For many of you, the difference between these two agents may sound obvious.  But, for those of you who don’t know,  I am going to break it down.

First of all, when you summon a Realtor to work with you, you are enlisting their service to you, whether it is to help you find a new home, or sell the one you already have.   Unless it is stated in writting, all Florida real estate agents are currently operating as “transaction brokers.”  This means that your Realtor may represent a buyer and or a seller in the same transaction.

If you are a buyer looking for a property, it may be in your best interest to find an agent dedicated to helping you find your new home that specializes in the specific area you are looking in.  I will be writing another article in the near future about why it is important to have local agent that specializes in the area, but for now lets stick to the topic at hand.

I get calls all the time from prospective buyers calling about an advertisement for a property for sale, and they always ask the same thing.  Are you the listing agent?  Chances are when you make these calls, regardless of the consumer real estate site you are searching on, the person who answers the phone will most likely NOT be the listing agent.  Sites like Trulia, Realtor.com, and Zillow to name a few, allow agents to advertise with them for a fee, and in exchange, that agents info will come up when a potential buyer is looking at places for sale.  As a buyer, this works to your benefit.  If you were actually able to contact the listing agent on every listing you are inquiring about, you would have all of those agents trying to sell you THEIR particular listing that you called about because that is their duty to the seller that hired them!  Sellers hire a listing agent to list their property on the local MLS and market and show the property accordingly until the listing sells.  Also, if you were to buy a property directly through the listing agent, that agent would receive the full 6% standard commission on a sale, which makes it ever more enticing to sell you their listing.  Wouldn’t you rather have someone you can trust, helping you find the right property for you?  Not to mention being bombarded by all of those calls from the listing agents trying to get you to buy their listing!  Having a buyers agent to take all of those follow up calls, setup listing appointments, and prepare contracts for you takes all of the hard work out of finding a place for you.  All  you need to do is see the places and choose.  Also, the best part is when you are working with a buyers agent, most of the time their service is FREE to you.

A rule of thumb is to find an agent you like, and stick with them.  Us realtors are only paid on commission from the properties we sell, and we always appreciate client loyalty.  If you are out searching for properties on your own, do yourself a favor enlist a local agent to do the searching for you.  I hope this article clears up a lot of the confusion out there.  Feel free to contact me to discuss further.