Author: Roy T. Black and Hugh O. Nourse

Start Page: 87
End Page: 98
Volume: 10
Issue Number: 1
Year: 1995
Publication: Journal of Real Estate Research

Abstract: This study examines the effect of two different modes of real estate broker behavior on both the cash charges paid at closing and the price of houses. The mode of brokers representing only sellers is contrasted with one in which brokers represent buyers. Popular literature and formal studies are reviewed to illustrate the problems inherent in real estate brokers' representation of buyers and sellers. The role of the real estate broker is examined as a provider of information as well as that of a market maker. Two hypotheses are tested: there is no difference to the buyer in shifting cash charges at closing, and there is no difference in house prices attributable to the representational form of real estate brokerage. The study utilizes data on eighty single-family residential sales between January 1989 and August 1990 in north suburban Atlanta, Georgia to test these hypotheses.