Procuring Cause

Oh boy! This is a fun one. I am writing about this because it has finally reared its ugly head in our office this week.

I'm not going to go into length about what procuring cause is or who is right or wrong, but I am going to give buyers out there some advice. If you want information about procuring cause, Google it, there are boat loads of information about it online.

Here are my tips:
1. Hire a buyer agent. And I mean hire them, not just sign the MA agency disclosure. This is done by signing a contract that outlines how the agent will be compensated, what their duties to the buyer are and how long the contract is good for. There may be some other stuff too that varies from brokerage to brokerage. The old adage 'you get what you pay for' holds true for agency.

Ethical buyer agents hired under contract are loyal to you, because you are loyal to them. Period!

2. If you don't want to hire an agent exclusively and want to make an offer on a property, do it with the agent that showed you the property and gave you the information. This would eliminate most procuring cause situations, and save everyone some heartache.

3. If you are using another agent, let any and all other agents you encounter know that you are using another agent and sign in with their name at open houses.

I give you this advice from the perspective of being a buyer's agent. I first cut my teeth in the real estate industry by working for the largest exclusive buyer agency in Massachusetts back in the early 2000's. Because buyer agency was pretty new at the time, most didn't understand it, and even now some still don't. I spent quite a bit of time explaining it to folks then and it seems there is still some education needed out there.