When buying a home for the first time, one of the major decisions you'll need to face is deciding whether you want a real estate agent or not. A lot of people feel that since agents earn through commissions, they just want to pass off whatever house to whatever kind of buyer to earn money.

For example, if you want to buy Leland real estate and are thinking that you're ready to look through Leland homes for sale, but you have no idea where you can start. Real estate agents can be a great help in helping you work your way through the system. They can filter out homes that you wouldn't like, doesn't fit your needs, or is way beyond your budget. They can help you with the legwork and paperwork. Getting to know the misconceptions about real estate agents can help you straighten out your own misconceptions about them. Here are just a few:

1. They will do absolutely anything just to please prospective buyers - If you managed to pick a real estate agent who is successful at what they do, chances are they have other clients lined up. If you waste their time, you take away the time they could have been spending on more profitable meetings with other clients.

2. They always want you to pay more for the property - Probably one of the most rampant misconception about agents is that they push you to pay more. However, ethical and successful agents know that the best way to earn money is to help as many people as they can to find homes. The best way to achieve this is to make the right match in the shortest possible time and make the negotiations go as smoothly as they can. Imagine that pushing for $10,000 more on a $300,000 home only makes them probably an additional $150. Hardly worth it considering that they can even lose the sale if the buyers realize they're being bamboozled.

3. When you ask them to show you properties, they should show you properties - Unless you expressly get the services of the agent, they don't "have" to show you anything. Most of the agents you'll work with will probably ask you to sign a broker's agreement. You should read it and understand it so that you'll know when you can leave and look for another agent. You should also understand that agents expect to get compensated for their work, so don't go jumping around entertaining other agents when you're already committed to one.

4. Agents often connive with lenders and home inspectors - The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act prohibits agents from accepting kickbacks from lenders and inspectors. Since accepting kickbacks of any kind is considered illegal, you'll be hard pressed to find an agent who is willing to lose his/her license by colluding with lenders and inspectors. Of course there are unscrupulous agents who will insist on doing these. Any field has its bad eggs. However, if you manage to hire a successful agent, he/she will have more to lose if ever he/she colluded with lenders and inspectors just to make the sale. Plus, since agents rely on word of mouth marketing as a major source of referrals, they know that they can't expect clients to refer them if they feel they have been taken advantage of.