On site buyer’s agents…do they really represent the buyer’s interest?
Before I joined the business, I had no idea who was really behind the desk at two of the homes we bought. At the time we bought a condo in an exclusive neighborhood in Bellevue and another single family house in Issaquah, we were asked if we had an agent with us. Many consumers on a regular basis are asked the same question when visiting new construction homes. However, many don’t realize who is sitting behind the desk at those sites manning or rather “working the desk” that many prospective buyers may visit on their way to learning more about the new community.
The real estate agent that sits at that desk can be a ”buyer’s agent” or possibly just someone who helps the prospective buyer. What ”buyer’s agent” means in legal real estate terms is an agent who represents the buyer — at least in Washington state real estate law. Many consumers will be asked to sign a waiver or a document identifying that the agent represents their best interests moving forward, if the buyer chooses so and sometimes waives the right to be represented at all possibly either saving the builder money or diverting the commissions to the seller’s agent who represents the builder.
Well, how do these agents get these very exclusive and sometimes lucrative positions where “unknowing buyers” just walk up and just buy from them with maybe a single tour as the most work they do…or maybe a phone call or two afterwards? Usually, the builder of the new construction homes or condominiums community strikes a deal with an agent or broker who represent the builder for every sale. In exchange for the deal, the agent or broker promises the builder they will have someone on the site constantly available to provide information and tours to the builders’ homes.
How do you get agents to sit all day at a desk where some days nobody buys a single home? How do you get agents to sit at the very same desk when they don’t get a part of the commission given from the builder to the main agent on record for the builder? Simple: tell the budding new agents who usually have either little business of their own and so they are desperate to get any business or the newer agents in the office who are just as desperate, if not even more motivated to sit there as many days as it takes to represent a buyer. At the same time, those agents have to be somewhat sly in making sure the buyers really don’t know the exact relationship. If they disclosed they have some sort of relationship with the builder’s agent, how could the agent be fair? Well, the law requires it, but let’s be frank…how frank is that agent going to be when it comes to getting more opportunities to help that “savvy agent” who has the builder deals? You decide…