When you start looking for a buyer’s agent in Massachusetts, you’ll hear two terms that sound almost identical: exclusive buyer agent and designated buyer agent. Both represent you as a buyer. The difference is in what the rest of the agent’s firm does, and that can matter when you find the home you want.
What is a designated buyer agent?
Most real estate firms in Massachusetts represent both buyers and sellers. When a firm represents a buyer, its managing broker can designate one agent to represent that buyer. If the same firm also has the listing on a home the buyer wants, a different agent at the firm can be designated to represent the seller.
This is called designated agency, and it is legal and common in Massachusetts. Your designated agent still advocates for you. Because the firm represents both sides of that one sale, however, the firm’s supervising broker takes on a neutral role between the two clients. You’ll see this explained on the Massachusetts Mandatory Licensee-Consumer Relationship Disclosure form, which agents must give you early on.
What is an exclusive buyer agent?
An exclusive buyer agent works for a firm that represents buyers only. The firm never takes listings, so it never represents the seller on the other side of your purchase. Every agent, manager and broker at the firm is on the buyer’s side of every deal.
The practical difference
- In-house listings. With a designated agent, a home you love might be listed by the same firm. That’s workable, and it’s handled with your written consent, but it means your agent’s colleagues represent the seller. With an exclusive buyer agent, that situation can’t come up.
- Neutral roles. In an in-house sale, the firm’s supervisor stays neutral between buyer and seller. At an exclusive buyer agency, the whole firm works for buyers.
- Where the attention goes. A firm that lists homes spends time marketing listings and serving sellers. An exclusive buyer agency spends all of its time on buyers.
None of this means a designated agent can’t do an excellent job. Many do. It’s simply a different structure, and buyers should know which one they’re choosing.
Questions to ask any agent
- Does your firm also list homes for sellers?
- If I want a home your firm has listed, how will that be handled?
- Would you or your firm ever act as a dual or designated agent in my purchase?
- How many buyers have you represented in my target towns?
How Femion Mezini works
Femion Mezini is an exclusive buyer’s broker with The Mezini Team at Capital Realty Group. He represents home buyers, never sellers. He has been part of more than 500 transactions, and he brings a background few agents have: a JD, an MBA and an LLM in banking and finance, plus years as an active real estate investor.
Femion lives in Westwood and represents buyers throughout Greater Boston and MetroWest, from Boston, Cambridge and Newton to Needham, Wellesley, Framingham and the South Shore.
Talk to Femion
Thinking about buying? Schedule a free, no-pressure buyer consultation. Call or text (508) 395-8333 or contact us. You can also download our free Greater Boston Home Buyer Guide, or read What Is an Exclusive Buyer’s Agent?
