As a buyer, you have a choice of literally thousands of Realtors in our area, to help you with your purchase.  If you are simply looking for someone to show you a few properties, write a contract and move on, then anyone can do that, even with little experience and little knowledge of the area. In fact, with today’s very low prices and low commissions, it is very difficult for any Realtor to spend much time with all of the potential buyers, especially when many never end up buying anything. Many Realtors in larger companies even have sales quotas to maintain, so it’s important for them to make a sale and move on to the next potential buyer.

 

At Dolby Properties, we have always had a different policy from most brokerages when it comes to working with buyers. We have always preferred to spend a lot of quality time with each individual buyer to make sure that he/she gets the best deal and the best property match for his/her personal criteria. We never pressure our buyers and our agents have no sales quotas to meet. Over the years, we have built up relationships with most of our buyers and they know we are always here to help with any issues or questions they may have long after a sale. We prefer to work with fewer buyers, but try to ensure that the buyers we do work with get the best deal and are happy with their purchase.

 

When someone decides to work with us to find the right property, our agents work very hard to sift through the vast amount of properties that are for sale at any one time, to find the ones that are most suitable for our buyer’s personal requirements. This takes a tremendous amount of time and effort and we only earn our income when someone buys a property through us, so we need to try to determine that a buyer is as committed to us as we are to them. We work with all our buyers under a Buyer Representation Agreement, which adds some structure to our relationship. Buyers then “hire” us as their Realtor to represent them, in pretty much the same way that they hire an attorney. This is the only way a Realtor can legally fully represent a buyer’s interests above the seller’s and the only way we can legally negotiate the best deal for you. Also, when buyers work with a Realtor this way, Realtors are more likely to return the commitment and loyalty in working harder for their buyer, more confident that if the buyer does buy, they will buy through them and not someone else.

 

A Buyer Representation Agreement does not commit buyers to buying anything (or paying any commissions) if nothing is suitable and if they decide not to buy, but it does guarantee that if they do buy anything during the term of the agreement, that their Realtor will be their only representative and that they will not buy it through anyone else. Our agreement only covers the area in which we operate – the Orlando/Disney area, so buyers are of course free to work with other Realtors outside of our market area.

 

Because of our policy of spending more time with each individual buyer than most other Realtors, Dolby Properties has had to establish a minimum commission policy of $3,000 (based on a $100,000 property at 3%). When selling properties under $100,000, where the compensation received is almost always under the minimum $3,000, we require the difference to be paid by the buyer (for example on a $75,000 property with a 3% seller paid commission, the difference to be paid by the buyer would be $750). This is paid at closing, as part of the closing costs shown on the official HUD Settlement Statement prepared by the Closing Agent. As seller paid commissions are always shown on this HUD Statement, the amount of compensation that Dolby Properties receives from seller paid commission is always completely verifiable by the buyer.

 

We do waive these minimums for buyers of multiple properties, once a certain dollar amount of properties have been purchased.

JUST A SIDE NOTE........

We always see a lot of potential buyers who have been driving around and looking at For Sale signs, or else have seen a listing on the internet and contact the listing agent for information on that individual property. Please be advised that:

1) Since all Realtors have access to all properties listed for sale via the MLS, there is no need to contact each individual listing agent about a property.

2) A listing agent cannot represent your best interests over those of the seller.

So, it is in your best interests to hire a Buyer's Broker, who can not only help you with any available property, but who is the only one who can protect your interests and only YOUR interests. In the vast majority of cases, this comes at no charge to you, the Buyer, so why not take advantage of this and have your own agent look out for YOU!