Sherry Grimes | Windermere Real Estate, West Sound Inc. - Poulsbo, Washington

Beaches

I will warn everyone when signing a "Real Estate Buyer Brokerage Services Agreement" to have the blanks filled in the way you want them filled in. DON'T SIGN A 60 DAY CONTRACT because you are really signing a 120 day contract. If the broker just sends you a contract to sign, make them redo it so it satisfies you. The blanks in the contract are so that you have say in how it's written, it's the only part of the contract you have control over so make it to your advantage not the real estate agent. They are your employee and you don't have to do what they say, they have to do what you say and it's your job to have a contract as biased as you can make it to you not to them. That's going to mean standing up for yourself. There are many many real estate brokers you can go to and get the contract you want. You can be as specific as you want, have a exclusive or non-exclusive, my suggestion is to have a separate contract for each address you visit and to make the number of days that the contract will be in effect ONLY ONE OR TWO DAYS. YOU are legally tied to that real estate agent if you sign an exclusive agency contract. YOU are legally tied to them for an additional number of days that you also need to choose in section #7 past the day of the end of the contract. Remembering that the contract you sign will automatically extend to when the sales contract closes is you make an offer on a residence so you can make the contract for 1 or 2 days to cover the time to make an offer or sign a second contract if needed. I also suggest that you have a non exclusive agreement. Don't sign a dual agency contract letting the agent be your broker and also the listing agent of properties you look at.

The real estate agent you are working with is going to fill out the contract without any offer of input from you and try to tie you to them for 60 days in the whole county or region that you are in, and an additional 60 days for compensation after your contract ends, for you most likely to sign electronically and will not discuss any of the terms, and believe me the form is very anti buyer and very pro realestate agent.

Read the contract and negotiate it so that it says what you want it to say. If you sign an exclusive agency with them that real estate agent will have control over what properties you make an offer on for the next however many days the contract says, plus read #7 several times and you will see that you need to keep tract of each property that you talk to the realtor about even if just in passing because if they talk to you about the property and later even after the agreement ends (probably 60 days) they are still expecting you legally, to pay them a commission. There is nothing in the "Real Estate Buyer Brokerage Services Agreement" that evidently you have to sign in the state of Washington before an agent can show a house that is protecting you and everything to do you financial harm.

Also, any property that they talk with you about or you mention to them is now included in this contract. So be very specific and don't go into any chit chatting with them about other properties. I would suggest that you do enough chatting with them before you sign to see if you can guess if they are going to only show interest in properties at or above your price comfort range and how much of their personal bias they will force on you for location, based on their listening to the police scanner. I am now stuck with my broker financially and it's a broker that I do not want and will not work with. So, my house hunting is now on hold until the contract expires included the extention period from #7.

Even the clause talking about cancelling the contract is completely against you, the buyer.

This particular firm is very anti buyer and I suggest that you stay clear, wish I had. Think about it this way, you can't walk away but they can. They can ignore you and you still can't go elsewhere the way the contract is written.

julie R.

This office never answers phone or returns calls.