Do buyer's agent analyze listings before making an offer?

[ryan_gz]

Is it the buyer's Realtor's job to do a deep dive and analyze a listing before the buyer makes an offer? I know in New York and NYC that lawyers are required for contracts and due diligence, and all of the heavy analysis and due diligence occurs before a contract is signed.

But what happens if a buyer asks their buyer's agent to do due diligence before making an offer? For example, my close friend who's a Realtor got the below request from her buyer client:

I noticed there is a 2B2B unit at 1 wall street court #11091. Ask price is below $1M. Is there any issue with this unit?

Thanks and regards,
Joyze

[aslan]

Buyers' agents can be nice and give some high level thoughts from just looking at a listing, but the real meat of due diligence rests on the shoulder's of the buyer's attorney during the contract review and due diligence period.

This isn't buyers' agents being lazy or shirking their duty in any way, it's just customary. Plus, wouldn't you want your lawyer whose job it is to do this, to be the one analyzing the building's financial statements and offering plan (the latter being all written in legalese anyway?).

Here's what I would say in response to your friend's buyer client, I enjoy looking at listings anyway. And don't worry you can thank me later:

Great that it’s just under $1 million, assuming normal closing costs, you should be able to avoid the 1% Mansion Tax. Nice split bedroom layout, 2 beds and 2 baths as well.

Things that caught my eye at a glance: it’s a landmark building, so that means it’s really difficult for the building to do any changes/renovations/repairs to exterior. However, 126 units so you have more neighbors to share that burden with.

421G tax abatement expiring in 2020 they say, so property taxes listed are artificially lower as listed.

Keep in mind that once we have an accepted offer, your lawyer will conduct legal and financial due diligence on your behalf, as well as contract review and negotiation. Your lawyer will inspect the building’s financial statements, offering plan, board meeting minutes and possibly the budget. Your lawyer will also send a condo questionnaire to the building’s managing agent.

During this due diligence phase your lawyer will also run a title search and review a title report to see if there are any open violations, permits or liens on the property.

If you are buying free-standing property like a townhouse or house, it’s common also to get a home inspection done before signing a contract. However, this is typically not done when buying a condo or a co-op apartment, especially in a larger building. That’s because a home inspector can’t do too much more than you can with a visual inspection, and many buildings will not even allow an inspector to inspect the building’s boilers, furnaces and such. Remember that as a single condo or co-op apartment owner, you are solely responsible only for the interior of your unit, but jointly responsible with your neighbors for the common areas of the building.

It is during this critical period after an accepted offer, but before you sign a contract that your lawyer will really dig in and find out if there is something wrong with the unit. If there is, you can always re-negotiate or back out because you haven’t signed a contract, and handed over the 10% good faith deposit yet!