Recent legislation has changed some things about real estate agency in the state of Virginia. I’ve had a personal motto of never requiring Buyer Agency agreements because I have always felt that a strong relationship is based on trust, and I have told every buyer I have every worked with that if at any time they were unhappy with me, they could “fire” me because I felt that nobody should be forced to work with someone if they were unhappy. But alas, Government intervention has stepped in and will be changing things:
- As of July 1, 2012, all buyers and Realtors(R) will be required to have an agency agreement signed upfront
- It must detail any fees associated with this representation (i.e. commission, admin fees, etc.)
- It must detail the length of time this representation will last (obviously you can extend if you haven’t found anything yet)
- It must detail the role of the agent (i.e. aid in the process of buying residential real estate, showings homes, etc.)
- Without such an agreement in place, an agent will be in violation of Virginia law
More paperwork, hooray! I have strong opinions on the fact that is now required, but I’d love to hear your own thoughts….
An agent who has carted us around 3 times so far to look at homes around spotsylvania va. is one of those agents who will get to you when she has a chance. Although she is nice person she has personal issues like having to watch over extended family and watch others children etc etc…although this is admireable as a person, it eaves us out in the cold as to the representation we need. when we decided to drop the agency she said her broker will need something in writing. we also decided to wait till next summer incidental to this, because we’ll have more financing options in summer 2013. So we relayed this specific message back to them as requested by the agent, and havent heard anything back from them. wow. no industry should be able to make you work with any agent or agency, you can not force someone to buy a house either, this new “governemnt intervention” is really just more government overreaching, via the industry lobbyists. end of story. no buy home till ready , yo.