Buying your Central Ohio home is an expensive and complex process. Having an Exclusive Buyer’s Agent or Broker on your side can make a critical difference in the price and terms of your home purchase! Here’s why.
Exclusive Buyer Brokers only represent home buyers, never sellers. Unlike typical real estate agents, Exclusive Buyer Brokers are required by law to get the best price and best terms for the buyer.
As specialists in the home buying process, Exclusive Buyer Brokers deliver a higher level of professional services to home buyers. This results in cost savings and greater satisfaction for home buyers!
Because Exclusive Buyer Brokers never accept property listings, they do not have company listings to try to sell to you first. Instead, all homes are available to buyers without bias, including For Sale by Owner, new construction by homebuilders, and homes listed for sale on the Multiple Listing Service.
Exclusive Buyer Brokers protect the interests of buyers better than other types of agents. Most buyers do not know the legal distinctions between different types of agency, and how this could work against them! While Ohio law requires real estate agents to disclose whose side they are on, the agency disclosures are usually obscure and poorly explained.
Here are the common types of agency that pose serious disadvantages to home buyers:
Seller Agency: these agents list property for sale, and always represent the seller. Buyers are considered “customers” and not clients. This means the listing agency is obligated to get the highest home price and the best terms for the seller.
Any information given by a buyer to the seller’s agent must be revealed to the seller. This includes the buyer’s financial ability, personal information, and motives! Any information a buyer volunteers could literally be used against them in negotiations.
Dual Agency: these agents list property for sale, represent the seller, but also claim to act as “buyer agents” on those same properties! Dual agency is legal in Ohio if it’s disclosed to the buyer and seller at first contact and both give “informed consent.”
This allows a dual agent to legally collect both sides of the sales commission, while acting as a “transaction facilitator” with no true dedication to either the buyer or seller. Consumer advocates, such the Consumer Federation of America, warn against using a dual agent.
Designated Agency: this is a hybrid of Dual Agency that confuses both home buyers and sellers. By agency law, a listing agency and its agents represent the home seller. In Designated Agency, a brokerage may have one of their agents working with the seller, and another agent “representing” the buyer. But this is still a form of dual agency, except with two agents involved, instead of one. There is no advantage to the buyer. The agency benefits by the arrangement, because this enables them to collect both the selling and buying side of the real estate commission.
Only an Exclusive Buyer’s Broker acts in a true fiduciary capacity for home buyers.
As your Exclusive Buyer’s Broker, we serve your best interests at all times! Unlike real estate agents and brokerages who represent sellers, as an Exclusive Buyer’s Broker, we only represent you, the buyer, getting you the best price and terms with no conflict of interest at all times.
Understanding this distinction could literally save you thousands of dollars not only on the purchase price and terms, but also on seller concessions and home inspection issues, whether you are a first-time homebuyer or an experienced homeowner!
Contact us with your home buying questions! Remember, we are with you every step of the way…all the way home!
Andrew Show
Broker, CEBA, CEBA-M, CNE, CSP, ABR-M, e-PRO, GREEN
Buyer’s Resource Realty Services
Serving Metro Columbus, Ohio with Exclusive Buyer’s Agents
7100 North High Street, Suite 204, Worthington, Ohio 43085
614-888-4110 | 888-888-4110 Toll Free | 614-839-4110 Fax
