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just like the house you buy, there are deal-killers. If "requires exclusive" is your deal-killer and more important to you than the agent's competence, then you certainly have that choice.
I never said ERs are incompatible with my agent's competence, but I have no means to measure an agent's competence.
However any competent agent should not require an ER if their competence is so dazzling. Do your job and your client will respect that and stick with you.
Again I stress that I do NOT condone using more than one Realtor at a time. Try one for a while, stick with them if they are doing a good job, jump ship if they are a loser.
But in a buying situation I would NEVER sign an ER with my buying Realtor. I've bought 5 houses in the last 5 years and always stuck with the Realtor that showed me the houses I bought. No ER required. In all 5 cases I made an offer within 2-3 days of being shown the properties, and in all 5 cases I eventually ended up owning the properties.
It's crazy to sign an ER if you are a buyer. Just remember to do business with only one Realtor at the time, because that is the honest and respectful thing to do.
And if you go back to buy a house that a different Realtor showed you initially, contact that Realtor to make your offer.
blueherons, it is more than this. It is about your professional relationship and respect between Realtor and client.
In the case of you being the seller, you have to decide before your transaction who will represent you, and in my case I have the benefit of past transactions. In other cases you will have to just go with your best judgement.
Be it known that selling Realtors incur significant labor and expense, listing your house in the MLS, open houses, "realtor trolleys," photography, etc. You should be expected to sign an exclusive contract (ER) if you are listing your house for sale. You cannot expect any person to incur a significant expense on your behalf without the reward that if they are successful that you owe them their commission.
But as a buyer your Realtor's only investment is time and gas. If they cannot do the job they don't deserve the commission. For this reason I am opposed to ERs for buyers. My position is that ERs for sellers are absolutely required.
As a buyer with no ER, if you are not satisfied with your Realtor's performance, just fire them. With no ER it's as simple as telling them, "bye bye." But with an ER you will not be able to buy a house unless they represent you.
Again, if a Realtor shows you a specific house IMO you are obligated to have them represent you if you decide to make an offer. Be it known that Realtors keep logs of what houses they show which clients, and you may be inviting legal problems if you do not go with the Realtor that showed you the house initially.
I never said ERs are incompatible with my agent's competence, but I have no means to measure an agent's competence.
However any competent agent should not require an ER if their competence is so dazzling. Do your job and your client will respect that and stick with you.
Again I stress that I do NOT condone using more than one Realtor at a time. Try one for a while, stick with them if they are doing a good job, jump ship if they are a loser.
But in a buying situation I would NEVER sign an ER with my buying Realtor. I've bought 5 houses in the last 5 years and always stuck with the Realtor that showed me the houses I bought. No ER required. In all 5 cases I made an offer within 2-3 days of being shown the properties, and in all 5 cases I eventually ended up owning the properties.
It's crazy to sign an ER if you are a buyer. Just remember to do business with only one Realtor at the time, because that is the honest and respectful thing to do.
And if you go back to buy a house that a different Realtor showed you initially, contact that Realtor to make your offer.
I neither said nor thought that you felt there was mutual exclusion between competence and willingness to work w/o an agreement in place. I also work for folks in the beginning without any written agreement in place. You do prefer competence though, right? To say "never" then introduces the idea that such an item is so bad that you would run from it before many other qualifiers. I don't think someone who doesn't generally REQUIRE exclusive makes them incompetent, at all. It makes them willing to take a risk that
As to having bought 5 within 5 years, using 5 different agents, and being conscientious to use them to buy the house through them - thank you on behalf of our industry. Nowhere near the vast majority of folks actually do the same.
and it raises the question - have you had numerous experiences where you had an exclusive representation agreement, you wanted out, and the agent refused until the expiration?
I respect the efforts and labor that Realtors expend. Realtors are people just as I am people.
But I still decry the use of ERs for buyers. Instead I think buyers should be aware that it is cheating and dishonest (at heart) to use more than one Realtor at a time in a competing sales area.
Perhaps we are not so much in disagreement, except I think buyers should be honest and ethical while you may require legal agreements (ERs) to enforce the same.
For the record no Realtor has ever asked me to sign an ER as a buyer. But I have always signed an ER as a seller or landlord for sales/rental contracts. Again for the record, I have been 100% satisfied with the performance of my Realtors when I was the selling/landlord status.
I always say, know who you are dealing with. Your job as buyer or seller is to make a wise decision in your representation. I feel that as a buyer or renter it is unwise to sign an ER, although as a renter it is not a problem to sign an ER for a specific property alone. The same would apply if you are making a purchase offer for a specific property. I have no problem with ERs related to a single property.
I don't think we're that far apart at all. going back to my first post in this, I said it was a great post of yours but that I personally used ER (for Buyers).
I found our realtor by going to an open house. She was the listing agent and was fantastic. We talked to her for a long time and then called her when we were ready to list our home. She also brought in a stager. We were moving out of state so she actually did phone interviews with realtors in the area we were moving to and found us a fantastic one to find our dream home.
Ask family, friends, go to open houses. I would not find a realtor based on Zillow.
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