The answer is simple -- to ensure the care and maintenance of your your best interests while purchasing real estate and properties.

How much will it cost to hire my own real estate buyer's agent?

In most cases? Absolutely nothing. Many people think that if they hire an agent, they automatically have to pay for their services or, if they use an agent to purchase or build a new home, that the home will somehow cost more because an agent represents them. In both cases, it's just not so.

Methods of compensating your agent

While you can elect to compensate your agent if you so desire, your buyer's agent is traditionally compensated by the seller or builder through a cooperative agreement with the listing broker. In essence, what this means to you is the services your agent provides you through the purchase process are already pre-paid by the seller or builder. There are some circumstances where this is not the case such as in for-sale-by-owner properties that aren't listed through another real estate broker or instances where the seller cannot or will not pay for your representation, but that's not normally the case.

Who represents your interests while purchasing a home?

That said, it just doesn't make sense not have a real estate professional represent your interests in a real estate transaction to provide the knowledge, time, and experience in the local real estate market that the average person just doesn't possess. A buyer's agent also is the only person in the transaction other than your real estate attorney who is specifically hired to safeguard your interests throughout the entire process. It's their job. Everyone else you'll come into contact with is either not responsible for guarding your interests or is working on behalf of the seller to obtain the highest selling price possible. That's their job.

What are your options?

So let's see what our options are here:

1) Hire a buyer's agent to ensure we get the best price and terms

2) Hire no agent and go it alone without the advantage of local market information, experience, and knowledge

3) Work directly with the listing agent -- who is the one person specifically hired to obtain the highest selling price possible for the seller

What do real estate industry insiders recommend?

Even as a real estate broker and Realtor who works within the industry, I'm going with Option #1 -- I want someone on my side who safeguards my interests, holds my information confidentially, and someone who will obtain the best possible price and terms. If it's free to me, then all the better.

Another way to look at it -- if you were being prosecuted in a court of law, would you hire the same attorney who's prosecuting you, or would your hire your own defense attorney who specializes in representing you in cases like yours? The answer is clear.

For more information

For more information about buyer's agency, it's important to know that there organizations that specialize in buyers agency -- the most notable of which is the Real Estate Buyer's Agent Council. If you'd like to speak with us in person, please either drop by our office or call us directly at (512) 878-6212..

TIPS FROM THE PROS

I cannot stress how important it is to be represented by a real estate professional during your home purchase or in any purchase of real estate for that matter.

It's usually free, it's the right thing to do, and it just makes perfect sense to hire a real estate professional with the experience and qualifications to make your next home buying experience the best one ever.

I have never had a client or met someone else's buyer client who ever expressed to me that hiring a buyer's agent wasn't in their best interest. In fact, quite the contrary.

When industry professionals meet someone who didn't hire their own buyer's agent, it's easy for them to assume that the person they're meeting is not educated in the many changes that have affected the real estate industry since the early 1990s.

If you're still not sure if it's in your best interest to hire your own representative, ask your real estate professional how they purchased their last home. Chances are, they hired someone with the local knowledge and experience to achieve the best price and terms for them -- even if they did it personally.