Dave Twombly
Title: Buyer’s Agent, 4Buyers Real Estate
Age: 43
Experience: 5 years
Dave Twombly has spent his entire professional life representing other people, first as a rental agent, then representing high-profile lecturers on the speaker circuit, and now exclusively representing homebuyers in Greater Boston. The New Jersey native lives in Cambridge with his wife and two young daughters. He has been spotted traveling between appointments in his car singing along with the Allman Brothers songs with all the windows down.
Q: Getting started as an exclusive buyer’s agent must have been difficult. Why choose that path?
A: Partially, I didn’t know how hard it would be. I had a kid at the time and I was a speaker agent, placing speakers in events on the lecture circuit. For the first four months, I was all caught up in the incredibleness and majesty of having a kid and you can muscle through all the sleepless nights. Then it hits you like a ton of bricks. I was exhausted. I’d used up all my sick days and I didn’t want to go to work anymore, so I quit.
A good friend of mine told me he was buying a house and he had a great agent who asked for a $500 retainer. I thought that didn’t make any sense. Why would you pay a real estate agent a $500 retainer? I couldn’t believe it. I’d always had an interest in real estate. My father’s an architectural historian, so I grew up around houses and property. When I was 7, we’d get The New York Times and I’d always go to the magazine and flip to the back to read the descriptions of the homes and estates for sale. I figured I’d get a real estate gig for a year or so while I rode out my non-compete clause from the lecture agency. My friend introduced me to his agent, Rona Fischman [who owns 4Buyers Real estate]; we met for lunch and she offered me a job. What was appealing was I’ve been in sales for more than 20 years, but I was never out hustling for new business. The customer service side appealed to me. I wouldn’t have to sit in a dumpy open house every Saturday that was never going to sell. After [hearing] Rona’s story of why she does what she does, I found it appealing.
When I started in 2011, the market was flat, but I was brand new and I didn’t know the difference. I spent my first year following Rona around so I didn’t know from flat or hot. I was just learning about houses and wasn’t involved in negotiating prices or market studies or any of that stuff until a year or so later. In my first year I made $3,700 and lived off my savings.
Q: What’s a market study?
A: When a client is interested in buying a house, we do a market study which looks at similar properties that have sold recently in close proximity to the house my client is interested in. It’s not as detailed as an appraisal. We do it to make sure the value of the property is there, and that our clients aren’t paying $800,000 for a home worth $600,000. In this market, we use it to coach buyers in a bidding point, by showing them where there stopping point is. Essentially, we show them the highest price we could justify them paying for it. If they go over that, it’s their choice, but we want to make sure they make an informed decision. I might say the house is listed at $450,000 and I could see you going up to $490,000, but I wouldn’t advise you to go any higher than that.
It’s more art than science. I tell buyers all the time, “I can tell you what I think the house is worth; I can’t tell you what it’s worth to you. Is it worth another ten grand to you because you just have to have it? Here’s my guidance for what you should offer.” Not every agent does that, but it’s in our contract with clients. It takes a couple of hours, but this is why no agent in our office will generally take on more the five or maybe six clients at any one time.
Q: What is a buyer agent’s biggest challenge?
A: Right now it’s competing with buyers who waive their home inspection contingencies. In our contract we require that buyers get a home inspection. When I’m being interviewed by prospective clients, we talk about it. I tell them if they want to waive their inspection they should be working with another company. In five years, I’ve never had a buyer waive it. It’s an important protection for the buyer and we’re very serious about it. Yet there are tons of buyers out there who are willing to do it.
One thing that has helped a lot is I’ve been able to build good relationships with some inspectors to the point where I can call them and set up a tentative appointment, so if my buyer’s offer gets accepted, I can write an offer with a truncated time schedule that makes my clients’ offer more attractive.
Another thing I’ve done is raise the inspection contingency to $5,000 to $10,000. My clients get inspections, but I tell people we’re not going to haggle over the small items that come up during an inspection and my clients are fully aware that they’re going to be on the hook of the first $5,000 of problems the inspection turns up, but they have the comfort that they can walk away if there’s a major issue. It makes my clients more competitive without waiving the right to an inspection. But most every time my clients lose out on a property, it’s to people who waived their inspection contingency. We simply can’t compete with that – and we’re not going to.
Some people will have an inspection before they make an offer, but that’s also risky. How many times does a person want to shell out $600 to $800 only to get beat by another offer? You could spend $8,000 on inspections before you even get an offer accepted.
Twombly’s Five Least Favorite Oysters:
- Pemaquid
- Blue Point
- Wellfleet
- Pickle Point
- Rocky Mountain
