Exclusive vs. Non-Exclusive Agency Contracts (sales, houses, buyers)

[csnee]

I'm in the process of looking for a home and upon meeting with an agent; the first thing he offered me was an Exclusive Right To Buy Buyers Agent Contract. Upon researching on the Internet and reading the fine print, I'm leaning towards pursuing a Non-Exclusive contract with an agent. I'm in sales myself and feel that this is the best approach as it only rewards the agent who finds you the house you purchase. Also, protects me as a buyer from being locked into working with an agent who isn't working hard for me. Does anyone have any insight on this at all? Any opinions for or against are welcome. DM's as well. Thanks.

[Sepulgeek]

The wife and I didnt sign a contract with our agent until we found a house to buy. The agent took us out a couple of times to look at houses without even asking us to sign a contract. I would go with the non-Exclusive contract. As you said, you dont want to get locked into using a Realtor that doesnt do any work for you. One more thing, use a realtor if you buy a to-be-built house from a builder. It shouldnt cost you anything and they could save you money and they should know all the laws concerning building a house.

[lumbollo]

Technically the most important difference is this.

If you don't sign a buyer's agency, then your agent is working for the seller. It doesn't matter if they never talked to, met or know anything about the seller, they are still working for the seller. While your actual mileage might vary, this means if your agent finds out something that will get the seller a better price, then they are supposed to help the seller, not you. in other words, they are working to get the seller the best deal.

If you do sign a buyer's agency, then the agent is working for you and should now be focused on getting you the best deal for you, not the seller. The seller is still paying their commission but the agent works for you now. This is more important for the seller, because they wouldn't want to reveal, for example, how low they might go on pricing to an agent under a buyers agency. As you have noted, however, the price you pay for this is that if you buy a house through someone else while the contract is in force, you owe this agent the commission they would have gotten.

In practice it's not this cut and dry but technically this is the biggest difference.