Buyer Agency is a lot like dating!

I've talked to a buyer on the phone or exchanged e-mails and we are about to meet for the first time...it feels a lot like a blind date! They have the edge, though, because they've seen my picture and I don't have a clue what they look like! "We'll be the ones driving the silver mini-van", they say...kind of like the guy with the red rose in his lapel!

So we meet and now, by law, I have to talk to them about buyer agency...a topic that makes most consumer's eyes glaze over with boredom (until something goes wrong!). So I describe it like this:

We've just met and we don't know much about each other, but the State requires me to ask you if you would enter into an agreement to have me represent you....in other words, before the first date is done I'm already proposing marriage! How about we do this...let's agree to sign an agreement that I'm going to represent you for a short period of time...today, this weekend, this week. At the end of our time together, we'll both be able to ascertain if the chemistry is right for us to continue. ..and have our second date! When the short term agreement is about to expire, I'll send you another agreement with a longer time frame associated with it. If you don't want to go on seeing me, you don't even have to send me a "Dear Jane" letter...you just don't sign the new agreement.

But, let's assume we get along great and I'm everything you hoped for in a buyer's agent and we enter into a longer representation agreement (we're going steady!). It is the buyer's agent's responsibility to be your advocate, your champion, your source for information, your partner in this search for the perfect property and to do so with your interests put first (kind of like a Stepford wife...it's all about you!)

The good news is we found your perfect property and you are happily going to your closing knowing that this wonderful relationship that started out like a blind date is going to end in a mutually agreed upon divorce without any of the messiness...and we'll stay friends!