If you’re a homebuyer, you need to know how to avoid procuring cause so your purchasing experience isn’t hindered.
Buying a Santa Clarita home? Get a Full Home Search
Selling your Santa Clarita home? Get a Free Home Price Evaluation
Selling your Santa Clarita home? Get a Free Home Price Evaluation
You might’ve heard that our hot buying season is starting to taper off, but low interest rates and a lack of inventory are keeping things moving. There are still plenty of buyers out there, and we want to address one of the biggest obstacles to buyers being represented properly and getting the most out of their purchasing experience—procuring cause.
What is procuring cause? By definition, it’s a cause that results in the attainment of a stated goal.
In real estate, if you see a yard sign for a house you like, call the number of the agent listed on that sign, and they meet you at that house and let you in—that creates a procuring cause. By real estate law, you’re now required to go through that agent that let you into that house if you want to buy it. In other words, you’re forced to work with them.
Whenever a buyer calls about any of our listings, one of the first things we ask is if they're working with another agent—because we prefer not to take buyers away from other agents We don’t believe in doing that, but a lot of other agents out there aren’t as ethical, and they’ll try and trick you by using this law. They’ll either force you to work with them or make the agent you were previously working with pay them a fee to release you from your obligation.
The exception to this rule is open houses. You can go into any open house without creating procuring cause. You still have to be careful what you talk to the host agent about and be mindful of them trying to take you to another house or bring you back to the show house after the open house is concluded.
Business cards to agents are like garlic to a vampire—it should send them running.
If you like attending open houses and don’t want to be bothered by any agent, we can provide you with a stack of our business cards you can take with you. This won’t create procuring cause, and business cards to agents are like garlic to a vampire—it should send them running.
If you want information about any houses out there, snap a picture of the front yard, write down the address, and send it to us. We’d be happy to gather information about that house. In most cases, it’s probably listed by an agent we already know, so we’ll be able to give you even more information. This way, your procuring cause goes to the right agent and not someone who tricks you into working with them.
If you have any questions about procuring cause or need some of our business cards, don’t hesitate to give us a shout. We’d love to help.
