"...but the buyer must remember that the realtor is representing himself/herself first." If there is a contract of agency between the buyer and agent, this is against the law and the quickest way to lose a client and your license to practice. berniek, this happens all the time. I'm sure you've seen it if you are an experienced agent. Both the seller and buyer really need to look out for their own interest. An experienced agent won't do anything illegal or much that anyone could claim was not in the client's interest, but all agents work to close the transaction (that is a good thing) . An agent may see some bad "signs" but won't mention to their client, nothing illegal or especially "bad", but why upset the client (unless it is your mother) and risk losing the closing. I'm sure all agents do it or see it, it is naive to say it doesn't occur. The old "buyer beware" is still true in RE.

I think you're talking about interviewing potential buyer's agents, not what to ask them about houses you want to see. As with seller's agents, I approach it in the same way I do when hiring someone: outline the important characteristics of the candidate and then design questions that will help me determine who's got those characteristics. What I want (your list may differ): 1. Someone who knows the area, the neighborhoods, and has a good sense for market value in each. 2. Someone who is willing to show me any house, not pushing their own listings or steer me away from others. Good balance of offering guidance/opinion without pushing me. 3. Someone who can help crunch numbers on comps so I can determine a fair price to offer. 4. Someone that will advocate strongly/negotiate well for me. I'm a good negotiator, so if there's going to be someone between me and the seller, I need a representative who I'm not second-guessing and saying "I wish I could just talk with the seller directly." Note that in my case I'm usually buying a house in a new area, so I'm more in need of help as to neighborhoods and values as I'm coming in blind. So my questions for a buyer's agent would include: 1. I'm moving to town. I'm looking for a house with (these) characteristics. What neighborhoods are likely to have what I'm looking for? What price range should I expect? If your price range is more the critical factor, then I'd say: I'm looking for something under $XXXK. What can I get for that? 2. How do you typically go about showing me homes? Let them talk about how they'll hook you up with an auto notify from their MLS, but see if they do any additional screening or hunting for you. Screening can be a pro or con: either helpful in cutting through stuff that's not going to fit it for you, or their way of pushing what they want you to see. Figure out where you stand on the issue and interpret their answer accordingly. They may want you to drive the process (look at the listings, do drive-bys, let me know which ones you want to see inside) or they may prefer to steer. Again, you've got to pick what fits your needs/wants the best. 3. If I like a house, how will you help me come up with a good/fair offer price? I might even pick a house that I thought was overpriced and have them give me their opinion on what a good offer should be. I want someone that crunches numbers, not someone that goes by gut feel or says "offer X% less than list." 4. If there's a significant difference in price between me and the seller, what kinds of things will you do to try and make the deal happen? I want to see creative negotiation abilities. Then I'd throw in some behavioral questions: 1. Tell me about a time you had a customer with very specific/narrow needs in a house and it was tough to find something for them. How did you handle it and what was the result? I'd love to see someone that went the extra mile (beyond MLS) to find the right home. 2. Tell me about a time during negotiations where the buyer and seller were far apart. How did you bridge the gap and make the deal happen? (Similar to #4 above) 3. Tell me about a time where you represented the buyer and the seller was emotional/unreasonable and threatened to kill the deal. How did you solve the problem? I want to see how well they can influence the other side. Hope that helps.

Breezygirl - your situation sounds a lot like how ours will end up. I have no problem with the GC making a reasonable amt of money....just not wholey at my expense. (well, obviously the entire house is our expense, but I don't think he should be allowed to tack on more just because he can). I too think it is ridiculous that the plumber (or tiler, or electrician, or whomever) will charge more to install our own supplied product, but I guess if that is the norm, than there is much I can do about it. Again I do trust our GC, and it is his building company too. Unfortunately, due to code laws and bank restrictions, we are not allowed to GC our own project. Though it would certainly be nice if we could. DH has done his homework, so I have no concerns that he could handle it, IF he could get the time off of work, etc. However, it is a non-issue. We are planning to iron out all the specs and supply specifics at our next sit down. Thanks to all of you who suggested various potential ways to get around this. Such as agreeing to "void his warranty" on those products he did not supply. For the few things we already have, I guess we will have to way the consequences once we learn them (potential labor markup from installer, nullify warranty, etc) versus the potential savings of what we have. Obviously we could try and sell them somewhere, but these are products we really would like to incorporate into our house. Mamabear - we have sat down with him several times since his dx. In the final contract, he will give us the name of someone he trusts (whom he has already spoken with about our project) to finish if necessary. Hopefully it will not come to that, but again there is also the concern (as there could be with anyone I guess) of who will be around for problems after the build is finished. Luckily, our guy has been in this business for over 25 years and has worked with many of the same guys all this time, several of whom are actually part of his company. I can't remember specifically whom he subcontracts out, but I know he has his own framers, roofers (he does some of this), plumbers, etc so hopefully even if he is not around, they still would work to his high standards. Thanks all!

There is no good reason that I can think of to set up a deal this way. First, you will pay more for the home, as there is this middle man. And the middle man is not doing anything for you here. In fact, it will complicate the entire deal for you as far as communicating with the builder all of the details that go into a custom build. If he wants to build a spec home and sell it, then so be it. But there is nothing in it for you to have him involved in a custom built home. And there is no way that a resale contract with a "ton" of addendum will equate to a new construction contract. Offer him a fair amount for the lot, and see where it goes from there.