While I always encourage comments, in this instance I’m fervently begging for members of the public to chime in down below on this question.

Recently it has become fairly commonplace for buyers to call me (or another agent), ask to see some homes and then buy a home without using the agent. Maybe it’s one of the ones they viewed, maybe it’s a different home. It doesn’t really matter. From what I’m hearing, it’s happening even more than what I’ve personally witnessed.

Many agents use a Buyer Broker Agreement, an employment contact for a set period of time which says the buyer will use this agent to aid them in their home search. It’s fairly straight-forward stuff.

I’ve rarely used this agreement because I always felt a handshake should mean something. When it comes to real estate, though, that doesn’t seem to be the case.  When I do use it now it’s usually after showing a handful of homes, enough time for the buyer to get a good sense of who I am, what I know, what I bring to the table.

I’ve been urged in the past not to work with any buyer who refuses to sign a Buyer Broker agreement. Most exclusive buyers’ agents work this way (mooting the misinformed suggestion from the Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Online that said buyers should hire an EBA but not use their services if a retainer’s requested or an agreement’s involved.)

One could argue that a buyer truly interested in an agent’s expertise would have no issue with signing such an agreement. One also could argue that some ready, willing and able buyers will walk away rather than tie themselves to an agent, even one who’s pledged to work diligently and in the buyers’ best interest as they search for a home.

And so I ask you, those members of the general population who read this blog regularly … Why would you sign such an agreement? Why wouldn’t you sign such an agreement?

Leave only a first name if you choose to remain anonymous. I want to hear from you. Real estate pros are also welcome to comment, but you’re not today’s intended audience. Sorry.

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… which means I don’t have the slightest idea what to think.

He also really liked builder stocks last spring. Oh and told everyone to walk away from their homes last fall, which some people actually are doing.

I’m sure none of this has to do with keeping ratings high, right?

Here’s the video … and thanks to the wonderful Kris Berg for the original post.

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Or, more to the point, held captive for reasons I’ll now enumerate.

Local city ordinances require me to notify you that Super Bowl XLII is being played at Glendale’s Westgate City Center this coming Sunday. If I remember to bring my camera (which I didn’t do this morning), I can post some great pictures of Super Bowl signage on the Glendale side of Bell Road in front of the Arrowhead Towne Center but not on the Peoria side.

Much has been made of people trying to rent their homes out for the Super Bowl. At this stage of the week, reality probably is setting in for the vast majority of folks. There are tons of people here to be sure. I was passed by a dozen large buses when I stopped at Chick-Fil-A this morning (we have a few here - and it’s an inside joke.)

ESPN Radio, for example, hasn’t been broadcasting from Westgate … maybe it’s the presence of the Fox Sports Grill inside the main complex. All of its shows have originated from the downtown Hyatt, which 12 years ago was the side of the Bud Bowl party. Somewhere around the house I still have pictures of me and my ex-wife with the Budweiser frogs from back in the day when I still officially was media.

Given that I don’t like crowds, hassles or spending an hour looking for parking, I’m not going to be heading south on Loop 101 to go to Westgate. Or anywhere close to it. My parents made me go on Saturday and parking already was impossible.

Then again, I can’t go east on Loop 101 either because the FBR Open is being held in Scottsdale. I used to have a friend who lived in Greyhawk and took off the first two days of the Open (formerly the Phoenix Open), not because she was attending the tournament but because she couldn’t get out of her own neighborhood.

Amazingly, I’ve lived here for 31 years and have never attended the Open. There’s not even a compelling reason for this. It just is.

Most people have less interest in the Open itself than the Birds’ Nest, a series of evening parties rivaling the original Bacchanal. Except no one’s head ends up on a pike at the end of the night.

There have been some estimates that 200,000 people could be out on the course to watch the FBR Open on Saturday. That seems awfully high unless a NASCAR race suddenly breaks out in the middle. Which would make the “QUIET” signs useless. But it’s not at all unusual to have six figures worth of attendance on a Saturday. And there probably will be more than a few folks flying into Scottsdale Airport to catch the Open and then shuttling across to Glendale for the Super Bowl.

My guess is they’re probably not flopping in the two-bedroom condos being offered as a Super Bowl rental, but you never know.

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I pulled this comment out of a post on Redfin’s blog yesterday. The post was about an idea a friend of Glenn’s had for a web-based lockbox anyone could access with sufficient documentation … everything just short of DNA testing. The comment wasn’t.

“What really needs to be done is to force a seller’s agent to actually act as an agent solely interested in selling the property. It should be an ethical construct that a seller agent actually show (or delegate the showing) the property instead of the “you should use a buyer agent” rant or, in the Redfin areas, deter buyers from using Redfin (which is what happens everyday).”

Redfin’s not in the Phoenix market and the home prices here likely would make the margins so thin that it wouldn’t make sense to come here. But even without Redfin it’s not uncommon for a buyer to call a listing agent to see a house even if they’re working with their own agent.

Reasons vary … they can’t get hold of their agent. Their agent is out of town. They don’t want to bother their agent. Whatever.

If asked, I still will show one of my own listings to a buyer who wants to see it. I’m trying to sell a house. Just don’t ask me any questions. And I mean ANY questions outside of “how ya doin’ today?”

It’s not that I’m trying to be unhelpful. It’s that I can’t really answer any questions without creating an implied agency with the buyer. And that’s not what either the seller or the buyer is looking for in this situation.

Joe, who left the comment, apparently doesn’t want this - he even says he wants the “seller’s agent to actually act as an agent solely interested in selling the property.”

If you’ve got questions about the property, though, you need to ask your own agent. Otherwise, in the eyes of agency laws, I’m not going to be an “agent solely interested in selling” the home.

SIDE NOTE: As was leaked to the Bloodhound, Redfin now is offering four two-hour buyers’ tours with no upfront cost. It’s not quite the seven-hour tour many of us provide as a service to our buyers, but it’s another step toward the traditional real estate model.

In some ways, though, the more Redfin moves toward the more traditional model, the lone differentiating factor becomes the rebate. Cool software is a plus but won’t necessarily drive the business since buyers are shopping for homes, not agents (pr in this case brokerages.)

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Does this sound like something you would do?

1) Contact an agent for information about properties for sale in a given area.

2) Contact the agent a second time to set appointments to see the home the following week.

3) Curtly e-mail the agent two days before the showings to let them know a relative of yours will be showing you around and you never really needed the agent’s help.

If this sounds like you, I beseech you to contact someone else. You have not only my permission but my blessing. Allow me to dedicate my time to those who seriously want my expertise.

As a side note, I’m now free to show homes Saturday morning.

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