While showing one of our listings to a buyer’s agent and her clients today, she asks me the following questions:

Q1: So, is this house a short sale, or a foreclosure?

Me: Uh, neither. I would have mentioned it in the listing sheet, if it were.

Q2: (After I had already mentioned to her two seconds earlier that the sellers are not aware of any material defects in the house, and have put this down in writing on the disclosure form) So, are there any problems with water in the basement?

Me: Not to the sellers’ nor my knowledge. The disclosure form is clean.

On her way out the door:

Q3: So, how flexible are the sellers?

Me: The ball is in the buyers’ court. It all starts with an offer from the buyers.

Here she was, and hadn’t even had a chance to talk with her clients to see whether or not they liked the house at all, and already she wanted to know how negotiable the sellers are. She was fortunate that I was in a good mood today, otherwise I would have asked her if she wanted to know exactly how much below asking price our clients are willing to accept.

Moral of the story: When your property is on the market for sale, and you are asked questions by a buyer’s agent or by buyers, always be sure to defer them to your real estate professional, as you may run the risk of compromising your negotiation position. Unrepresented sellers (FSBO’s) are a bit at a disadvantage here, but if you do get uncomfortable by certain questions posed to you, please defer them to your attorney.

In Illinois, the Real Estate License Act of 2000 governs among other things, the relationship between the public and real estate professionals (licensees). Illinois lawmakers’ intention has been for sellers and buyers of real estate alike to be professionally represented in any real estate transaction. Prior to approximately 1995, only sellers used to be represented by their listing agent. Brokers who would introduce their buyers to a piece of property weren’t really working on behalf of their buyers; they were rather sub-agents working for the listing agent on behalf of the seller. The legal landscape changed in 1995, when the Real Estate License Act started mandating that real estate buyers had to be represented by their own agent who owed them full fiduciary duties. It took several years before the general public got used to the idea that suddenly they too could “have their own people” (as in “have your people call my people”) when purchasing real estate. Eventually, most buyers got the hang of this “buyer’s agency” thing (a few agents are still working on grasping this concept).

With the ubiquity of listing information on the web though, the concept of designated agency has again become somewhat confusing for many real estate buyers. Case in point: We received an email this morning from a buyer who wants to see a few homes that are for sale in Sauganash. How did they find these properties and yours truly, for that matter? On 60646 Blog, of course, where we bring you the entire residential real estate inventory for sale in 60646, fresh off the MLS press, twice daily. The buyer goes on to say in the email that he’d like to see these homes on Wednesday, but that his agent won’t be accompanying him on that day. I call the gentleman because I’m suspecting that he’s under the impression we’re the listing agents for these properties he’s interested in. Sure enough, that’s what he thought. I explain that we’re not, and that we’d be acting in the role of his buyer’s agents were we to show him these homes. But I’m calling him as a courtesy to his agent (you’re welcome, btw), to let him know about this misunderstanding, because I sure wouldn’t be happy if another agent drove my buyer clients around to show them homes that are for sale. Mr. Buyer was very thankful for my having cleared up the misunderstanding.

How did this misunderstanding originate in the first place? Ubiquity of listing information on the Internet. You see, those members of the Multiple Listing Service who would like to display the listings of other brokers on their own web sites are free to do so, as long as they opt in to Broker Reciprocity, and display the Broker Reciprocity logo, along with the listing broker’s information on displayed listings. The overwhelming majority of brokerage firms in our MLS have opted in to Broker Reciprocity. Consequently, consumers now have access to the same database information that Realtors have, multiplied to the n-th degree. As a result, buyers who are looking for homes on the Internet, may not always be able to ascertain right away who the listing firm/broker of a particular property for sale or for lease is. Here’s how you can quickly pinpoint the information of listing brokers/firms for all listings that we display on our website:

As a buyer, if you’re already working with an agent and a particular listing catches your eyes, have your agent contact the firm/broker that is listed under the “Listing courtesy of xyz realty firm” to make arrangements for a private showing. And if you’re not working with a buyer’s agent yet, contact us, and we’ll be happy to show you any property that you’re interested in looking at, live and in color.