Quote:
Originally Posted by retiredguy123
I'm not sure what you mean by a buyer's agent, but the typical listing contract requires the seller to pay the entire commission at the closing. The buyer pays nothing, and, as such, usually does not have an agent in the legal sense. Even MLS agents receive their share of the commission from the seller, and so they are legally working for the seller. But, all licensed real estate agents have a fiduciary obligation to both the buyer and the seller according to Florida law. Having a fiduciary obligation is very different from representing someone as their "agent". A buyer can hire an agent and pay them a separate fee to represent them, but that fee would be above and beyond the fee prescribed in the listing contract. Most buyers are not willing to pay a separate fee to have an legal agent.
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From Florida Statute:
"A real estate licensee may not operate as a disclosed or nondisclosed dual agent. As used in this section, the term “dual agent” means a broker who represents as a fiduciary both the prospective buyer and the prospective seller in a real estate transaction"
If you are buying in the MLS system, and you have your own agent, your own agent gets a share of the commission paid by the seller.
In a VLS transaction, the buyer's agent gets no share of the commission paid by the seller. If I understand the language of the statute I quoted above, the VLS agent cannot, by law, be a fiduciary for both parties.
Perhaps I am misunderstanding the language.