When You Should Find a New Buyer's Agent

With the current glut of foreclosures on the market these days many people are rushing to buy into the housing market and many of those for the first time. Due to the relatively short time frame that you might be working with a realtor, some people suffer through an uncomfortable pairing with an agent that they don't mesh with, or worse, in the hopes of just getting the job done.

There are some things that you should give your buyers agent a little bit of slack about; for example, your agent doesn't only work for you, they likely have many other clients that they're working for at the same time. Consequently, they cannot be at your beck and call every moment of the day. Also, your agent likely knows a fair bit more about the real estate market than you do, have some respect for their authority but feel free to ask questions.

However, there are some issues that you should look at as being hints that you might want to look at changing your buyer's agent over.

If you find yourself calling your buyer's agent regularly with no return calls from them or you never get responses to your emails, you might want to consider getting yourself a new agent. This agent either has too much on their plate or just doesn't consider you an important enough client to communicate with regularly. This isn't to say that you should expect calls to be returned the moment that you leave a message, but they should be able to get back to you in a day or so.

If you find that your realtor isn't suggesting properties that actually reflect what you've communicated with them that you want, need, or is within your price range you might want to look at hiring someone else. No one expects an agent to be a mind reader, but if you've communicated to them your top priorities and they're don't seem to have taken that in, then you might want to look at hiring someone else to work with. It's unlikely that any home is going to be 100% what you're looking for, but it should encompass some of the more important aspects that you're looking for in a home.

The biggest deal breaker for many people when they've in a business arrangement with anyone is when the other party is rude or unprofessional in their dealings. While it's not a common occurrence, sometimes it happens that a buyer's agent engages in unprofessional or inappropriate behaviour. This is, understandably, upsetting for the prospective buyers involved and can be a valid reason for terminating the business arrangement.

If you have any problems or questions regarding the buyer's agent who you've hired to represent you in your home buying adventure, take the time to talk to the agent's broker to see what can be done about the buyer's contract so that your home buying experience is more pleasant.