If you want to buy or sell a house and obtain the best representation available to you, I am of the opinion that you should work with an agent who represents both buyers and sellers on a regular basis, and there are two very good reasons for that. They are "Marketing" and "Negotiations".
Marketing:
Marketing is defined as the process that is used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development, or simply put for the real estate business- Marketing is understanding "who" your customer is, how to reach them, gain their confidence, and effect a sale.
An agent who just represents the seller should have the marketing aspect down pat, and that's a good thing- but what about a strict buyers agent? They won't market to sellers, and quite frankly, they might not even know how because they don't do that as part of their everyday business. If your dream home is not on the market, you will have to rely on another agent in the mix.
Negotiating:
Although I will concede that there is a level of expertise that comes with just representing buyers, or just representing sellers, all of the top negotiators know that reaching the best agreements come from negotiations where there is empathy for the other side, and a bit of give and take.
If an agent has represented one "side" of the transaction consistently, then I think it would be inherently difficult to remember what the other "side" wants and needs in order to feel satisfied and happy with the transaction, and that's not to say that the agent can even get to that point.
Herb Cohen, author of the book titled,"You Can Negotiate Anything", describes negotiation as this: Negotiation is a field of knowledge and endeavor that focuses on gaining the favor of people from whom we want things. It's as simple as that". How better to gain favor than knowing exactly what one wants? When you only represent one side of the transaction, you WILL forget what the other side wants. It's just human nature.
Also, if you have ever heard of the Negotiation Institute, and/or Gerard Nierenberg, who is considered the foremost authority on negotiating, he says, and I quote, "To know what your opposer is thinking and striving for, you must turn detective, you must apply various methods and techniques to your primary objective of recognizing his needs".
The best negotiators are the agents that split their business nearly evenly between representing buyers and sellers, and never forget the ever-changing needs of each type of client in the the current marketplace,. The best marketing agents are also the ones that educate themselves to further their professionalism and their clients interests.
I represent both buyers and sellers, and am proud to have earned the Certified Negotiation Specialist designation, besides earning the following pertinent designations from the National Association of Realtors, such as Certified Residential Specialist, Graduate-Realtors Institute, ePRO Internet Certified, and Accredited Buyers Representative, I might venture to say that what mayhave been the single finest marketing program that I ever have had the privilege of graduating from was with the "Marketing Corporation of America" in Westport a number of years ago. Although it was quite expensive, the lessons I have learned from a pure marketing standpoint are worth their weight in gold regarding the psychology of sales. That is, learning about client behaviors, patterns and tried and true methods of sales. Comprehensive and incredibly insightful.
If you are in the market to buy or sell and need a top notch marketer and negotiator, contact me today.