Buyer Agent or Full Service Agent

Ok, most of this is logical. Without regard to what the buyer agents will tell you, I don't think a "pure" buyer agent serves you as well as a full service ASR. Pure Listing agents done really exist, yet. Here's why I think that.

Most, and I'd say more than 95% of agents, are looking to close the deal, but not at any cost. They have to sell more than 24 homes a year to make a basic living! Here is the clencher - Most problems in real estate come because inexperienced and uninformed people get a license very easily and they make a mistake. Experienced real estate agents (ASRs) are very conscious of what they say, promise, imply, decree, hint at, and hand out. To mislead someone in buying a property means that you don't get the listing when they sell and you DO get bad word of mouth advertising.

A listing agent will do the same work at valuing property that a buyer agent does, but the listing agent proves their opinion is right or wrong by selling the property.

Pure buyer agents can really make a deal hard by trying to negotiate the price down on a properly priced property. Many see their job as a bargain maker, not as representative of the buyer. I have had buyer agents use unreasonable methods to get a lower price. Many sellers just go to the next offer.

The idea of a dedicated buyer agent presumes the idea that buyers will get taken advantage of. What other sales business has to document a "fiduciary duty"? Does the car salesman tell you they are working for the dealership? Does the commission sales person at an electronics store need to tell you they work for the store and that they have production incentives that your sale may be affected by? Does you insurance agent need to tell you they are getting paid by your premium? Does the paperboy have tell you that he gets bonus money for signing up new clients?

Where did the idea of a dedicated buyer agent come from? From agents who don't want to list. Think about it; if you get paid at the closing, are you going to hurt the buyers that buy property? "Oh what about listing agents that don't disclose facts?" I say get rid of them! How many people do you know that have bought property, AND that think or know the agent didn't disclose something that would have caused them not to buy? You hear about it and it happens, but those problems are small in number. (It's the legal $$s that get the attention for the few problems that occur.) The agents who work that way do not stay in business. They go broke by lack of business or because of lawyers and judges.

So again: Most, and I'd say more than 95% of agents, are looking to close the deal, but not at any cost. They have to sell more than 24 homes a year to make a basic living! Here is the clencher - Most problems in real estate come because inexperienced and uninformed people get a license very easily and they make a mistake. Experienced real estate agents (ASRs) are very conscious of what they say, promise, imply, decree, hint at, and hand out. To mislead someone in buying a property means that you don't get the listing when they sell and you DO get bad word of mouth advertising.

Just get a full service ASR and you'll be ahead of the real estate novices and problem magnets.