
About us
Real Estate Services for Home Buyers. We offer unique services, expertise, and loyalty to home buyers. We work to protect home buyers by finding the best home for their needs, helping buyers negotiate the best price and terms, and helping buyers save on loans and costs.
Business highlights
Services we offer
Exclusive buyer's brokerage. Never Dual Agency, Never Designated Agency We never work for sellers so we never have the conflicts of interest that regular real estate companies have.
Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
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94% | ||
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I can confidently say that you can trust, rely on, and even enjoy working with The Home Buyer's Agent. We will not hesitate to use Jon and THBA for our next home purchase.
"Thank you for the review [Member Name Removed]. I'm sorry you didn't feel we provided a good service for you. I can tell you that the 48126 Zip Code area (Dearborn) is not one that we cover. We do work in Belleville, Canton, Plymouth and Northville, but not any farther east than that. Perhaps you have us confused with a different company? In any case, I wish you well in your home search."
"Thanks [Member Name Removed]. It was a pleasure helping you and your wife. (Even though we had a bit of a rough time with the builder. I'm glad we were able to get those issues resolved.)"
Throughout this process, Jon and his team treated us with respect. As first time home buyers we were educated as Jon walked us through the process and explained many things we saw on the various viewings which took us through a wide range of homes. We honestly cannot place a dollar value on the education and experience we gained through this process, entirely provided by Jon one of his colleagues. In the end we saved nearly 10% on the home we chose to offer on below the listing price.
We hope to eventually sell the home we purchased in 5-10 years and very much hope to utilize Jon and his team's services again for the next home. Not only would we recommend a potential homebuyer to contact Jon, but we would not recommend any other agency in the area.
"Thanks [Member Name Removed]. Please remember us when it is time to move again. (Maybe we are getting close?)"
I interviewed Mr. Boyd. We talked for an hour or more and, while it could have been a little more focused on the decision at hand, I was impressed with him and his personal style (more technical and not sales oriented; make the best decision; save money; etc). He recommended a lender that I ended up using, and they are the best service I have encountered among 3 or 4 other lenders we have used over the last 10 years (Rate One, the Mortgage People). They are not local so raised some eyebrows among the local-obsessed crowd, but they are not a big national lender either.
I don't know to this day why for real, but Mr. Boyd took some form of offense at my personality, early phase of our thinking process on whether to build or buy, or that my wife and I delegated the choice of agent to me; I don't know. When I emailed to say we decided to work with him, he wrote back and belittled me for not obeying him in bringing my wife in for a meeting as the next step of the process and criticized me for some question I had about construction costs. He said "it's not going to work out." I thought that was pretty offensive, but hey it's a free country and the real estate profession is generally kind of annoying. I appealed to him to cut me some slack, saying of course the wife will be involved, maybe a misunderstanding, etc. Nope. No mercy. Back to the search.
It's a weird situation; I chose him but he rudely rejected me. My feeling is that customers are pretty lame as a whole and so more power to him if I annoyed him. Still, as I said, we were not marginal clients with any uncertainty of not getting a commission.
If you chose him too, I suggest a very formal/professional style of interaction. Don't relax. Don't take him for granted. I think he will help you make a good choice, but just be careful and extra engaged/attentive.
Update: I just saw the response. Wow. Clearly some sort of misunderstanding and clearly he did take some sort of offense. I still recommend and even more sternly say "be careful and extra distant/polite." A lot of false attributions in the response (could be misunderstandings). I don't go in for getting bids with no intention of hiring; that's for sure. I also never had any intent of excluding my wife from the search or transaction; who would do that? I simply screened real estate agents on my own. I'm going with this: I was rebuked in a humiliating way by this man after actually interacting face to face in a lengthy interview. He had a right I suppose, but I think the response to my review is illuminating.
"I am sorry [member name removed] was disappointed with our interaction. It is very important that we meet with all people who will be involved the home buying decisions. Husband, wife, partner, parent, or adult child. If [member name removed] had told me I wouldn't be meeting his wife then we wouldn't have met to start with. In our experience if a buyer can't justify the time to meet with us to discuss their needs then they are not likely to have the time for a thoughtful, well informed and well organized purchase. That is the service we try to provide all our clients. In addition, during our meeting [member name removed] said he was experienced at building and that he wanted to have local builders prepare estimates for home additions but that he would likely do the work himself or be his own general contractor. This suggests a lack of appreciation for a builder's time preparing a serious bid, and we would not be comfortable referring local builders into this type of job proposal. If anyone reading this thinks it is a good practice I suggest they discuss it with an actual contractor. As real estate professionals we try to respect the time and experience of the area contractors. Having people bid jobs that they have no chance of being chosen for is not fair and not professional in our eyes. [member name removed] also referred to some local Ann Arbor neighborhoods in derogatory terms. Certainly not everybody can afford $400,000 project houses, but I was not comfortable with some of the language he used when discussing a more modest West side area. Finally [member name removed] seemed to look at our discussion as a debate and in fact told me that debate and argument was his area of study in college. (He thought I was out-of-line using a $200 per square foot estimate for a small addition with basement and wanted me to justify it.) I am sure he is a much better debater than I would be, but I help home buyers for a living and that is what we focus on, not debating buying decisions with buyers. If you considering using our services please focus your attention on the home buyers who were actual clients. Regards, Jonathan Boyd Broker/Manager The Home Buyer's Agent of Ann Arbor, Inc."
I gave Jon a C for responsiveness because he did respond quickly the first time, but after that, I sat waiting for a week. I figured a C was the average and maybe this was just a fluke. I don't like to leave negative reviews, but this is what happened. The overall experience is a C because it was disappointing to be turned down after waiting a week for an answer.
"We have a company policy of working with current clients before we follow up with prospective clients. And having two clients interested in the same property is something we try very hard to avoid. I am sorry this impacted [removed member name] experience with us. With the frenzied market in 2013 these principles have become more important than ever . As a buyer's brokerage and not a "sales" office our current clients have always come first and will continue to come first. If you considering using our services please focus your attention on the home buyers who were actual clients. Regards, Jonathan Boyd Broker/Manager The Home Buyer's Agent of Ann Arbor, Inc."
Regarding the "price paid" it's important to note that clients pay Jon nothing out of pocket, but rather he gets the buyer's agent commission that is written in to a purchase agreement (generally 3%). One of his main selling points is ethics and a promise that he does not take kickbacks from anyone involved in the process (as is standard practice for some other agents, to the buyer's detriment).
I would recommend Jon to anyone looking for a buyer's agent.
All the reviews were great, but I wouldn't know how good their service is because I can't get a call back.
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The same day I did this negative review, I received an e-mail... Here's the update...
"Hello,
We received your call this week about looking for a home in Canton.
We normally would have responded sooner but the market is a bit frantic right now and we always need to complete work with current clients before we speak to potential new clients.
If you are still interested in our help can you tell me a bit more about what you are looking for and your targeted price range and timing?
Jon Boyd"
If they would have just told me they were too busy I would've been happy, but "We always need to complete work with current clients BEFORE WE SPEAK TO POTENTIAL NEW CLIENTS" was really disappointing...
"I appreciate the concern from the customer. However, like most professional firms we have a company policy of working with current clients before we follow up with prospective clients. With the frenzied market in 2013 that has become more important than ever. As a result we were not able to call back the customer because we were working feverishly for our current home buying clients. In fact, there have been over a dozen prospective buyers that we have had to turn down in just the first quarter. I'm sorry the customer had a frustrating experience, however we will not change our priorities. As a buyer's brokerage and not a "sales" office our current clients have always come first and will continue to come first. If you considering using our services please focus your attention on the home buyers who were actual clients. Regards, Jonathan Boyd Broker/Manager The Home Buyer's Agent of Ann Arbor, Inc."
"Thank you for the kind review, [Member Name Removed]. Joel is a good guy and really takes the job of helping home buyers seriously."
Jon walked us through every step of the process. We had a complicated mortgage application, and he personally worked with the mortgage company to get us the best rate and get everything done in time.
Jon was always professional and friendly, and easily the most knowledgeable real estate person I have ever worked with. He explained everything to us, so that we felt we really understood every step of the process.
He negotiated the seller down $20,000 from what the seller said was his absolute lowest price. He was able to recommend inspectors, mortgage company, etc... all of which I checked out to make sure that they were the best deal/highest quality, etc. They always were.
I felt Jon was on our side at all times. It was great to know that we had such a knowledgeable and skilled person in our corner.
HIGHLY recommend!
They were amazing. Dealing only with buyers they are not interested in selling any particular property, they are 100% interested in making sure you find a home you want and can afford and then making sure that your interests are fully represented in the purchasing process. Most real estate agents are really working for the home sellers.
I looked a few houses before I called the Buyer's Agent folks, meeting the listing agent at the houses and going through them. Let me tell you, the difference between the walk through I got from the sellers agent and the walk through I received when I went through the same homes with John from the Buyer's Agent was like night and day. John might as well be a professional home inspector (he's not) with the attention to detail and thoroughness with which he took me through the house. I couldn't get over the things he made sure I payed attention too and the education he gave me.
I can't say enough good things about the service I got from them. I would never even consider buying a house without hiring someone from The Buyer's Agent to help in that process. I wouldn't let anyone I know buy a house without working with this agency. I can guarantee you will not be disappointed with their work.
"Thank you for the review [Member Name Removed]. I hope the home is still treating you well. I drove by recently and it certainly looked good!"
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