Hi. I am about to take my RE license exam and become a part time real estate agent. I have a great full time job and I am primarily getting my license to invest in real estate without commission leakage and to see more properties with less hassle then when you work through an agent. I also got pretty pissed off with the current market setup, where double agency is rampant (despite being illegal in all other professions) and where buyers agents don't disclose their compensation to buyers, so you have no idea if your buyer agent is consciously or subconsciously tipping the scale based on the best deal to him/her. I know all the arguments why this doesn't negatively effect, or some even tried arguing it benefits clients (including fiduciary duty, future referrals, etc). I also know the legal justification for why it's allowed. I'm not judging anyone who disagrees with me, I just think it's a raw deal for a buyer and I'd like to offer them something different:

I will only represent buyers (and will refer out if the house my buyer is interested in is listed by my brokerage) and I will charge a stated commission from my buyers, offset by any proceeds by the seller (which I will fully disclose). I will not represent sellers. I know this has been tried many times before and it generally doesn't succeed because the purchases and sales feed off each other since most agents are well trained to ask the follow up questions and will represent both sides.

With this background, here is why I'm actually making this post. I'm looking for either (1) a buyer's only brokerage firm to join (I don't believe there are any in this area, but maybe there are licensed brokerages in greater PA that I can partner with), or (2) start a buyer's only brokerage firm with another broker (I'm getting an agent's license), or (3) partner with a seller only agency <or someone who thinks of starting a sellers only agency> or (4) join one of the franchises. If you can recommend someone, or join forces with me per (1), (2) or (3), please send me a private message. If not, I would still appreciate recommendations for franchises to join per (4). I'm considering Coldwell Banker or Real (virtual brokerage) at this point. I spoke to Sotheby's (seems like a perfect option for a sellers only agency) and ReMax is probably not a right choice as I probably won't have the volume. Definitely not BHHS since they have close to a 45% market share of listings, so I will be running into conflicts too often.

P.S. I'm primarily active in the Main Line area of Philadelphia (Lower Merion, TE and Radnor school districts), but greater Philadelphia is a fair deal, and I have money to invest in starting a brokerage from scratch if needed.

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