Agents & Buyers - Who is Selling who?

Buyers flock to brokers because brokers have access to thousands of homes for sale with one convenient tool, the Multiple Listing System (MLS). Inspecting these properties via the ease and comfort of the agent's car is free! It is easy for a buyer to call an agent on any day of the week to set an appointment to view homes. Once contact is made, it is not uncommon for agents to show anywhere from 40 to 80 properties before the buyer finally selects a home.

Many times a seller wants a real estate agent to magically deliver a buyer willing to pay more than the market value for their home. In the real world this rarely happens. Real estate agents can not "talk" a buyer into making an offer on a home the buyer does not want. Nor can real estate agents "talk" a buyer into paying more for a home, than the buyer thinks the home is worth. Buying a home in not am impulsive decision. Buyers with common sense do not spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase a home as the result of the sales tactics of a real estate agent (with the exception of fraud).

Many real estate professionals perform a service of gathering and disseminating information. Buyers tell the agent where they want to look and what they want to buy. Real estate agents are facilitators providing the information and guidance to move the transaction forward. When the buyer finds a home he likes, the buyer's agent works with the listing agent to negotiate the sale.

Buyers Come and Go
Buyers have little loyalty to agents. There are many times when an agent will spend countless weekends showing homes to buyers who never buy. Should an agent fail to show a house that meets the buyer's needs, the buyer will always find some other agent to show it to him. Buyers may look at homes with one agent in the morning, another agent in the afternoon and in the evening they stop by a for-sale-by-owner.

Customers Control The Market
Consumerism is omnipresent, most buyers are looking for a good deal. When a buyer finds a home they like, they will compare it's price to those of similar homes they've seen. Buyers will also request that their agent find out what comparable homes in the area have been selling for and what the seller paid for the home.

Time is money, so the buyer's agent will show the buyer only the homes the buyer requests to see, or those homes the agent believes meet the buyer's needs. Should an agent think your home is overpriced and deem it difficult to sell, the agent probably will not show your home, and will move on to an easier sale