US Real Estate v UK Estate Agents

In the UK, if you are looking for a new home in a particular town or area, you will probably have to visit every estate agent and new development in the area to accumulate details of what properties are available. UK Estate agents can only show you the properties that their company is listing, so you will usually need to work with several agents whilst you are house-hunting.

Here in Florida, the situation is very different. Licensed Realtors have access to all available properties, via the Multiple Listing Service ( or MLS ) which is Internet based. Effectively, this means that there is never a need to work with more than one Realtor.

Your search will not be based on what properties a certain agent has available, as it is in the UK, as your Realtor will have access to thousands of properties for sale by hundreds of companies. What this means is that you can concentrate on developing a relationship with one Realtor, who will represent your interests and not those of the seller. This gives your Realtor  a chance to search for the right property with you, whoever it is selling it. In effect, what you get here is a personal real estate consultant, who will work on your behalf to find you the right property, at the right price. 

In the UK (and anywhere else where you will work only with the agent who has listed the property/business), what you are doing is working with someone who has to put the Seller's interests before yours, because he has a listing agreement with the Seller. As Buyer’s Representatives, we are not showing you just our own listings, but offering you every listing that is for sale. We constantly work hard to create an environment of professionalism. However, it is not merely a matter of being able to offer you a better deal. It is a matter of being able to offer you our expertise, knowledge and experience.

Also, we want you to feel comfortable working with us and equally it is as important for us to feel comfortable with the clients we work with. 

In addition to the strict licensing terms here, in our dealings with you, we are also required to work to a strict code of ethics.

This is covered in both the Single Agent Notice and the Transaction Broker Notice, which you will find elsewhere on this website. These documents describe our relationship with you, the potential buyer ( or seller, in the case of Transaction Broker ).

Buyers and Sellers must read these notices carefully and confirm to their Realtor that they understand. Realtors are required by law to keep signed copies of these notices on file. You should always be asked to sign one of these notices when you first meet your Realtor.

Does all of this sound expensive?

No, because as your buyer's agent, our services will cost you nothing!

First and foremost, please be assured that our services to you as the buyer are free of any charges. That means no fees and no commission to pay, although there is one exception, ( homes “For Sale By Owner” ) which is covered at the foot of this page.

Our income is derived from commission and or introduction fees earned from houses that we sell. The buyer does not pay this, responsibility for meeting this cost ( as is also the case with Estate Agents in the UK ) stops with the person actually selling the property. This could be a private individual, selling a “re-sale” property, or a builder selling a new home. The seller will have agreed a scale of fees with his/her agent and if we bring you to the sale, that commission has to be shared with us.

We are relying on you, too

Whilst we regularly put in lots of work with every new client we are never ultimately sure if someone is going to buy a property, but then that is part of the territory. Most of the time, the people we start working with will end up buying through us, not because we can find anything different from other Realtors, but simply because of our skill and knowledge  and friendly, yet professional approach. Many American Realtors who are excellent professionals in the domestic and residential market, do not fully understand the market we work in – British buyers and foreign investments.

As we are principally Buyer's Agents, we rarely list property ourselves, other than as a  favour to an existing client, perhaps. Therefore we will not be trying to sell you a property that is on “our books”. We act as YOUR agents, purely and simply and do NOT represent any sellers. However, if we do have a listing of our own, we will point this out to you. In this situation we will already be acting as Transaction Brokers for the seller. In such a situation if you were to buy this property, we are licensed to represent both buyer and seller and help them negotiate a sale that is mutually beneficial.

For Sale By Owner - "FSBO"

I mentioned that there is one exception to us not charging a fee. This is where you decide to buy a property that is “for sale by owner”, or in other words, a private individual is selling a property without using a listing agent. In this situation, we will initially try to negotiate a fee or commission directly with the seller. In that case, if successful, again we will not charge you anything. However, if the seller refuses and you still wish us to act on your behalf, then we reserve the right to negotiate a fee with you. I should point out that this happens only very, very rarely. At the time of writing these notes, we have not charged a single buyer a fee in our three years in Florida.

Related Pages;

Closing Costs