I tell this story alot. It pretty much sums up the age old question most real estate agents get "Why should I go through YOU to show me a house?"
I haven't been dealing with many buyers lately. Have been too busy maintaining my Clients' properties. My 2 Assistants have been fundamental in helping me with the buyers I have.
However, many times, I decide to work with a buyer to help them find a home. Such was the case recently with a couple (NO Names or Addresses will be published to maintain anonymity). I liked them alot. They seemed like very nice people, and were really eager to own their own home. They asked me to please help find them a house. So I did. I made sure I set some of my time aside to show them some homes.
I would send them lists of "Regular" & "REO" homes daily. THEY would choose which ones they wanted to see buy weeding through the listings. In no time, I knew EXACTLY what they were looking for & what price range they wanted to stay in.
Realistically, the price range they wanted VS the type of house they were looking for did NOT exist. Most real estate agents would show them the door, but I wanted desparately to find them what they were looking for. They were looking for the American Dream of homeownership & I can see it in their eyes that they wanted it badly!
So I continued on.... property after property.... and yes, they would lowball, because it's all they could afford. They started looking at foreclosures because realistically, in the price range they were looking for, that's what they would be able to afford. But most of them were DOGS. Really run down & some even uninhabitable.
Of course, here I am in the middle of REO's and I one house in particular caught my eye. It was a bit overpriced but we went to go see it... they fell in love.
Eventually the house was reduced a few times... finally, the bank called to assign the listing to me and told me that the house would be listed at a new price of $XXX.XXX (Amount not shown for obvious reasons, but if you could see it you'd pick up the phone and call me so I could find you a deal just like it. 
Just Kidding. (*Not Really). So the bank asked if I would handle the marketing of the property at that price & I said sure, i can sell that house for you at that list price. So after hanging up the phone with the bank, I IMMEDIATELY called this couple.
I told them "Remember that house we saw over on XXX ABC STREET? They said "SURE!" I said, well, if you could buy that house for ($XXX.XXX (Asking price) would you want it?? They said ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? HECK YES!) So, we went over there that very night & they made an offer on the spot (I let them decide what to offer, and they decided to put a Full price of course, this is where knowledge of real estate market & knowing the dozens of peices of crap they had seen for the same price showed them what a value they were getting).
So the house was on the market the next day, and the bank got themselves their asking price on the same Day. VOILA! They got a great deal. I couldn't believe it myself! If you saw the house, you'd understand too.
But every once in a while, I find myself listing a GEM of a house & this is where getting to know TEAM SILVA comes in handy. 