It all changed yesterday. The MLS is no longer allowing sellers to market commission to buyers agents. The paradigm has shifted. It is the responsibility of buyers to pay their agent commission if none is offered by the sellers. While this was done to ‘help’ buyers because they can negotiate the commission for their representation, it actually makes buying a house even more difficult because they have to come up with the commission cash instead of the sellers. As if it weren’t difficult enough to buy a house already! But I digress.
Up until yesterday we could still see that essentially all sellers were offering buyer agents commission, and I expect that to continue at least in the short term, except now it’s on the down low. If there are two houses a buyer is considering and one is offering buyer agents commission and the other isn’t, which one do you think the buyers are going to favor? One house is going to be a lot more affordable than the other. Here are a few other things to consider:
1) If you ask an agent to show you a home, you will need to sign a buyer/broker agreement. Realtors are not allowed to show buyers homes without the agreement in place. There is no exemption for family members, but do you really think I’m going to ask my sister who periodically looks at homes with me to sign this agreement?
2) The buyer/broker agreement can work in the favor of agents who attempt to represent buyers, show them multiple properties, sometimes over the course of years, then decide to work with a listing agent when they walk into an open house. This is the good news for the buyer’s agents who get those agreements signed.
3) If you want to find out if commission is being offered to buyer’s agents, you or your agent will need to ask the listing agent. They will tell you, it’s only a secret as far as the MLS is concerned.
4) When you attend an open house, some listing agents may have an ‘Open House Visitor Non-Agency Disclosure’ form out for you to sign. It says that the seller’s agent is not your agent, however the form tells the visitor what to do if they want the seller’s agent to represent them.
5) There is a place to sign, date and put your contact information on the form. Nobody can force you sign it, and you can always make up a name and put fake contact information on the Disclosure.
- This is where I feel really badly for buyer’s agents, people who have made their living showing properties to buyers. It feels like this form is giving sellers agents an effective tool to ‘snatch’ buyers who don’t have agreements in place with their agents.
6) There’s an old saying in real estate, “List to Last.” In this new market, ironically it’s going to be more important than ever to list properties and work with sellers, if you want to work with buyers.
*** Thank you for reading my blog! If you or any of your friends and family ever have any real estate questions, please feel free to contact me at andyfalk2112@yahoo.com or 415-250-8025. I’m always happy to help!