Who does a realtor work for when I buy a home in BC, and who pays them?

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A realtor works for you only once you're their client; the seller usually pays both brokerages from the sale, but your agreement can make you pay a shortfall. A real estate licensee must tell you, before helping you, whether they'll represent you as a client. As a client you're owed their best efforts; as an unrepresented buyer dealing with the seller's agent, you're not. In most sales the seller's brokerage shares its commission with the buyer's, but what you agree to pay is in your own service agreement. Look up the address or PID on PlaceDossier to see the record for that lot. Client or not: Before helping anyone in a trade, a licensee must say whether they will represent that person as a client (Real Estate Services Rules s. 54 (1)). The disclosure is on a form BCFSA approves, the Disclosure of Representation in Trading Services, and sets out a licensee's duties to clients and to unrepresented parties, how to complain, and the buyer's right to rescind under the Property Law Act (s. 54 (2)). Hosting an open house or answering general questions needs no disclosure, unless the licensee asks about your motivation, finances or needs (s. 54 (3)). What a client is owed: A licensee must act in the client's best interests and disclose all known material information about the services and the property (s. 30 (a), (f)). BCFSA's pages add that your agent must avoid or disclose conflicts of interest, keep your information confidential for good, follow your lawful instructions, act only within the authority you give, and try to find out every fact about a property that could change your decision. Buying without your own agent: The listing agent works for the seller. A licensee who helps you while representing the seller must tell you the risks of that help, the limited help they can give, and recommend you get independent professional advice (s. 55). BCFSA says they may give facts you ask for, explain terms and forms, arrange viewings, prepare and present your offers at your direction and estimate the costs, but may not suggest a price, negotiate for you or tell you the seller's lowest price. One brokerage for both sides: A brokerage must not represent both the seller and the buyer, or two buyers with conflicting interests, as clients in one trade (ss. 1, 63 (1)). The one exception is real estate in a remote location under-served by licensees, where it is impracticable for the parties to use different ones (s. 64 (1)). Then each party first gets a disclosure with the managing broker's signed reasons and the risks, and signs a written dual agency agreement (s. 64 (2)), and the brokerage sends the disclosure to the superintendent (s. 64 (3)). In dual agency the brokerage deals with both sides impartially and needn't tell either what the other will pay or accept (BCFSA). Designated agents and teams: Where your agreement designates an agent, the duties are that agent's alone, not every licensee's at the brokerage (s. 32), so two agents at one brokerage can act for the buyer and the seller without it being dual agency (s. 63 (2)). BCFSA says most BC brokerages work this way; under the brokerage agency model, used by many smaller ones, every agent there is yours and the same situation is dual agency. A team acts as one agent and may act for no one else in the trade (BCFSA). The service agreement: A buyer's agency agreement is a contract with the brokerage, not the agent: you agree to work only with that brokerage, in the areas and for the time it names (BCFSA). It sets what you pay, if anything, the search area, its term and how either side can end it early. Sellers must have one unless they waive it; buyers needn't, but BCFSA says that without one it can be hard to prove what was agreed. The licensee must give you a signed copy. Who pays the commission: When the seller's agent presents an offer, they must tell the seller, in dollars, what the seller pays the listing brokerage, what the listing brokerage pays the buyer's brokerage, and what it keeps (s. 57). So the buyer's brokerage is usually paid from the seller's side of the sale (our reading). A buyer's agency agreement can set what you pay if the listing brokerage doesn't cover your brokerage's fee, and when: BCFSA warns that some make it payable once a binding contract is made, even if the purchase doesn't complete. BCFSA doesn't set or approve commissions; they're agreed with the brokerage and can be negotiated. Other money your agent may receive: An agent who expects to be paid by anyone other than you, such as a referral fee for a mortgage broker or inspector they recommend, must promptly tell you the source and the amount, or how it will be worked out (s. 56). Checking a licence and complaints: BCFSA's Find a Professional search shows a licensee's licence, any conditions on it and recent discipline. A concern goes first to the agent, then to the brokerage's managing broker, then to a BCFSA Practice Standards Advisor. BCFSA can investigate and discipline a licensee, but can't make anyone perform a contract or award damages: those take legal action (BCFSA). What it means for a buyer: Your own agent is the one licensee in the deal working for you. Read the service agreement before signing, above all what you'd pay and when, and ask how the brokerage handles a home it lists or a second buyer it represents. The agent's duties don't replace your lawyer or notary, your inspector, or the checks on the lot itself.

Who does a realtor work for when I buy a home in BC, and who pays them?

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Before you buy: who to ask