Letters from home...
Gail L. of Carpinteria, CA shares her viewpoint on traditional "buyers agents" vs. "exclusive buyer agency companies" (where the whole company including the broker/owner and all agents, only represent buyers):
"I talked to your referral and was reasonably pleased. He seemed sincere and knowledgeable. I am talking to many buyer's agents and yours is definitely at the top of my lists for many reasons.
As a side note, I have been generally displeased with (traditional) buyer's agents. While the concept is good, most don't seem to have the buyer's best interests in mind. I don't think there is really anything unethical involved, I do believe that most agents are marketing pipelines to get consumers to purchase properties listed with their own agencies.
I ran into a partnership and a man and wife team where one person was the seller agent and the other the buyer's agent. Neither were willing to claim that they did dual agency transactions, but did insist that their best leads came from the "seller" side of their relationships.
I found the same thing to be true with many of the buyer's agents who worked with agencies who had many "seller's" agents. Their stance was tha t I would get the best deal by going dual agency with them rather than insisting that I not consider listings by their agency.
Additionally, many of the buyer's agents that I talked to were very much into "up selling". There were three who insisted that there were no properties that met my price and feature criteria in the areas where I'm interested in buying. A simple MLS search of my own on Realtor.com and on the Idaho MLS site revealed MANY listings that fit all my feature criteria and well within the price point I want. The primary difference was that those "other" properties were not listed by the "buyer's agent's" realty firms.
As a business owner I appreciate the desire to get the most out of every transaction. As a consumer I was looking forward to finding an agent who is 100% devoted to my best interests. I'm not finding that to be the case with buyer's agents in general. It's a great concept in principle, but in practice I think that its difficult to realize. I think that the only ones that I will end up dealing with will be buyer's agents who do no selling or have ties to seller's agencies. In that market it might be difficult to find an exclusive, but that's what I'm targeting.
Finally, as both a business owner and a consumer I really appreciate your follow up and concern. Its refreshing to find an Internet business that provides good personalized service. Thank you for your time and consideration and I hope to do business with you in the future."