Precision vs. Being Liked
Sometimes Being Right Takes Time
Better Behavior
The industry keeps telling buyers that signing quickly is professionalism.
A lot of that is nonsense. The Buyer Brokerage Agreement is a dying myth in most states. Legislators are beginning to see this as a consumer protection issue.
It is not professionalism to corner someone into paperwork before they have had a chance to decide whether you are thoughtful, competent, disciplined, or even worth listening to.
It is insecurity.
And insecurity dressed up as policy is still insecurity.
The Door Opener Economy
There is a version of modern real estate practice that reduces the agent to a door opener with a contract in hand.
Show the house. Get the signature. Secure the position. Hope the relationship forms later.
That is backwards.
The relationship should come first.
The trust should come first.
The evidence of competence should come first.
Instead, too many brokerages are training agents to behave as if the first objective is not to understand the buyer, but to trap the buyer before another agent gets there first.
That is not service. That is fear.
What The Industry Does When It Gets Scared
When industries feel pressure, they do two things.
They centralize control, and they rationalize it.
That is exactly what has happened here.
Compensation uncertainty increased. Litigation exposed weaknesses. Public scrutiny grew. So instead of responding with better representation, clearer thinking, and stronger advisory standards, many brokerages responded with paperwork. They aligned to NAR even in states like Florida where a buyer brokerage agreement is not required. They did not think of the profession as a state regulated industry but instead as a national trade organization set of failures patched up by bad lawsuits.
More signatures. Earlier signatures. Harder pressure.
The message is obvious:
“You need me now, before you even know whether I am any good.”
That is a weak argument made by a weak system. As NAR crumbles so will this bad behavior.
What The Rule Actually Exposed
The NAR rule was supposed to create clarity.
What it actually exposed is how many people in this business do not trust the market to choose them freely. If 85% of agents fail within 2 years and most agents are part timers playing in the business do they really deserve to be considered? Sure some of them are great. But most are seeking paper work to force their way into the business.
If a buyer can meet three agents, listen carefully, compare judgment, and decide later, many agents are at risk. Risk means that sometimes your income stumbles and is not smooth but over the long arc of history you win.
So the push becomes: get the paper signed before the comparison begins. Do not strive for competence. Strive for creative scripts to get a signature.
That is the real story.
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi
Florida does not require buyer brokerage agreements by state law.
Alabama moved clearly in the direction of consumer access by stating that a consumer or customer may not be required to enter into a written brokerage agreement in order for a licensee to show property.
Mississippi moved in a similar direction by resisting the idea that access to property should automatically be conditioned on an early exclusive contract.
That is not accidental. Those states are recognizing something the industry keeps trying to avoid: A person should be allowed to meet professionals before being bound to one. That is not anti-agent.
That is pro-consumer.
Just to see a house after meeting someone for the first time at the home (Mistake 1) there should be no requirement to sign an agreement. There should be a requirement from the buyer to be open to the relationship, open to the conversation, open to understanding that at a point in time a real estate professional should be protected in the relationship and the real estate professional should be open to be competent.
Do you have more that 2 seconds and do not need a hook to become educated? Watch this. This is Real Estate One Oh One.
The Trust Test
I am going to a new cardiologist in Florida soon because I am not convinced my current one is looking deeply enough at the broader issues involved in health.
That is normal.
That is rational.
That is what adults do.
They seek competence.
They ask better questions.
They look for depth.
And if they are not satisfied, they move on.
I would change real estate agents for simpler reasons than I would change a physician.
Why would I demand less scrutiny in a large financial transaction than I would in a medical relationship?
I would not.
Neither should anyone else.
Competence Is Not An Instagram Metric
This is where the social media economy has done real damage.
A polished video is now mistaken for judgment.
A large following is mistaken for discipline.
Confidence on camera is mistaken for competence in contract structure, negotiation leverage, inspection strategy, title review, financing risk, tax reality, and long-term ownership judgment.
Those are not the same thing. The market has started manufacturing celebrity agents because attention scales faster than wisdom.
That is how a figure like Ryan Serhant becomes culturally useful to the industry. He is not the cause. He is the product. He is what happens when visibility becomes a business model of its own.
But a consumer still has to answer a much simpler question:
Who do I actually trust when the details matter? Not who entertains me. Not who trends. Not who performs confidence best.
Who thinks clearly when the stakes are real?
Never Foreclose The Better Option
People should be careful about signing away optionality too early.
That is true in contracts. It is true in investing. It is true in medicine.
And it is true in choosing representation.
Never foreclose getting to know new people who may serve you better.
That is not disloyalty. That is discipline A professional worth hiring should be able to withstand comparison.
If he cannot withstand comparison, he should not be locking anyone in.
Final Thought
The agents and brokerages most aggressively pushing immediate buyer agreements are often telling on themselves.
They are revealing that they do not fully trust their own ability to earn the relationship in the open market.
So they seek structure before trust.
Control before competence.
Paper before proof.
That is the behavior of a scared industry.
And buyers would be wise to notice it. But be warned. A great real estate professional that knows they are at least Billy Joel will sense alignment and will ask you to commit when the time is right. And that might be after coffee or after a few homes or a few chats or a few visits to #30a.