Being born in the 70's I grew up as part of Generation X. My parents on the other hand are members of the Baby Boom generation. It amazes me how much things have changed between a single generation. My parents bought their first and only home in the 70's. They were in their early 30's. They bought it with owner financing.
I bought my first of many homes at age 22 with a hard money loan then refinanced into a 30 year fixed rate mortgage. But the biggest suprise to me was the agency laws back then.
When my parents found their first home, while driving through the neighborhood they wanted to live in (some things never change), they called "their" agent to see the home. They walked throught it (I still remember finding one of those bouncy balls under the garage stairs and thinking how cool it would be to live there), they asked questions and worked very closely with "their" real estate agent. They assumed that the agent was working for them. When the price and mortgage terms were being negotiated they assumed the agent was looking out for their best interest. But when they looked back many years later they realized, they didn't get the great price they thought they had. They didn't get the best terms on the owner financing.
They still held a grudge against that agent for many years. It wasn't until a few years ago I explained to them that all agents worked for the seller back then. There was no such thing as buyers agents. Today buyers have a choice who to work with. They can contact the listing agent directly and get fair and honest treatement but the listing agent works for the seller. Or they can work with a buyers agent who looks out for their best interest. Still to this day they can't believe the agent they worked with was really looking out for the best interest of the seller. Many things have changed, but when it comes to Agency Disclosure, things have changed for the better.
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