This was a question asked on Saturday at the  Home Buyer’s Seminar. Several of the attendee’s had recently visited new home subdivisions on their own and when telling the on site sgent that they were working with a buyer’s agent, stated they really got a cold shoulder. They wanted to know why? Other than the fact that the on site agent would now have to split the commission, there does not seem to be a good answer.

I know many on site agents, and they do not have a problem with a buyer having representation from a buyer’s agent. As a matter of fact, while waiting for a buyer to get to his walk through last week the on site agent told me that she and her partner had written contracts on 10 homes in the new subdivision the previous week. After congratulating her I asked what they attributed their success to. She told me that they had gone to many of the local brokers meetings and promoted the subdivision. She also stated that several agents in her office had inquired as to why they would do this and have to split the commission. Her responce was what I would have expected from her, half of something is better than all of nothing.

With the recent data provided by the National Association of REALTORS showing that new home sales were not only down for last year, but not expected to rebound as quickly as resale home sales this year could shed some light on the question. Possibly the subdivisions that were visited by the attendees were being represented by agents who had experienced the downturn in sales and income in the previous year. Regardless of the situation, my recommendation to all agents is to treat all buyer’s with due respect.