What Is a Buyer's Agent, and Do I Really Need One?

A buyer's agent acts as your advocate and guide during the process of purchasing a home.

While you don’t technically need a buyer’s agent to purchase a home, working with one can give you a clear advantage. A skilled agent brings local market insight, access to relevant listings, and negotiation expertise — helping you avoid overpaying, spot red flags during showings or inspections, and close on the right home.

Most agents alternate between representing buyers and sellers, but some are exclusively buyer's agents. Here's what you need to know about working with a buyer's agent, including who pays their fees and how to find one.

If you're looking for a buyer's agent, Clever Real Estate can help you connect with high-performing local realtors. Clever vets agents based on their experience, track record, and customer reviews — making it easy to find trustworthy options. Just answer five simple questions, and get personalized agent recommendations sent to your inbox for free.

What is a buyer's agent?

A buyer's agent (also called a selling agent) is a real estate professional who represents the home buyer in a real estate transaction. They work opposite to a listing agent who represents the seller. 

Some real estate agents work as buyer's agents exclusively. Others work as either a buyer's agent or listing agent, depending on the transaction, while some prefer to work only with sellers. 

What does a buyer's agent do?

Buyer's agents work with their clients from house showings through closing day. Here's what a buyer's agent usually handles in a real estate transaction:

1. Walk you through the home-buying process

For first-time home buyers, a good agent won't immediately take you to see homes without first walking you through the buying process. 

It's smart to get a complete overview of the home-buying process at your initial meeting, so you know exactly what to expect from the process. A buyer's agent can walk you through: 

• The state of your local real estate market and what to expect as a buyer
• Offer and negotiation tactics that could strengthen your position as a buyer
• The various steps in the home-buying process, including your responsibilities at each stage
• How to prepare for potential hiccups that could arise during critical periods like the home inspection and appraisal
• The paperwork requirements, including any documents you should be prepared to submit within a certain time frame 

2. Recommend lenders who can get you pre-approved

Buyer's agents will usually recommend getting pre-approved with a lender before you tour homes. This helps you determine how much house you can comfortably afford based on prevailing interest rates and a preliminary review of your finances.

Having a mortgage pre-approval letter in hand also gives you a competitive edge, since it shows sellers that you're a serious buyer with the financial capacity to purchase a home up to a given dollar amount. 

Some agents may even require a pre-approval letter or other proof of funds before you can tour a seller's property. 

Getting pre-approved is fast, easy, and free, and you don't need to commit to the lender who furnishes the letter. You're free to continue shopping around for better rates and terms even after you submit an offer.

3. Act as an advocate during your home search 

A good buyer's agent does much more than just open doors. They'll also:

• Point out a home's key selling points and drawbacks, including possible repair and deferred maintenance issues
• Facilitate requests for additional information that may impact your home-buying decision, such as HOA fees, utility costs, and copies of the seller's disclosures
• Be a source of knowledge about the area, including the local school district, neighborhood amenities, tax rates, and utility companies
• Alert you to anything that could impact your future home value, such as planned commercial or residential developments, changes to zoning laws, and tax increases

4. Submit and negotiate offers on your behalf

When you're ready to submit an offer, your agent can help you determine an offer price by running a comparative market analysis (CMA). Rather than a mere estimate of a home's fair market value, a CMA will show you a competitive offer range based on similar homes that have recently sold or been listed in the area. 

Your agent should also advise you on what terms and contingencies to include in your offer. Standard contingencies include home inspection, clean title, financing, and appraisal. These allow you to back out of the contract or renegotiate if a major issue is discovered — but too many contingencies can scare off sellers.

It's your agent's job to help you strike a balance between protecting your interests and appealing to sellers. To offset contingencies, your agent may advise strategies such as upping your earnest money deposit, shortening the inspection period, or even waiving certain contingencies to make your offer more competitive.

5. Connect you with other real estate professionals

Buying or selling a house involves several parties, including inspectors, appraisers, attorneys, title companies, insurance brokers, and lenders.

Buyer's agents can refer you to professionals they'd recommend based on past experience. These connections can save you time and stress, as you won't need to search for help on your own. Agents aren't allowed to accept kickbacks for these types of referrals either, so you can generally trust their recommendations.

Your agent's recommendations might not always be the best or cheapest, though, so you're free to shop around for alternatives. Getting multiple quotes is especially important when choosing a lender, since different lenders may be able to offer you a more competitive interest rate or a better deal on closing costs.

6. Keeping the deal on track through closing

After your offer is accepted, the agent's work is just getting started. The agent is usually responsible for handling the following tasks: 

• Making sure you deposit your earnest money promptly into the escrow account 
• Coordinating and attending home inspections
• Negotiating any additional pricing adjustments or concessions needed following inspection and appraisal outcomes
• Acting as a liaison between you and the various parties involved in the transaction, including the seller, lender, and title and escrow company
• Ensuring that all contract stipulations are met within the specified closing timeframe
• Coordinating the closing process with the lender and title company
• Attending the final walk-through to ensure the home's condition is as expected

Do I need a buyer's agent?

Technically, buyers aren't required to use an agent to purchase a home, but most still do.

Nearly 90% of buyers use an agent to purchase a home, while only 5% buy directly from the home seller — usually in instances where they already know the homeowner.[1]

Three out of four Americans agree that it's important to have an agent represent them during the home-buying process.[2] According to buyers, the most useful services their agents provide are negotiating with sellers, assisting with paperwork, and finding the right home.

Most buyers aren't very familiar with the home-buying process, and that lack of expertise can cause costly mistakes.

For example, a listing agent on Reddit shared their experience working with an unrepresented buyer. Between negotiation mistakes, failing to ask for credits on major repair items, and overpaying for insurance due to a missed deadline, the realtor estimates that the buyer lost out on far more than the 2.5% a buyer's agent would have cost them — especially since the seller was prepared to pay the commission.

How to find a buyer's agent near me

1. Use a free service that matches you with top agents

Some companies maintain nationwide networks of top-performing agents and match you with local professionals based on your specific needs. Leading services like Clever and Ideal Agent vet their agents in advance, evaluating experience, transaction history, and customer satisfaction.

Many of these services also offer savings. For example, Clever Real Estate provides cash back if you're buying a home and discounts the listing fee to 1.5% if you’re also selling a home. Ideal Agent offers a 2% listing fee, while HomeLight doesn't offer any built-in savings.

The process of getting matched with agents is simple: you fill out a short form about your goals, then the company emails you profiles of local agents who best fit your needs. You can interview agents, request more matches, or walk away at any time.

Agent matching is free, with no obligation to sign — making this one of the easiest, fastest, and no-risk ways to compare top buyer’s agents near you.

Top agent matching services

2. Ask for referrals

You can also ask family, friends, neighbors, or co-workers for realtor referrals. Getting a referral from someone you know and trust can lead to a good match.

However, there's no guarantee the agent will be a good fit for your particular situation — especially if they don't usually work in your area.

Be sure to vet the agent before you hire them, including asking about their recent transaction history, getting a feel for how well they know the local market, and gauging their transparency when talking about commission rates.

3. Search online

The internet has made finding a real estate agent easier than ever before. Popular real estate sites like Zillow have useful agent-finder tools that allow you to search for agents by city or zip code.

However, there are thousands of realtors in each major city, which means searching for buyer's agents online can be pretty overwhelming. We recommend using an online search to vet agents you found elsewhere, rather than to find an agent.

Who pays buyer's agent fees?

Home sellers typically pay the buyer's agent commission.

Historically, a listing agent would advise the seller on a competitive commission amount to offer, typically in the range of 2.5–3%, and this commission would be advertised to buyer's agents on the MLS — a practice that, at least in theory, could influence which properties agents showed their buyers.

However, as a result of a 2024 lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors, buyers and sellers now must negotiate commissions separately with their agents.[3] Seller's agents can no longer determine the buyer's agent commission or advertise it in the MLS.

While the process of how agent commissions are paid is different, in practice, not much else has changed. Sellers continue to offer a competitive buyer's agent commission — only now it's via credits at closing instead of up front.

Sellers cover the buyer's agent fee largely to widen their pool of potential buyers. For buyers already struggling to afford an initial down payment and closing costs, coming up with an additional 2.5–3% to pay their agent out of pocket could be a deal breaker.

Is a buyer's agent agreement required?

Yes, buyers and their agents must sign a written agreement specifying the agent's compensation and services provided before touring homes.[4] This is another consequence of the NAR settlement.

Understandably, buyers may be hesitant to lock themselves into a formal agreement with an agent simply to see a house. However, the buyer representation agreement is actually intended to promote more transparency between agents and their clients.

Previously, buyers' agents could claim that it was the seller who paid their commission, implying that their services were free to buyers. However, this wasn't really the case. Sellers only "paid" in the sense that realtor fees were distributed from the proceeds at closing rather than charged to buyers and sellers upfront. Buyers still covered the costs indirectly through their home's purchase price.

Because a buyer's agency agreement must now be signed up front, buyers have much more room to negotiate, including the compensation, whether the agreement is exclusive, the length and terms of the contract, and the services the agent will provide.

Most buyers (including 67% of first-time buyers) interview only one agent before making the decision to hire them.[1] However, given the stakes, buyers may want to exercise more discretion when choosing an agent.

"It's easy to use the Zillow agent that responds to your 'Request Showing' button click or your former college buddy that switched to real estate two years ago," says realtor Bo Bromhal via Reddit. "But the conversation for buyers should quickly shift to, 'If I'm going to sign [a buyer's agency agreement], and bear responsibility for possibly paying my buyer's agent, I better make sure I've got a good one.'"

How to avoid paying a buyer's agent

In certain situations, such as when you already know the seller or have a realtor friend willing to advise you, hiring a buyer's agent may not be necessary. 

In those instances, you can work directly with the listing agent — or the homeowner, if they're selling without a realtor — preferably with the assistance of an attorney or transaction coordinator to assist with the contract and closing.

1. Represent yourself

One option for bypassing a buyer's agent is to represent yourself and deal directly with the listing agent — but make no mistake, the listing agent works for the seller.

"They have to be honest with you, but they don't have to be fair," cautions an agent on Reddit with more than 18 years of experience representing buyers. "They can give you the facts that must be disclosed … but they CANNOT give you advice or negotiation help."

Most realtors hone their real estate knowledge and negotiation skills under the supervision of an experienced broker who can guide them through situations they've never encountered before. Your own home purchase probably isn't where you want to start your real estate training.

So unless you're familiar with the process and comfortable negotiating the specifics of a real estate deal, you probably don't want to go it alone.

2. Work with a transaction coordinator

If you're fairly certain of your ability to represent yourself and don't mind having the listing agent draw up the contract, you can simply work with the listing agent's transaction coordinator, whose job it is to manage the paperwork and stay on top of deadlines to ensure a smooth closing.

A transaction coordinator won't offer any legal or real estate advice. They'll simply provide a list of needed documents and deadlines and verify their accuracy once they're submitted. It's up to you to ensure that you're upholding your contractual obligations as a buyer.

"There are at least 50 plus forms in a standard real estate transaction, and not knowing what you are doing can really open you up to legal trouble," cautions Eileen O'Reilly, who runs a leading real estate agency in Oregon.

In addition to paperwork, you'll need to stay on top of tight deadlines for things like depositing earnest money, ordering inspections and surveys, making repair requests, completing addenda for any changes to the original contract, submitting proof of insurance, obtaining financing, etc.

3. Hire a real estate lawyer

If you want the assurance that someone is in your corner, another option is to hire a real estate lawyer to review the contract.

Just keep in mind that while lawyers can help ensure that all the contract is air-tight, there are a lot of things a buyer's agent does that a lawyer won't do, including:

• Attend showings, inspections, and final walk-throughs
• Help determine the fair market value and advise on an offer price
• Negotiate offers, concessions, or repair credits
• Coordinate with your loan officer to ensure your mortgage approval is progressing
• Stay on top of inspection, appraisal, and other contingency deadlines
• Be available outside of business hours

That said, a lawyer and transaction coordinator may be perfectly suitable in situations where you already know the seller or are working directly with a homeowner who is also unrepresented.

Once the purchase details are agreed to, an attorney can ensure that the contract is drawn up fairly and accurately. You can then work with a transaction coordinator to oversee the closing. Some lawyers may also provide closing services as part of their fee.

Buyer's agent vs. seller's agent

A buyer's agent or "selling agent" represents the buyer, while a listing agent or "seller's agent" represents the seller.

Most agents work as buyer's agents and seller's agents, but some work exclusively with buyers or sellers. Ultimately, both agents want the sale to close without any issues so they can earn a commission check.

In some rare cases, an agent can work as both a buyer's agent and a listing agent in the same transaction, earning a double commission paycheck. When this happens, it's called dual agency.

Dual agency is considered risky because it creates a conflict of interest. After all, how can your agent protect your best interests when they're also working for the seller? Given the potential conflicts of interest and confidentiality concerns, it's best to avoid dual agency whenever possible. The practice is also illegal in several states.

FAQ about buyer's agents

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