Buyers

Buyer’s Agent in South Florida

A buyer’s agent works for you rather than for the seller, and in a market where insurance, association dues and condo financing can quietly decide whether a home is affordable, that difference is worth more here than in most of the country.

Below is what the role actually involves, how compensation works now that the rules have changed, and the two situations where going unrepresented tends to cost buyers the most money. Broker Onias Derilus holds Florida license BK3276618.

Start With a Conversation

Tell us what you are looking for and what you want to spend. No obligation, and no tours until you are ready.

What a Buyer’s Agent Actually Does

The search gets all the attention and it is the least valuable part of the job. Listings are public, and you will find plenty of them yourself. The parts you cannot easily replicate are knowing what a property is worth, structuring an offer so the terms protect you, and managing the weeks between acceptance and closing when the inspection, the insurance quote, the appraisal and the loan all have to land.

Find What Fits, Filter What Does Not

Anyone can browse listings. The value is in knowing which communities have assessments coming, which streets flood, which buildings lenders will not finance, and which listings have been recycled through three price cuts and a failed contract.

Tell You What It Is Worth

The asking price is a seller's opinion. Your agent should show you the comparable closed sales and tell you plainly when a property is overpriced, including when that is the one you have decided you want.

Run the Due Diligence Clock

The inspection period is short and it is the window where you can still walk away. Inspections, insurance quotes, association documents and financing all have to happen inside it. Missing a deadline can cost you your deposit.

How a Buyer’s Agent Gets Paid Now

This is the part most online advice gets wrong, because it changed. For decades a seller published an offer of compensation to buyer agents in the MLS, and buyers reasonably concluded that representation was free. Following the 2024 industry settlement, offers of buyer agent compensation are no longer published in the MLS that way.

In practice, you now sign a written agreement with your agent that states what they will be paid, and you sign it before touring homes rather than at the end. Whether a seller contributes toward that amount becomes part of the negotiation on each individual property, and often they still do. But it is negotiated rather than assumed, and it can differ from one house to the next.

Two questions are worth asking before you sign anything. First, what happens if a seller contributes nothing toward your agent’s compensation, because that gap has to be resolved somewhere and you should know where. Second, how long does the agreement run and how do you end it if the relationship is not working. Neither question is rude. Any agent worth hiring answers both without hesitation.

Compensation of every kind in real estate is negotiable and always has been. No law and no association sets a rate. If anyone tells you a figure is standard or required, that is a preference being described as a rule.

Two Places Where Representation Pays for Itself

New construction

The person greeting you in the model home is employed by the builder. They are often genuinely pleasant and genuinely knowledgeable, and they are not working for you. Builder contracts are drafted by the builder and tend to be markedly less balanced than the standard Florida resale contract, particularly on deposits, construction delays, specification changes and what the warranty actually covers. Bring representation, and bring it before your first visit. Many builders decline to recognize an agent registered after a buyer has already walked through the door alone, which means a single unaccompanied Saturday visit can cost you the option entirely. Our new construction pages cover the communities and builders across our area.

Condominiums

South Florida condo buying carries a layer of risk that does not exist elsewhere, and it is financial rather than structural. A building can be perfectly nice and still be hard to finance. Lender project approval, reserve funding, pending litigation, the ratio of owners to renters and any open special assessment all affect whether a mortgage is available at all, and the answer differs by lender and by loan program.

The question to ask in the first week is whether the building is financeable for the loan you intend to use, not after your inspection period has half expired. An assessment levied for structural work can also arrive as a five figure bill to a brand new owner, so the association budget and minutes are documents worth reading properly rather than skimming. Start with our condos listings, and treat association due diligence as seriously as the inspection.

Signs of a Good Buyer’s Agent

Talks you out of a property at least once
Shows you comparable sales before you write an offer
Raises insurance and flood questions during the inspection period
Explains the contract deadlines and tracks them
Puts the representation agreement in front of you early
Asks about your financing before scheduling tours

Signs to Keep Looking

Everything is a great deal and you should hurry
Vague about how they are compensated
Has not mentioned insurance before you are under contract
Pushes you toward their own lender without explanation
Cannot answer what the association dues cover
Discourages a full inspection to make the offer stronger

Before You Hire a Buyer’s Agent, Start Here

Get pre-approved first. Not pre-qualified, which is an estimate based on what you told someone, but pre-approved, where a lender has looked at documents. It fixes your actual budget, and it makes your offer credible when you find something. Our pre-approval page walks through what you need.

Then build the real monthly number rather than the mortgage payment. In South Florida the payment is rarely the whole story: property taxes reset after a sale, homeowners insurance varies enormously by roof age and construction, flood insurance may be required, and association dues can rival a car payment. Buyers who budget on principal and interest alone are the ones who feel squeezed a year later. The calculators cover the pieces, and if you are buying for the first time, first time home buyers is the better starting point.

If you are buying and selling at once, the sequencing matters more than either transaction on its own, and it is worth planning with a listing agent before you list or offer on anything. Guidance on the buying process generally is published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and you can verify any Florida license, including ours, through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Questions Buyers Ask About Representation

What does a buyer's agent do?

A buyer's agent represents the person buying. That means finding properties that fit, telling you what a home is actually worth rather than what it is listed for, writing an offer with terms that protect you, coordinating inspections, and handling the negotiation when the inspection or the appraisal turns up a problem. The search is the visible part. The offer terms and the due diligence are where the money is.

Do I need a buyer's agent to buy a house?

You are not required to have one. Whether you want one depends on how comfortable you are reading a Florida contract, judging value from comparable sales, and negotiating against a licensed professional who represents the other side. Buying without representation means the only agent in the transaction works for the seller. Some buyers are fine with that. Most are not, and do not realize it until something goes wrong.

How does a buyer's agent get paid?

This changed with the 2024 industry settlement, and anyone describing it the old way is out of date. Buyer agent compensation is negotiated rather than published in the MLS, and it is now normal to sign a written agreement with your agent that states what they will be paid before you start touring homes. The seller may still contribute toward it, and that becomes part of the negotiation on each property. Read the agreement and ask what happens if a seller contributes nothing.

Can I just call the listing agent instead?

You can, and it is worth understanding what you are choosing. The listing agent has a relationship with the seller and duties that run to the seller. In Florida many licensees operate as transaction brokers, a limited form of representation where neither side gets full advocacy. Nobody in that arrangement is negotiating hard on your behalf. That is not misconduct, it is just the structure. Know which one you are in.

Do I need an agent for new construction?

This is where representation matters most, and where buyers most often skip it. The friendly person in the model home is the builder's sales agent and works for the builder. Builder contracts are written by the builder and are typically far less balanced than the standard Florida resale contract, particularly around deposits, delays and warranty. Bring your own representation, and bring it before your first visit, because many builders will not recognize an agent registered after you walk in.

What should a buyer's agent tell me about a condo?

Whether it is financeable, before you fall in love with it. South Florida condo financing is genuinely complicated: lender project approval, reserves, litigation, owner occupancy ratios and open special assessments can all make a building difficult or impossible to finance conventionally. A good agent raises that in week one, not after your inspection period has run.

When should I get pre-approved?

Before you tour anything. Pre-approval tells you what you can actually spend, which prevents the most common and most demoralizing mistake in buying, which is falling for something out of reach. It also makes your offer credible. A seller comparing two similar offers takes the one with real financing behind it, and in a competitive situation an unapproved buyer is not usually in the conversation at all.

Tell Us What You Are Looking For

No tours until you want them and no pressure to sign anything on a first conversation. Tell us the budget, the areas and what matters most, and we will tell you honestly what that buys right now.

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