I have been through this process just recently. I had a MLS agent, that is, an agent outside of The Villages Real Estate organization. He could show me any house listed through any MLS agent. These would be any house you see on Zillow or Trulia, minus a few "For Sale by Owner", but he actually said that if there were one of those I wanted to see he might be able to get involved. He could not show me any homes listed though The Villages. My MLS agent and I signed a document that made him my fiduciary. Responsible to my best interests. This relationship applied to any house OTHER than the ones where he had the primary listing. IF he had the primary listing, his fiduciary responsibility, by prior contract was to the seller. This never came up. He was great, and if you want his name, you can PM me.
We also looked at houses listed through The Villages. We had an agent through them as well. She did a good job, even pointed out a few things to help us, but her fiduciary responsibility was not to us. It was up to us to read the fine print very carefully, even hire a lawyer if we so desired. The pre-owned homes are negotiable in price just like any MLS home. My MLS agent I felt was more aggressive in my favor regarding what he thought was a fair price, IMO, than the Villages agent, but I have no real basis for that. IT did seem to me that the listings I was interested in that were listed through The Villages were generally more in line with the comps (I got my comps from the "sold" search feature on Zillow), with fewer of what I call "pie in the sky" asking prices compared to what I saw on Zillow. That is just my opinion.
As it turned out, the house we bought was listed outside of The Villages listing, on an MLS listing (still in the location of The Villages). My agent was a real pro in facilitating the negotiations, pointing out little or big flaws on various properties, and guiding me through what he considered "big stuff" vs. "little stuff easily dealt with"... We are pre-closing now, and he his helping me nearly daily with dealing with the issues from the mortgage company, and insurance etc.
One unique thing about buying in TV is that probably all of the agents actually live in TV, and are personally familiar with the peculiarities of living and owning in TV, much more so than a more conventional experience outside the bubble, like buying in a suburb of a big city.
Good luck in your search.
|