So, you're a Realtor, and here are your customer buyers. You've been working together for a few weeks now and you pretty much know just what they are looking for, you've shown them every matching listing that's out there on the active market and you are scanning every possible lead to find the "one". Another agent in your office announced at the company meeting that she's going to have a new listing next week that perfectly matches your buyer's wish list.

So, you can't wait to call and tell them your good news when you return from the weekly caravan tour with your company. The tour takes quite a while as there are now more new listings than there are houses being sold. Finally, you grab a bite to eat for lunch and over to the office to call your clients....only they don't answer the phone, you leave a cheery message to call you right back as soon as they get your message.

By the end of the day, you have researched everything about this house and know it's just the one they were describing. You have checked the zoning, taxes, how many steps up to the front door, every aspect they wanted to know about their future home. And you wait, you don't hear from them.

The next morning, you are at your office and you still have no messages from your customers. You decide to give them another quick jingle. Nothing, no answer. Not a word, no message for you. They ALWAYS answered their phone before!

Ultimately, weeks later you find out they had called the number on a sign for a house that didn't even remotely match the description they gave you, although it looked exactly like a home they would love to live in, it wasn't anything like they had described because it is often hard to describe what you would like and not know that is what you wanted until you see it one day, driving along the same street you go down every day and this one particular day, there is a FOR SALE sign on that house....

So they called the phone number on the sign!!!! And this seems so perfectly natural for a person to do this, call that number on that sign to see how much they want for it, and when you could go see it. Innocently enough you can even figure you are "helping" your Realtor out by doing this. You are finding this home on your own, you are excited and you figure once you see the house, you can call your agent and let them know you found the house! OR Alternately, you can figure, gee I found the house myself, why should I call that Realtor at THIS Stage of the game?

Here is the issue, there are 2 of them. One is that called 'procuring cause' and the other is called buyer representation. By not calling your agent, you are deleting them from the picture altogether legally the Agent who first shows the property to you is the "procuring cause" and the agent who writes the offer is NOT the procuring cause unless they introduced you to the property and showed it to you.

So your second problem is buyer representation, you have literally none. The agent you called is the seller's agent, you are calling him and he has a written agreement with the seller that says he will get the most money for his property as he can. Once you enter the picture unrepresented, you may choose to hire that agent as your own just by calling him and having him show you the property, so now you have someone else's agent working for you..... And you cannot call your agent to represent you and the reason you need this is for many reasons. You will need unbiased property specific comparables upon which to base your offer price. You will need someone looking out after your own interests such as the best day for you to close escrow and not lose out on lease money, interest or pay too much for the house based upon the actual comparable recent sales. Inspections. Every buyer should get any and all inspections they deem necessary to satisfy themselves as to the condition of the property. Do you suppose the seller's agent really WANTS you to get any and ALL inspections on the property their seller is selling to you? Appraisal. Seller's agent duty is to provide for reference only the comparables they have on the property to support the seller's asking price, is that in the buyer's best interest? If he doesn't do that, then is THAT in the  seller's best interest?

Repairs, is he going to be unbiased when reviewing an inspection report that is recomending costly repairs to a home that he has a written contract with the seller to sell for the most money possible? You need someone to counsel you on the wisest way to figure out which repair request is rational and which are bound to agitate the seller and cause the seller to refuse to do ANY repairs?

You need someone on YOUR side and the only way to do that is to AVOID calling the number on the sign and call in your buyer agent or representative, especially when you are entering a model home builder's showroom for the first time. You will not have anyone on your side, they builder has the salesperson, the contractor, the lender in many cases all on HIS side, and if you enter their property for the first time without your representative, then YOU will be more likely to lose out NOT the builder. Your agent will be more than happy to take you on a tour of any new home communities that match your description and price range and neighborhood, if they are not willing or able to do this when you want to go, call just about ANY real estate office, there should ALWAYS be someone available to accompany you as YOUR representative to buy that new home or even to call that sign for you. In most cases, unless the sign designates office exclusive or something similar, ANY area agent can work as your buyer's agent on ANY listed property, even FOR SALE by OWNER properties will basically work with your agent if they are bringing in a serious qualified buyer who will close escrow on their home for sale.