From Susan Plage:
I gulped hard today. I turned down buyers. I had buyers who interviewed several buyer brokers; selected me and asked for an agency agreement. They are dabbling in two market areas here and I made suggestions on how to make that a team effort with another referred broker. They are scouting FSBO's and I mentioned how that would be handled in an agency relationship. We scheduled a meeting to sign the paperwork and in preparation I dropped off the agreements for their review.
Bottomline: they want me to accept a one in three chance that I'll get paid. If they buy in the other market, they want to control that. If they buy a FSBO, they want to control that since "they did all the work." If they buy in my market or "if I find them the perfect house" then they think I should be paid. That's a one in three chance and a lot of time in my car...not to mention the expertise. To me the only way it was a good business decision on my part, as I told them, was to pay a retainer up front for my services (in this three ring circus). They didn't agree and I didn't agree to sign an agency agreement with them. There was exasperation on their side of the phone and a bit of shock. But I did it!