It sounds simple…however!

When purchasers are ready to buy there is an obvious excitement. After all it’s a big purchase – perhaps the largest purchase an individual or a family will make throughout their life.

Choosing the right Real Estate Sales Representative is a completely different topic all-together, however once you have decided on a particular Real Estate Sales Representative remember to ask what it is you are signing. If you have any questions – ASK! After signing any document, request a copy.

My brother and I recently met a wonderful family who were looking for a home in an area we both know fairly well. Obviously one of our first questions to any potential client is: Have you signed any documents with another agent? In this situation the answer was a no. We were happy to work with them so we had our buyer agency signed and everything was a go.

We showed them a few potential homes and they finally decided on one property that they absolutely fell in-love with (after-all, I found it  ). That very day they decided that they wanted to make an offer. We took them back to the office and we went through the fun stuff.

They see the “Agreement of Purchase & Sale” papers and start to panic! They were sure they had signed this agreement before but had not made an official offer with a previous Real Estate Sales Representative. We could not pursue further as no one was even sure at this point whether they had actually signed the “Buyer Agreement”.

In-order for an agent to register an offer, the Buyer Agency must have been signed, right? Well….not in this case. The previous agent had them complete an “Agreement of Purchase & Sale” but not a “Buyer Agency” agreement.

Had we gone ahead with the offer and purchase without the clients knowing what papers were signed, the buyer’s would’ve potentially been libel for commissions to the previous Realtor had a buyer agency been signed.

The story does end on a good note, however. The client’s really appreciated our honesty and they got their home!

The morale of the story: Be sure of what you sign. Make sure the Real Estate Sales Representative explains to you what you are signing and also provides you a copy!

Amit Bhandari
Sales Representative with Signature Service GMAC Real Estate
W: amitandroy.com