Questions about Agent?

[Tenny]

DH and I seriously considering making a 900 mile move back to the area where we grew up. We have been looking at listings online and have found a few houses that we are interested in.

We will be up in the area in a couple of weeks and would like to look at them. Just this morning I submitted a request to see the houses through the Remax site which I have been using to get email updates from for months. The guy emailed me back (personal email not computer generated) within 5 minutes. Since he is the one that emailed me back are we obligated to use him as our agent now or do you think he is the seller agent for those houses. I know one of the houses we want to look at is listed with a different company so I doubt he is the seller agent, but I'm not sure about the other one.

We are looking to move around the end of the summer/fall. But with me being 6 months pg this is the only chance we have to look at houses and see what is out there until we get closer to move time. We still have to put our current house on the market and I want to give birth in our current city.

Maybe I should have thought about this before I clicked the little button, but is ok for us just feel the area out first? We built our current house, so I'm not really sure how this really works. And nobody in either location knows we are considering moving so I don't have anyone IRL to ask.

Thanks!

[littlelove8138]

you don't have to work with the first one that emails you back. so don't feel like you have to. but if he does have time to take you around to the house that you wanted at the time that you would like there is no harm in giving the guy a chance. but no worries it's not like you sign you life away because he spent 2 hours with you or something ;)

[hmbay]

until you sign an "exclusive contract to represent buyer" you are free to work with whoever you want. The only potential problem is if you buy something he shows you and you aren't with him as a realtor he might still be entitled to his comission even if you didn't sign anything because he did take the time to show you around.

DH is a realtor and I can honestly say just because you talk to him on the phone or exchange a few emails does NOT obligate you to work with him and that realtor should understand that. Most likely he is not the listing agent of those properties (but he might be) but the agent on "floor duty" at the time the email came in. Bigger agencies put a few agents on "floor duty" and they get the calls and emails that come in during their shift as potential client leads--they do not assume most of them will pan out into a real client but they take the chance.

[Tenny]

Thank you hmbay and littlelove8138!!

I feel so clueless when it comes to this. I have no problem with giving the guy a chance. I actually have been really impressed with him today just in exchanging a few emails and how fast he got back to me. I just didn't know if I was leading the guy on (you would think it was a date or something) and I wanted to be sure we had an out if for some reason we didn't click with him.