Susan had heard of buyer's agents
but when she typed that phrase into her Google search, along with "Dallas", a lot of options came up. She searched on many of the derivations: "buyer agent", "buyers agent", and "buyer broker"...
There were many websites that offered to connect her to an agent, and sites from individual brokerages claiming to be buyers agents, and sites that said they were national or state associations. Who should she trust?
Susan filled out the form for one site that offered her access to exclusive buyer agents in her area. However, she was perplexed when she only got one individual within one company offered back to her. Surely there was more than one exclusive buyer agent in the Dallas area! In fact, there were probably numerous buyers agent companies in Dallas. Why couldn't she easily access all of them, and see the company information and who was the broker/owner of that company? Susan wished to have a broader knowledge of her options so she could select first which company looked best based on it's website, know who the company broker/owner was, and then be free to select which agent within that company she wanted to work with.
She discovered that there are a few sites on the internet will electronically auto-transfer her information to just one agent, but not ALL of the exclusive buyer agents for that area.
Susan then went to another site that gave her a half dozen agents, and she noticed that their profiles were a bit confusing because the agents claimed to all be buyer agents, and yet they also offered to help her sell her home. She was already being contacted daily by seller agents wanting to list her home. She couldn't tell what they really meant when they said they helped buyers.
Susan then went to a site that claimed to be a "National Association of Buyer Agents", and another that claimed to be a "National Buyers Agent Association, LLC. Then her husband Fred pointed out that an association just meant a group of people with like-minded interests, and that there were for-profit association groups as well as not for profit association groups. They searched public records and could not find a public registration for these for-profit associations. They also did not see a published standards of practice or code of ethics.
Their research did uncover that The National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents, the Colorado Exclusive Buyer Agents Association and the Massachusetts Association of Buyer Agents. These are all affiliated with BuyerAgentSearch and are all registered not for profit trade associations. The SmartHomeSearch association, also a part of BuyerAgent Search is a privately held company and includes a network of top rated brokers wihin the US and other countries. This group of brokers is a monitored list of top real estate agents who have consistently received good consumer feedback. This group is also available to people who sign up at this site.
Susan decided to consult Suzie Orman's website, and found that exclusive buyer agents with the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents were also recommended there.
In the end, she had four good companies to choose from and a good set of interview questions. She felt a great sense of control and freedom and began that very afternoon narrowing down her selection.
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