help you find the right place, feel free to Contact Us anytime 🙂