Agents helping home buyers say they're also helping sellers, too

An organization whose members are pledged to work exclusively for America's home buying public, the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents, is meeting in Orlando at the end of the month, confident not only that members are helping buyers get the best value for their money, but also believing that they're helping sellers get the most out of their real estate agents, too.

Separate representation for realty buyers largely began in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Pioneering buyer brokerage seminars for realty agents by Virginia broker James B. Warkentin and others detailed how to represent purchasers and why such representation was good both for consumers and licensees..

"I started out by giving people a choice," Warkentin told The Washingtonian magazine in November, 1982. "This is traditional real estate, these are the benefits, and these are liabilities. This is buyer brokerage. Everyone kept choosing the buyer brokerage, so after a while I stopped talking about the other."

Buyer brokers seek the best possible price and terms for their clients and provide purchasers with the professional representation long enjoyed by sellers. Any real estate licensee may represent purchasers and act as a buyer broker, though the business model for most brokers and salespeople is to list homes and represent owners.

Other forms of representation vary somewhat by state but generally include "designated" agency (where one agent in a real estate company represents a seller while a second agent in the same firm represents a buyer) and "facilitation" (a situation where a broker seeks to assist in the completion of a transaction without representing either party).

NAEBA was established six years ago, an organization whose members practice not "buyers brokerage" but "exclusive buyer brokerage," a term which they define as meaning members do not take listings.

NAEBA members represent only purchasers, which, maintains conference coordinator Tom Early, has forced agents working for sellers to sharpen their business skills.

"Before buyer agents came along, I think the truth is that neither buyers nor sellers were being particularly well represented by their agents," says Early, an exclusive buyer agent from Columbus, Ohio.

"A lot of time the real estate agents would get together to make a deal work. But what the agents wanted and what their buyers and sellers wanted weren't always the same thing.

"When buyer agents came along, who were loyal to the interests of their clients, suddenly buyers had a strong advocate in the deal. But I truly believe that the presence of a trained buyer agent on one side of the table has forced the listing agents to sit back think about how they can do a better job for the sellers."

The winner, says Early, is the consumer.

"At the very least I think we are seeing agents paying more attention to what their clients say they want, rather than what the agents want."

While NAEBA has 450 members, the Real Estate Buyer's Agent Council (REBAC) has more than 30,000 affiliates.

Explains Early, "The big difference is that most REBAC members also work with sellers. NAEBA members promise to only work with buyers, so we're only focused on buyer needs."

The organizations do work together, however. At the upcoming NAEBA conference (Jan. 31-Feb. 3), the keynote address will be given by REBAC's managing director, Janet Branton; and REBAC's advanced buyer representation educational courses will be offered during the meetings.

Although buyer representation is accepted and available in most markets around the country, many issues remain unresolved in how buyer agents and listing agents work together.

"What we'd like to see is our buyer representation contract given as much recognition as the listing agent's contract with the seller is given," Early said.

Published: January 8, 2001

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