5 Reasons to Sign a Buyer
Representation Agreement
If you’ve started looking for a home—and a real estate
professional to assist you—your buyer’s representative may ask
you to sign a Buyer Representation Agreement.
What is this form? Why should you sign it?
A Buyer Representation Agreement is a legal document that
formalizes your working relationship with a particular buyer’s
representative, detailing what services you are entitled to and
what your buyer’s rep expects from you in return. While the
language used in the document is formal, homebuyers should view
it as an important and helpful tool for clarifying expectations,
developing mutual loyalty, and most importantly, elevating the
services you will receive.
1. Receive a higher level of service.
If you’ve
formalized an agency relationship with a buyer’s rep,
you
can expect to be treated like a client instead of a
customer. What’s the difference? Clients are
entitled
to
superior services, relative to customers. While the
details vary from state to state, and from one buyer’s
agent to another, you can generally assume that
being a client means that you’ve formed a fiduciary,
or
agency, relationship with your buyer’s rep.
2. Get more without paying more.
In almost every case,
home sellers have already agreed to pay a buyer’s
agent’s commission. If they haven’t, you can ask your
buyer’s rep to avoid showing you any such homes.
Or
you can still view the home, knowing that you’ll
need to factor your agent’s commission into any offer
you
may write. While buyers rarely pay real estate
commissions, this is an important detail you’ll want
to
discuss with your buyer’s rep and clarify in their
representation agreement.
3. Avoid misunderstandings.
A Buyer’s Representation
Agreement clarifies expectations, helping you
understand what you should and shouldn’t expect
from your buyer’s rep, and what they will expect from
you, which usually centers on loyalty.
4. Agency relationships are based on
mutual consent.
While most representation agreements specify
a
time period, they can be terminated early if both
parties consent. Most buyer’s reps are willing to
end
the agreement early if the working relationship
isn’t going well. Some buyer’s reps also offer
representation agreements for as little as one day,
for
the purpose of giving both parties a brief trial
period to explore working together.
5. Strength as a team.
When you and your buyer’s
rep
work together within a formalized agency
relationship, you have created a team dedicated
to
helping you achieve the best possible
home-buying experience.
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