Signing contract with a realtor to buy a home?

[ADisneyQueen]

My sister lives in Pitts. and is looking for a home. Last year, she signed a one year contract with a real estate company saying she will only use their realtors to buy a home. She is not selling, just looking to buy. I have never heard of this. Now she is having a lot of trouble with this company, but is locked into using them for the next 5 mos. Has anyone ever heard of this?

 

[Beth76]

I believe we signed a contract for 6 months. I think it was with the specific realtor though and not the whole company. From what I understood it was a fairly common practice. What kind of problems is she having?

 

[momof3disneyholics]

That does sound odd to me. Why did they make her sign a contract? Would they not show her houses without one?

 

[themilesfamily]

They don't do that in our area. If you are buying a house, you can buy with whatever realtor you choose -- no contracts mandating exclusivity.

I have no doubt, with the housing market the way it is in some areas, they are starting to do this.

Your sister can tell the agent she's not happy with their service and ask that the contract be dissolved. They don't have to agree to it, but she can ask.

 

[barkley]

i recall that when we found a real estate office we wanted to use to purchase they did indicate that it was their office practice that we had to use the initial realtor we chose (unless there was a major issue in which case we could change in house)-but no contract was signed.

now when we sold there was an incentive one company was offering if we used the same realtor to sell our existing and buy our new-after both homes closed the real estate company would kick back a portion of their commission up to a certain dollar amount as a 'housewarming gift'.

 

[chobie]

We did that on the recommendation of a friend. He was a total jerk, would not negotiate price with the sellers, tried to let the seller's realtor walk all over us. Kept showing us homes that were outside of our price range etc. We're looking to buy again and will not lock into any one realtor.

 

[JR6ooo4]

If they did not get a contract then they could find the home and show it to you. Then you call the homeowner and work your own deal leaving the realtor out his/her commission.

Before internet you pretty much had to use a realtor because they had a lock on the MLS. (multiple listing source - or something like that) But now with info being able to be viewed by millions over the internet buyers can do much of their own research. and sellers can show their home to millions as well.

I can not imagine that any company will not let you out of that contract for fear of earning a bad customer service reputation.

Mikeeee

 

[helenabear]

I've heard of it, but it is not the norm in our area. I would never go with someone who required me to sign when it comes to buying.

 

[juligrl]

My sister lives in Pitts. and is looking for a home. Last year, she signed a one year contract with a real estate company saying she will only use their realtors to buy a home. She is not selling, just looking to buy. I have never heard of this. Now she is having a lot of trouble with this company, but is locked into using them for the next 5 mos. Has anyone ever heard of this?

Yep, this is the norm here. It's just so the agent/realty company doesn't do all the work at finding you your perfect house then you go and toss the business (and the commissions) to another agent/realty company.

We had a six month contract with an agent when we were looking to buy. After failing to find a house we desired in that 6 months we sent the letter to dissolve the contract. I believe the contract was self renewing unless formal written request was made to dissolve it. Your sister may want to check into the terms of her contract so that she can dissolve it when the time comes.

 

[KristineN]

The company I worked for prior to my current place...very much wanted all agents to get an exclusive buyers agent contract signed.....

I see both sides of it of course....I can't tell you how disheartening it is to spend countless hours driving people around and showing them houses, not to mention the gas money, lunches I have bought them...time invested etc etc etc...to have them go buy a house at an open house from another Realtor.

 

[100 acre wood]

My sister lives in Pitts. and is looking for a home. Last year, she signed a one year contract with a real estate company saying she will only use their realtors to buy a home. She is not selling, just looking to buy. I have never heard of this. Now she is having a lot of trouble with this company, but is locked into using them for the next 5 mos. Has anyone ever heard of this?

This is a commo practice, it''s known as the buyers agency agreement. Your sister can get out of it, however. All she needs to do is speak to the broker of the agency and explain she is not happy with their services and wants out, and the broker should fill out the appropriate form and release her of the contract. this may vary by state but seems to be pretty universal

 

[Camicar]

It is common around here and we refused to do it after trying it once for about 5 minutes.

I had called a realtor about a house listed thru the company. All I wanted to see was that one house. Agent insisted he HAD to show me others. I told him I was not averse to the idea AS LONG AS the houses shown fit my criteria and I also warned him that I would absolutely not look at houses that did not meet my criteria. I told him very clearly that I was sick of realtors trying to show me houses out of my price range or ones that did not meet my criteria. He swore he would listen to me. We show up and before he would show me that one house, insisted I had to sign the form. I did so only with his promise that if he didn't perform as I'd asked, we would rip up the form.

So, then what happens? He REFUSES to show me the house I was interested in bec it 'belonged' to another agent and proceeds to show me the sheets for 22 other houses, of which 20 were immediately refusals bec they did not meet my criteria for the exterior and the other 2 were also refusals when further examination of the sheet revealed that they did not meet my kitchen criteria. The kicker? When he told me that "You obviously don't know what you're doing and you should just buy what I tell you to buy."

He ended up ripping that sheet up.

That was the final straw for me with realtors. I will never again use one to try and find a house.

 

[TeresaNJ]

I would never, ever, ever sign a contract with a realtor to show me houses. In my experience over the past few years when we were looking in Florida as well as back here in NJ, I was the one who did the leg work searching for houses online that fit my criteria. The only thing the realtor did here in NJ was to send me new listings via email Wow, that was hard. I would tell her what houses I wanted to see, and she would make the appointment. Okay, so she did that too. That's it though. In fact, she never listened to me when I told her what I was interested in and kept trying to push other houses on me. It was very annoying.

We did work with one realtor in Florida though that we met at an open house, who was an absolute joy. He listened to me when I didn't even realize he was listening, and he took me to see the perfect house for me. Unfortunately someone else got the house.

 

[Chicago526]

Maybe I'm just lucky but I've had great success with my agents.

My first purchase of course I just needed a buyers agent, I wasn't selling anything. Poor thing, I had a huge list of "must haves" and not a lot of money but she worked her butt off to try to find me things. Nothing in the area I wanted was working though, and she suggested a sub division in another town, she swore the condo was exactly what I wanted and for the price point I could afford, if I was willing to give up on the town I wanted. At this point I had nothing to lose, so I went and I LOVED it. It was exactly what I wanted, with the one exception being that it wasn't in the town I really wanted to live in. Even so my work commutte didn't increase at all (I could talke the tollway instead of city streets, took almost the same amount of time door-to-door, go figure).

4 years later I sold, and went with a different realtor (I liked my 1st one but since I was now selling as well as buying, I wanted someone from my immediate area) and she to worked her butt off showing us houses (again, big list of criteria and not a lot of money) and she came through for us. She also sold our condo in 3 days, but that was more due to it being in move-in condition and the hot market in '05. Still, she stayed on top of everthing and even had a back up marketing plan in case our offer fell through (it didn't).

Anyway, buyers agents can still be helpfull, IF you can find a good one. I wouldn't sign a contract if I could avoid it, if I couldn't avoid it I'd ask for a 3 month instead of a six month, if they were just awefull then it's not so long to wait it out.

 

[Talking Hands]

Yep, this is the norm here. It's just so the agent/realty company doesn't do all the work at finding you your perfect house then you go and toss the business (and the commissions) to another agent/realty company.

We had a six month contract with an agent when we were looking to buy. After failing to find a house we desired in that 6 months we sent the letter to dissolve the contract. I believe the contract was self renewing unless formal written request was made to dissolve it. Your sister may want to check into the terms of her contract so that she can dissolve it when the time comes.

Truthfully if an agent did that here he would be in trouble with the Department of Professional Regualtions. To do that is considered unethical and no tolerated. If a broker has shown you a property, then that is they broker that gets the sale. You can't take it to another broker, but you can have other brokers show you other properties.

 

[marydmjj]

I'm an agent and haven't used a buyers agreement yet but I'm seriously considering it. It's a tough market and I can't afford to drive people around, pay for lunches, do all the homework and legwork to find out that their "friend" or "cousin" or whatever is an agent and is going to write up the deal. I'm an honest person. I ask the question "are you working with another agent" and I believe the answer I am given. But, many times it hasn't been true. A buyers agreement is the only way I can think of to make everything legit upfront. I know there are unethical and crappy agents out there, but I'm a good one and I can't work for free.