One study showed that 77% of Buyers Pick the Listing Agent of a Home They are Interested in (many times, on the Internet) to represent them for their purchase.  This is one of the WORST things a buyer could do! The buyer is typically raked over the coals by the listing agent. The agent gathers all the information they can about the buyer and their situation to give their seller the upper hand.

Listing agents are represent THE SELLER - not the buyer. Unfortunately - "agency disclosure" (letting the buyer know how they are really being represented (or not)) is being provided less than 12% of the time by agents across the USA.

The Consumer Federation of America states that the public needs to be more informed. I couldn't agree more..

And worse yet - only a couple states - Ohio and California - let buyers know that there is another option for them -- Exclusive Buyer Agency representation. A distinctly different form of representation than "buyer agency" (where the agent and their company list property for sale.) Here is the definition of an Exclusive Buyer Agent.

Joel Stern of Silver Spring, Maryland, filed a lawsuit against Weichert Realtors, reportedly one of the largest independent brokerage firms in the country, for failing to properly disclose that they represented the seller in connection with his recent aborted home purchase. Stern believes he was induced to sign a contract to buy the house at an excessive price because the agent that Stern thought represented him as a buyer's agent was in fact functioning as an agent for the seller.

Recent data released by the National Association of Realtors indicates that real estate agents are failing to disclose whom they represent in transactions at an alarming rate, even where state laws (such as Illinois' agency disclosure law) require them to do so in writing at their first substantive meeting with a potential client.

According to the author of this article, Kenneth Harney of the Washington Post, "You as a buyer or seller need to be alert. Demand a formal disclosure of representation before beginning any substantive discussions with an agent. Do not assume that you are working with a buyer's agent whose sole loyalty is to you."

Harney further cautions, "If it's not in writing, it doesn't exist. In the absence of a signed buyer-agent agreement or other disclosure to the contrary, your agent is almost certainly working for the seller and will squeeze the highest price possible out of you on the seller's behalf."