Why Is BC Real Estate Agency so Important to Understand?

Prior to 1994 Buyer's Agency in the province of British Columbia was virtually unheard of. The reason for this was the default position of the Multiple Listing Service system was always seller representation.

Consequently when a listing was inserted into the MLS system, all cooperating brokerages and their licensees became the subagents of the seller.

This concept of subagency was based upon the thinking that: since the seller has authorized the listing agent to appoint all other brokerages and licensees as subagents, then any brokerage or licensees who bring a buyer into the transaction must also work for the seller.

As a result of this if a buyer told "their" agent that they really liked a property and they would even pay full price for it, the agent (as a subagent was supposed to be duty bound to convey this to the seller). Not a good situation for the buyer!

Since 1994, the default position in British Columbia is that buyer's representatives are agents of the buyer rather than subagents of the seller. This has greatly improved the position of the buyer as they can now be confident that they have their own agent.

This agency thing is still not really clear in the eyes of the public as we still see too many buyers without buyer's representation wanting to deal with the listing agent. Their thinking is the seller will give them a better price because the Listing Agent will cut commissions.

As a buyer before you go down that road ask yourself this:

1.If I were getting a divorce would I use the same lawyer as my spouse?

2.If I owned and NHL team would I want the referees being paid by the opposing team, even if they promised to be fair.

Most people would not like either one of the two situations, so why would you want to enter into a large financial transaction without your own personal representation?

In most cases the Buyer is without representation when they are dealing with a listing agent, or the Buyer and Seller have agreed to limit their agency by agreeing to a limited dual agency contract. Sounds kind of complicated!

If you want to increase your comfort zone, give strong consideration to having a Buyer's Agent represent you in your next Real Estate transaction, it could very well be one of your best buying decisions.

For more information on Buyer's Agency in BC visit www.bchomeadvantage.com