You are most likely about to make one of the greatest expenditures of your life time. While I have written a book on "The Illusions in the Real Estate Industry*", the one thing you should know is that agents associated with brokerages that list homes for sale can not provide as high a level of service as a buyer agent associated with a brokerage that does not list homes for sale. That claim has been stated by an Oklahoma Supreme Court Judge. If you were seeking legal action against a party, you would not use an attorney from the same firm that was representing that party. Likewise you should follow that same practice with a real estate transaction. Legal firms gave up trying to represent both the plaintiffs and defendants years ago because they learned they could not ensure fairness to both parties.

Our agents working as buyer agents have no fiduciary responsibilities to any seller. Because of that condition, you can count on that agent working only on your behalf. You can also count on the agent:

• To learn what your basic and desired needs are for the home you want,
• To introduce to you all the homes on the market that meet those needs,
• To work as a consultant while showing you homes, pointing out flaws and educating you about home construction and values,
• To do a thorough observation of the total home and property before writing an offer on the home,
• To do a comparative market analysis for the property before you decide on what to offer on the home,
• To negotiate to save you money on the purchase,
• To help you find the best home loan, saving you money and problems.
• To advise you through the home inspection and negotiating unacceptable conditions, and
• To assist you with securing home owners insurance and validating all appropriate expenses on your settlement statement.

Agents that work with brokers who list homes for sale have many built-in barriers to providing the above services. Some of these barriers are:

• Incentives provided by their broker to write contracts on homes listed by their firm,
• The agents have been conditioned to be salesmen (sales persons.) They are trained to show 4-5 homes and write a contract,
• They are trained to tell you what you want to hear rather than what you need to know. They will want to make you feel good rather than deal with reality.
• They are prohibited from providing all the services a good exclusive buyer should because their broker will not want the liability that comes with that level of service, and
• They have confusing roles if part of the time they are to work for the seller and at other times attempt to work for the buyer

*Go to our real estate 101 resource center to read the book "Understanding the Illusions in the Real Estate Industry."