Buyer's agreements serve mutual interests

    Last night my wife and I were invited to our friends' home for dinner.  We brought along a bottle of champagne to toast their purchase the other day of a second home at The Landings, a 4,500-acre community near Savannah, GA.  It is a beautiful house just 15 minutes from a great city and inside the gates of a vibrant community with six excellent golf courses.  From the back porch of their new home, they will have a long-range view of one of the holes on the back nine of the Arthur Hills designed Palmetto Course, my personal favorite layout at The Landings.  They appear to have gotten a real bargain.  
    I had put our friends in touch with an agent at the Landings real estate office, and they were quite complimentary about the work he had done for them.  We soon moved on to a discussion about real estate agents and whether a buyer's agent represents the buyer or the seller.  It would seem evident who the buyer's agent represents, but that is not necessarily so.  To paraphrase most lawyers' advice, if you want the agent to represent your interests, "get it in writing."
    Assume you wander into an open house and meet the agent who is showing the house.  She shows you around and asks what kind of home you are looking for.  She offers to show you other houses that might fill the bill.  You like her and for the next few days she lines up a dozen homes for you to look at.   But, eventually, you decide you want to make an offer on that first home you wandered into.  Understand that your agent represents the seller of that home.  Some states might permit her to be a "dual agent" -- that is, to represent both you and the seller -- in which case she is prevented from sharing any personal information about you with the seller.  But, naturally, her first obligation will likely be to the seller.
    If you ask an agent to help you find a home, it is always best to ask for a "buyer's agreement."  (Many agents will offer this without you asking as happened with a piece of property my wife and I purchased in South Carolina.)  This agreement binds the agent to represent your interests, even if the agent's firm secured the listing of a home for which you are considering making an offer.  You may have to concede an exclusive agreement to the agent; that is, for a period that is typically 90 days, you can only use that agent to help you find a home.  Such terms are always negotiable, and if you find yourself in a relocation situation where you must purchase a home in a short period of time, you might want to restrict the time period just in case the agent turns out to be less than active in identifying homes to look at.  And it doesn't hurt to ask up front for an "out" clause that will get you out from under the agreement at any time (which gives the agent an out as well if you turn out to be demanding, obsessive-compulsive clients).
    Although a buyer's agreement might seem restrictive, it is fair to look at the issue from the real estate agent's point of view.  Most of them invest a lot of time searching MLS listings in behalf of their clients, talking with other agents, making phone calls, arranging house visits and conducting other kinds of research.  If their client, three weeks into the process, should wander into an open house on their own, the agent, who has worked so hard in their behalf, could get cut out of the deal.  All their work would go for naught.
    It seems only fair that if the agent has the client's best interest at heart, the client should return the favor.  Yes, you give up a little flexibility but you gain a representative who will prosecute your interests.  A buyer's agreement protects both parties, and if an agent refuses your request for such an agreement, or insists you sign a too-restrictive one, you should take your business elsewhere.