Real estate ads

Should I call the company listed on the ad for a home I'm interested in seeing? No! They represent the seller. Yes some brokers (a broker is the agent's boss) have designated agency (meaning they can represent both the buyer and the seller while both the seller and the buyer are still represented by their own agents). This means you, the client, is represented. But both the buyer and the seller are represented by the same broker (your agent's boss). In most cases this works out fine. But if the broker sides with her best interest over yours, that can be a problem.

For example, you call me for a listing in our office. You are interested in buying home X, listed by an agent in my office. I'd work for you and the listing agent works for the seller. But both me and the listing agent work for the same broker, Tini Sawicki. That means if there is an issue the seller's agent and I can't work out on our own, Tini decides. Hopefully this situation will never occur. I can't imagine very many situations where the other agents in my office wouldn't be reasonable and make a mutually fair decision without involving Tini.

Here's an example of a broker not working in the client's best interest. I've been a seller, years ago, before I became a realtor, when my agent's broker wasn't fair. I'd listed my home for sale with broker Y's agent. Then my agent chose to un-affiliate with broker Y. That means my agent now works for broker Z. The problem is that my listing stayed with broker Y and I now had a stranger for an agent. But I wanted to stay with my original agent. So I requested that broker Y release me from my contract. Broker Y refused to allow me to get out of my contract. It is in situations like this that having an impartial broker is critical.

The moral of the story is that you should always call your own agent, not an agent in an ad. Why not call an ad? Because that agent is most likely going to show you the homes you call about first. But why would you want to see only the homes that happen to be advertised in the paper that day? Wouldn't it be more efficient to decide what your're looking for, call your own agent and tell her what you need? An agent will then do a search of properties that meet your needs as closely as possible. Also, an agent will know the properties, she'll have been in many of them and be able to tell you if you should even bother to see some of them. She knows they are not what you're looking for. Wouldn't this save you lots of time and frustration? There are lots of homes to see these days. Why not see the right one for you without looking at all the wrong ones first?