Why you need a buyer's agent in Connecticut!

I’ll be honest this was tough to write because I think it comes across as salesy. I promise I’m not writing this with the intention to deceptively convince you that you need a buyer’s agent so that I potentially get new business. I find the following to be incredibly important information for home buyers to be made aware of.

Dual Agent: A real estate agent acting on behalf of both the buyer and seller in a transaction.

I should also note that as a buyer you typically do not pay your agent. The buyer’s agent’s commission is paid by the seller of the property. A dual agency situation does not save the buyer any money necessarily, in most cases it just makes the dual agent more money.

Disclaimer: I think most real estate agents are very capable of acting as dual agents and doing it as fairly and ethically as possible. At the end of the day, however, we are all human and it is near impossible to represent both sides in a transaction equally. After all, there is a reason that in some states dual agency is illegal. I’m adding this disclaimer because this topic is probably going to come across as somewhat negative.

Conflict of Interest 

First and foremost, the listing agent is under contract with the seller to act in their best interest (make them the most money possible). The listing agent has a fiduciary duty to the seller, and if a listing agent breaks that fiduciary duty their license to practice real estate could be put in jeopardy.

A fiduciary is a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more other parties.

A seller/listing agent relationship typically starts with a listing appointment where they discuss things like listing price, getting the house ready for photographs, things the seller could change or repair, how showings will work etc. this process could take weeks or months as they work together to get ready for market.

The house is listed, and a buyer contacts the listing agent, falls in love with the house and wants to make an offer.

This is where conflict of interest comes in. Is the listing agent going to be able to casually put aside the relationship previously formed with the seller and truly represent both side’s interests to their full potential? It’s a massive risk to think that they can.

The Information Spin

A price is agreed upon, a contract is formed. It’s time for the home inspection. The buyer hires a home inspection company and finds out the house has a bunch of issues. Mostly minor issues that come up regularly during inspections but there are also a couple of major issues that worry the buyer.

The buyer brings the issues to the agent, and how does the agent react? The agent brings the issues up with the sellers and they might say something like “Oh, it’s been like that since we bought the house and we’ve never had a problem.” The agent then downplays the issue to the buyers and because the buyers are not in real estate, they trust the agent and disregard a major home inspection issue that should have been addressed in some manner.

A buyer’s agent working exclusively for the buyer would not have let the issue just slide by.

Disclaimer: This is an example of a worst-case scenario. There are dual agency situations where home inspection issues are addressed to the buyer’s liking.

Increasing Skepticism 

The buyers are through inspection, and everything is looking good. Then the buyer’s attorney finds out that permits were never pulled or closed for certain modifications. The agent says not to worry everything was done by a licensed contractor we should proceed with closing as planned. The buyer starts to question the entire transaction thus far and its difficult to get back to the positive excitement felt at the beginning of the process.

To avoid all of this get yourself a buyer’s agent. As mentioned earlier the seller (in almost all cases) pays the buyer’s agent commission, so why put yourself in a dual agency situation if it does not save you any money? And possibly ends up costing you MORE money.

Happy to discuss this more and hear your thoughts/questions on the matter!