Category — Agency

Welcome back!

What is agency?

Representation: the state of serving as an official and authorized delegate or agent

That is a dictionary definition.

When you hire me as your exclusive buyer’s agent I then represent you and your best interest. I am bound by law and have a fiduciary duty to you that include loyalty, full disclosure, confidentiality and reasonable care.

I will help you find just the right home and I will negotiate the best price and terms for you.

I can appreciate that, since almost everyone has a friend who has a real estate license. So then you have to ask yourself, “Do I want the best representation or do I want to do my friend a favor?”

Unless you friend is a full time, seasoned veteran I will caution you. Your are spending waaayyy toooo much money to be dealing with part time people. Are they full time? Do they have the time you deserve? Are they experts in real estate? Do they work with a staff to help with all the intricacies? Again there is too much money at risk here.

Are they willing to advise you to walk away from a deal even if it means they don’t get a commission? Are they willing to reimburse you your earnest money if you lose due to their mistake or oversight?

Then there is the privacy thing. You may be friends with someone, but I am here to tell you that during a real estate transaction they will have access to information you may not be too excited about disclosing. A lot of your financial information will be on the table: income, debt, credit history…

Do the right thing. If they are not a full time professional, contact us and we will help you.

I hear this question a lot. The buyer is thinking, “If I don’t have an agent I can negotiate a better deal because the seller doesn’t have to pay my agent.”

Here is how the commission structure between the seller and the agent is set up. The seller and the listing agent agree on a commission. The listing agent agrees to pay me a commission for closing the sale as your agent. If you want to work without an agent then there are two issues. 

• 1. You have no representation as you are dealing with the other guy’s agent and you could lose more than any possible commission.
• 2. The other issue is twofold. If the seller is paying a less of a commission, wouldn’t they want to keep it for themselves? If they are not going to save money then they really don’t care. The same holds true for the listing agent. If the listing agent is going to make the same amount of money whether you have an agent or not, wouldn’t that agent prefer that you hired an agent? He would have less work to do.

So now let’s suppose you found an agent that was willing to cut a deal of, say, one percent. The fact that the buyer’s agent cannot negotiate his own commission is the very reason you should want me negotiating for you. I can save you more than that.

If the listing agent is willing to give up 1% and doesn’t represent you, I can negotiate more than 1% against that agent.