We occasionally receive calls from buyers who want to work directly with our listing agent. Our listing specialist and the listing side of our team work only for the sellers. It’s part of our value proposition to homeowners who hire us to sell their home for them. We do not represent buyers and negotiate against homeowners who hired us.
For those homeowners, we don’t just market their home to bring a buyer. We represent them in the entire transaction, from start to finish. That includes answering inquiries, receiving offers, negotiating contracts and repair requests, and handling all the details through to closing.
For buyers who want to remain unrepresented, the buyer agent side of the commission is earned by the listing agent who showed the home and our team. The agent who shows the home has procuring cause, and she and our team will be doing all the work a buyer agent would do. That includes providing access to the property for inspection and appraisal, reviewing repairs, and working with the buyers’ lender and the title company on the buyers’ behalf.
Considering our listing specialists represent only the homeowners who hired us, buyers are best served by hiring a Realtor to work for and represent their best interests. His or her commission has already been contractually agreed to in the listing agreement and MLS, and is paid by the listing brokerage. It’s not an expense of a home buyer nor a point of negotiations with the seller.
What about other Realtors who will represent both sides and share some of their paycheck with the buyer?
For buyers, it’s still not in a buyer’s best interest to work with a Realtor hired by the seller. Sure, maybe the listing agent when earning both sides of the commission will pass some of that on to you. But, buyers can lose a lot more when you are negotiating against a seasoned professional hired by the seller to represent their best interests.
For sellers, if your Realtor is willing to share some of the commission with a buyer to represent both sides of the transaction, whose best interests is he or she really looking out for? Yours, the buyers’, or their own?