What is a Buyers Rep?

Today I was chatting with a nice young lady about purchasing her first home.

After the intial focusing on what she was looking for, where she would like to live, what her finances were and was she actively looking into finding a mortgage that was right for her, it occurred to me that she was waiting for me to tell her what my fee was.

Now this does not always occur to me because "I do not charge a fee"

Here is what goes on. First let me say that besides being a Broker, I am an Acredited Buyers Rep. This means that if you are looking for a house, I can assist you in not only finding it, but advise you of best places to go for a mortgage, give you helpful ideas about which mortgages are right for you, why you need the house inspected and places that you can call, how to make an offer that will be accepted or at least countered. I can give you loads of options, because this is my profession. If you have a question I will give you the answer. Now, why would I not charge for all this? Some Buyer Agents do charge in different areas of the U.S., and some right here in the Ocean State, but I do not. The reason is, most of the buyers' I work with are first time home buyers and they do not always have the finances to come up with a separate fee for a Buyer Agent.

Of course I need to make a living just like everyone else. Upon closing, I receive a fee for my services from the seller of the house. So there is no need to worry about paying a Buyer Agent! I actually thought, until my conversation today, that people simply knew this, but apparently it is not common knowledge. What I do is have a buyer sign a contract saying they will work exclusively with me for a prearranged amount of time. This way I know a buyer is committed to finding a house. If, after the prearranged amount of time, I have not found the right home, then we go our separate ways. There is no charge for my time for this either. The reason for this is I am pretty confident in my abilities to find what a Buyer is looking for! I feel that if I can't find it, it's not out there!

I hope this clears up any concerns for Buyers that would like to work with a Realtor, but do not think they can afford it.