Buying agents get about half of the commission. If going through agents instead of private sales, then I recommend getting a buying agent instead of dealing with only the selling agents directly.
If you have multiple buying agents with overlapping coverage, I'd expect them to work not as hard. If they are in different cities, etc then it is a different story.
For a single coverage area, there is not much benefit either of overlapping agents if you get a single strong buying agent.
When I bought my house about 1.5 years ago, I got the former provincial property inspector for 30 years who then went into real estate. He was specifically recommended by others I knew who got good homes. It worked out well since wanted a heritage house: so instead of make offer, pay an inspector to go through to look for major errors, find error, rinse, repeat--could instead just visit many homes in a day and give them a once over while there. The end purchase for me worked out well: a 113-year old harbourview downtown triple-storey well-built home on a street undergoing gentrification/renovation, with slow, resilient appreciation at about the mortgage interest rate. This is about the best appreciation for our city (pales in comparision to ~50% appreciation rate in Calgary in 2006, but here the rate is more resilient to future possible price corrections).
In my opinion, the technical side of a buying agent is relatively low-skills:
-How to make an offer, and do the paperwork for closing, deeds, etc.
-How to use MLS, how to call people.
-Other small items.
All licensed agents have this baseline capability.
The bigger issue in my experience was:
-How fast does the agent return calls, prompt arrival for pickup for viewings, etc.
-How well can they chase down the lazier selling agents to arrange viewings and offers.
-How well do they know the full buying area: to avoid things like nearby high-crime areas, pollution, etc.
-They need to tell you what new developments are coming in nearby and how it will impact the house being looked at. For example if dropping money on a condo, and there is a giant overflow of similar condos yet to come, could be looking at a saturation at sell time. If paying for a view, then the agent needs to know about city council's green lights to the new high-rise that will block your view.
-To advise not where the housing market is now, but where the housing market will likely be at down the road in case wish to sell, in order to get a house that will be more likely to be at least sellable (for example, things like a rise in interest rates will probably make houses that are two apartment or room for boarders easier to sell, since the next purchaser can use the income to help pay the mortgage). Or, there is a new box-store megalopolis is coming to this block, the price of this piece of land will likely increase.
-How well do they know the inherent value of the properties on the current market to avoid wasting time on looking at ones that are overpriced, and focus at ones that are fair value or cheaper.
-How well can they spot a lemon house (tough for many agents), or comment on the underlying bones/architecture that would reveal added value from small renovations.
Hope that helps,
Good luck. Homeowning rocks! Nice to be able to hang a picture in the wall without asking somebody.
roo
