I had worked very hard to prepare this house for sale – even paint the front door and remove the assault door itself, b/c the workers didn`t and the open day was the next day. I staged it, marketed it and held open houses every weekend for months. But I sacrificed the 3% sales side – which I deserved – b/it was in the best interest of my client, the seller. The other agent may have tried to get the buyer to buy something else. . And I didn`t want to take the risk. It didn`t make a difference for the seller. One way or another, she paid 6%. Retainer fees are set out in the agreement to compensate brokers for their time and any expenses incurred while searching for a buyer`s dream home. Often, agents use retainer fees to distinguish serious buyers from those who are not required. It`s quite common for a buyer agent you work with to ask you to sign a buyer representation agreement. It exists because an agent could spend hours working with a buyer just to put them under contract with another agent.

Real estate agents operate at 100% commission, so when they spend their money and especially their time to work with a buyer who changes his mind at the last minute, it harms their final result. If a buyer worked with Agent John for weeks and suddenly chose Agent Betty to help buy a house just because she`s a family friend, then John really loses. Before entering into the buyer-broker agreement, let`s first clarify what a buyer`s agent does. Conclusion: an agent is either an honest person or a dishonest person. The agreement does not make the person an honest person. It just gives them more rights. I think most real estate agents are like sellers – they don`t mind lying to make money. If you find an honest one, I guess they won`t ask for a contract, because they know that their honesty, in most cases, makes buyers want to buy them. It`s a lot of work.

Then one day the buyer calls in a breathless agitation to announce that he has passed a new subdivision, stopped to see a model house, and signed a contract to buy a new house from the client.