Georgia license laws allow us to represent you in one of two ways when purchasing property in the state of Georgia. You may select to be a customer or you may select to be a client.
Should you select to be a CUSTOMER, we can show you any listed property or any property which may be for sale by owner. However, we cannot answer certain questions which may seem quite ordinary in nature, but which may in fact hurt any chances of the seller obtaining his full asking price. Nor can we guide you or make any recommendations as to an offer price when you decide on a property and wish to formulate an offer. And we must caution you as a buyer, not to disclose anything personal in nature to us which may be used against you in the negotiation process. In essence, should you elect to be a customer, we can only be nothing more than a taxi service who happen to have the ability to gain access through the lockbox to the homes you wish to see.
Should you select to be a CLIENT, it does require signing a Brokerage Engagement Agreement, also known as a Buyer’s Agency Agreement. This is a contractual agreement between you, as buyers, and our brokerage firm for a specific period of time. It commits you to purchase a home through us, and it commits us to work diligently to find the right home to suit your needs.
As a CLIENT, we can do so much more to represent you and protect your best interest throughout the purchase of your home, one of the largest investments you will ever make.
During the looking stage, we can point out defects and potential problems we see with homes we view. We can answer pertinent questions you may ask, such as average price per square foot for recent sales in the subject neighborhood, what the seller may have paid when they purchased the home, etc. As a CLIENT, we are free to research recent sales and do a comparative market analysis on the property you choose to make sure that it is properly priced and we can guide you and make recommendations and suggestions in the offer process. We can recommend different vendors for home inspections, mortgages, insurance, and so forth, and will work diligently to make the transaction as smooth and trouble-free as possible for you.
The Brokerage Engagement Agreement does involve a commission (usually half of the listing company’s listing fee since there is no marketing involved). However, we want to put your mind at ease about that fee. We guarantee that we will only show you properties listed through our MLS service, properties in which the sellers (through the listing broker) have already agreed to pay that fee up front. The only time that you, the buyers, would be obligated to pay that fee would be if you were to find a For Sale By Owner that you wish to see, in which case we would contact the owner and negotiate our fee up front. Please understand that most FSBOs overprice their homes, and by allowing us to assist you in the purchase, we would go through the same process of doing a comparative market analysis, etc. and guide you in the offer process to assure that you do not overpay for the home. The second instance in which you would owe our commission would be should you purchase a home through another Realtor before the termination of our agreement, and as hard as we will be working for you we can’t imagine that happening! The one guarantee or promise we can make to you to put your mind at ease, is that we will never show you a property which the seller is not paying our commission without notifying you first.
We truly value our buyer relationships too much to work without a buyer brokerage agreement and we’re sure you can see the value in working with one. Our job as your agents is to protect one of the largest investments you will ever make, and we can only do that should you select to work with us as a client.
