Nov. 24, 2006: Be careful what you sign with your real estate broker
When you sign a buyer-broker agreement with a Realtor, is there some law that says you must thereafter include that Realtor in the purchase of any home he or she showed you? Once you've "married" your agent, are you ever really "divorced"?
No such law.
Feeling relieved? You can stop that right now.
While there is no law binding you to your someday-to-be-former buyer's agent, you may well have signed a contract that says that someday never comes. Or at least not soon.
Consider this, from the Arizona Association of Realtors Buyer Broker Agreement:
"e. Buyer agrees to pay such compensation if Buyer, within ____ calendar days after the termination of this Agreement, enters into an agreement to purchase, exchange, option or lease any Property shown to or negotiated on behalf of the Buyer by Broker during the term of this Agreement, unless Buyer enters into a subsequent buyer-broker exclusive employment agreement with another broker."
The blank is filled in with a number, often 30, sometimes 90, although it could be anything. If you and your agent mutually agreed to 1,001 days, it would be two and three-quarter years before you are divorced.
Unless you sign another buyer-broker agreement.
This kind of holdover language is common in real estate employment contracts. It's there to frustrate betrayal. If you make a whispering deal with the listing agent to cut your buyer's agent out of the deal, that language cuts him right back in.
So how long is long enough to protect the buyer's agent without unduly hamstringing the buyer? How about 15 days?
Or how about zero?
My attitude is, if you're done with me, I'm done with you. Whatever you do after we're divorced is your business.
But different agents will see this issue differently, and this is why buyers and sellers need to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the contracts they are asked to sign. Very probably, the form you are looking at is not filled out to your advantage.
Greg Swann is the designated broker for BloodhoundRealty.com, a full-service Metropolitan Phoenix real estate brokerage. This article originally appeared in the West Valley regional sections of the Arizona Republic.
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Am I link-baiting? You bet. The quid pro quo is free content for your site that pulls eyeballs and excites interest.<a href="http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/" target="_blank"> Phoenix Realtor Greg Swann</a> suggested I share this with you:
