I’ve recently seen quite a few buyers calling around to a bunch of different Realtors, and viewing homes with more than one.  They might call whatever company has the particular house listed that they want to look at, and then do the same thing for the next house in the following week.  Although there’s nothing “illegal” about this strategy when looking at homes, in my opinion, you would be doing yourself a disservice by looking at homes in this particular manner, and here’s why:

In Real Estate sales, we have what’s called “Buyer Agency”.  This term basically means that if you’re buying a home, you could have a Realtor work specifically for you, in terms of finding the home, setting up the showings, and writing your offer (amongst others).  Instead of calling the Listing Agent (who represents the sellers of the home), you have the option of having a Realtor that works ONLY for you, and is looking out for YOUR best interests.  If you call the listing agent of a home, you now have a Realtor that is looking out for your best interests, and also the sellers.  This is called “Dual Agency” in Real Estate lingo, and there is a very fine line that we have to walk.

Having your own “Personal Realtor” is advantageous in many ways.  When your Realtor goes on showings with you, it’s his/her job to remember what you like, dislike, love, and hate. Even if you walk into a dozen houses during the course of a week, and dislike all of them, your Realtor will be taking notes on certain aspects of the home that you comment on, and will remember those aspects and points of interest for the next showing.  If a new home comes on the market the very next day, your Realtor will have immediate access to the new listing, and can determine (based on your feedback from previous showings) if they think you’ll like the new listing.  You’ll basically have another set of eyes watching the market for you, at all times, with unlimited access to all the homes currently on the market.

In addition to having your Realtor know exactly what you’re looking for, in most cases the Realtor will be able to add you to an “auto-email” system.  This tool basically allows the Realtor to send new listings to the buyer on a daily basis, the very same day that the house comes on the market.  You’ll know about the new listing before anyone gets to see it in the newspaper, and in most cases, even before the sign goes in the yard. 

There are many advantages of having a Realtor work specifically for YOU, and constantly looking out for your needs and best interests.  If you don’t have a Realtor right now, and are bouncing back and forth between a few different ones, I suggest finding someone who you trust, get along with, and can see yourself buying a home from.  Once the Realtor knows you are committed to them, and them alone, they will start working twice as hard for you as any of the other agents you might have dealt with before.

For more information, or if you have any questions about Buyer Agency, Dual Agency, or the home buying process in general, feel free to email, text, or call me!  I’d be happy to help.

Posted on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 7:50 pm and is filed under Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.