What is the difference between a Realtor® and a buyers agent?

Good morning Marty,

Real estate agents are licensed by the state in which they offer their services, there is not a specific buyers or listing agent license only there are agents that prefer to specialize on both sides. If an agent joins NAR (National Association of Realtors®) they are eligible to use the designation Realtor®.

There are agents that are licensed in their respective states, either as agents or brokers, who choose not to belong to NAR so they do not have the right to use the designation Realtor®.

I am licensed in the state of Texas and I belong to NAR. So I am licensed real estate agent and Realtor®. If you are dealing with an agent that uses Buyers Agent and not Realtor® as part of their designation then chances are that they do not belong to NAR. They may use ABA or accredited buyers agent but in order to have that designation they need to belong to NAR as well.

All Realtors can either be buyers or sellers (listing) agents. 15+ years ago most markets had only one kind of agent. Sellers agents and all agents worked for the seller and earned their commissions by representing the sellers. In late 1990's the advent of the “Buyers Agent” came along and I think it was a good thing for the real estate industry as a whole.

In most markets throughout the US you now have agents that represent just one side of the transaction. The seller still offers compensation in the form of a commission , in most cases, the commission is always paid to the listing broker as a whole amount and the listing broker then splits the whole commission with the buyers broker.

I use the term Broker because in Texas all agents that sell real estate must hold their license under a named broker in order to legally transact business. So the agents have a independent contractors association with the brokers. All contracts , listing agreements and buyers representations are IP of the broker with the agent as the representative of the broker. Confusing yes but the broker is held to a higher count of responsibility and must represent the agents should there be any kind of legal actions or disputes with other brokers/agents.

Those agents that act as buyer agents do so for a number of reasons. It could be they are just good in dealing with people and can convert leads to clients better than they can convert someone thinking about selling their homes to a listing. Could be that a broker hires that agent specifically so the agent works with buyers only in order to hone their representation skills.

So I guess that was a long answer. Do not feel compelled to work with a agent just because they say the specialize with buyers. Although there are agents that just list homes as a business model I would guess that 85% of licensed real estate agents are excellent representatives of both sellers and buyers in any given transaction. Call me if you have any further questions!

Bob kenney, Realtor® Mobile/Text: 512-922-4922