Just Doing Their Job

Blame the way the real estate industry is set up. Accepted practices - not to mention the law, in some cases - are very specific about when and how a Realtor® must represent the seller. And, once real estate agents are committed to their sellers, they are subject to equally specific regulations about what they must do for them.

This can cause extra problems for home buyers because of the way "procuring cause" rules obligate them to have the sellers' agents participate in their representation. (One way you can protect yourself against these rules is to understand how visiting open houses limits your options.)

The best protection against the built-in skew of the system, of course, is to contact The Home Buyers, Inc. to make sure you have the exclusive buyer agent advantage.

Obligated to the Seller

Not surprisingly, one thing the seller's Realtor® is obligated to do is get the highest price on the best terms. As a result, it is not really in the real estate agent's interest to tell you if the house is over priced.

The seller's Realtor® wants the house sold because the client - the person he or she is paid to represent - wants it sold. As a result, the Realtor® has little incentive to share anything with a home buyer that might prevent a sale. He or she has little incentive to question what the client says about the house. When it comes to imporant information like when the house was last re-roofed, what a surveyor said about property boundaries or other problems, you can't rely on the seller's real estate agent to know - or even want to know.

On the other hand, if you are not careful, there are things a Realtor® can reveal about you to the seller. If a seller's Realtor® or a dual agent knows you're closing on your current house and are therefore motivated to buy a new one, for example, he or she may feel obligated to share that information with the seller. Or, the real estate agent may also reveal how much he or she thinks you're willing to offer.