It recently helped create a National Association of Exclusive Buyer's Agents. Another franchiser, Buyer's Resource, based in Denver and founded in 1989, now has 96 offices after adding 16 last year, according to a spokesman, Gregg Stucker. Independent agents are also reporting an upswing in business. Bethany D. Marten, owner of the Home Buyer's Resource Center in Baldwin, L.I., for example, said her staff of 5 grew to 12 last year. Although a seller's broker, by law, is required to treat buyers fairly and reveal anything that might adversely affect the potential sale of a house, buyer brokers say they look for potential problems a seller may not have disclosed, or might not even know.
Buyer brokers say they can negotiate the best price for their clients.
Although there are variations, the buyer broker generally receives the same amount as a seller broker's subagent who produces a buyer. The amount that the seller receives for the home is the same as would be the case if the home's purchaser had been found by an agent representing the seller. Representation is something buyers could and should have had all along, said Maureen F. Glasheen, a former general counsel to the New York state Department of State and now a business and legal consultant in Albany. She plans to become an executive of Buyer's Resource. Under the law of agency, an agent has fiduciary responsibilities only to the client.