A home purchase is a significant and expensive transaction with long-term financial implications. Buying a home wisely, at the right price and terms, can provide a lifetime of benefits and enjoyment! But if you overpay for a home, or choose a home that involves more upkeep than you can manage, trouble could be on the horizon.

In order to make the best possible home buying decisions, you need to have the best possible information and guidance. Using an Exclusive Buyer Agent provides you with a superior level of representation and protection. This is because an Exclusive Buyer Agent only serves the homebuyer, and focuses their expertise on the buyer’s needs and concerns.

You might come across other types of real estate “buyer agents” online who make similar claims. Not all buyer agents are Exclusive Buyer Agents. Here’s what you should know.

Any real estate agent can call themselves a “buyer agent” and provide basic home search and showing appointment services. They make promises like “helping you find your dream home.” They are not restricted to one client type or the other. In practice, they usually represent sellers.

An Exclusive Buyer Agent will:

• Keep your motives and budget confidential
• Protect your best interests at all times
• Educate you about market conditions and the home buying process
• Perform market price comparisons and protect you from over-paying for a home
• Negotiate exclusively on your behalf, obtaining the best price and terms
• Fulfill fiduciary duties and adhere to high standards of ethics and integrity
• Provide these services and more at no additional cost to you

Some “buyer agents” are “Accredited Buyer Representatives©.” The ABR© designation is a
branded specialty offered by the National Association of Realtors© (NAR.) While NAR provides buyer agent education and guidelines, they also allow these agents to have listings and represent sellers.

Other agents may work for brokerages that practice dual agency or “designated agency.”

If a “buyer agent” gives you a dual agency disclosure, they’re not representing you!

• Only an Exclusive Buyer Agent (often called an Exclusive Buyer’s Broker) can guarantee to represent you in your home purchase.
• Only an EBA can GUARANTEE to negotiate on your behalf.
• An EBA provides the true facts as to value, market/neighborhood conditions, and obvious physical defects.
• The high level of negotiation training and expertise of an EBA truly levels the playing when it is time to make an offer on a property.
• Because an EBA only represents buyers and does not have in-house or company listings, a seller is always unaware of the price buyers are willing to spend during the negotiation process, bringing the advantage back to the buyer and the buyer’s wallet. For this reason alone, it is very common to save thousands of dollars during the critical negotiation process.
• An EBA will insist that the buyer utilize a qualified home inspector who will treat the buyer as their client, and not as a customer.
• Listing agents (the ones with the sign in the front yard) and the company that they work for represent the SELLER, not the buyer. Their job is to get the SELLER the highest price on the best terms.
• An EBA’s job is to get the BUYER the lowest price on the best terms.
• EBAs will do a better job for transferees that anyone else. They will give you the facts, good and bad.
• A listing agent cannot tell you about many things that would be detrimental for the BUYER because they work for the SELLER.
• An EBA will help you with your financing alternatives. They may advise you to be pre-approved by a lender. Why? Because a fully approved loan makes you a cash buyer.
• EBA’s have a legal and ethical obligation to put your interests first!
• It just makes sense!

Only an Exclusive Buyer Agent provides you with the highest level of fiduciary duty and representation. An Exclusive Buyer Agent will provide pre-purchase counseling, mortgage lender referrals, and home search and showing services for all homes on the market, not just the MLS.

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As seen in The National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (NAEBA) website https://naeba.org/why-buyers-agency/

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