I'd been working with a couple for a few months and showed them a bunch of homes in a couple of towns. I did have them sign an Exclusive Buyer's Agent Agreement covering all homes in the County for 6 months. However, after showing them all of these homes, they pretty much disappeared. I know they were eager to buy, they were preapproved, and then all of sudden, they stopped returning calls & emails. I thought we had a good working relationship and I have to wonder if they ended up purchasing with another Agent. Is there any way of me finding that out? It's probably not worth going after them because the commission wouldn't be huge, but it's just the idea. Ugggh.

You could always do a name search in the tax records to see if they show up as property owners.

I know how frustrating it can be when buyers jump ship.

Maybe they landed a FSBO; which would not reflect on you; as there may not have been any Agency involved. Or maybe they sought out a Lisying which was outside the County for which you wrote your Agreement.

The information always has a way of coming back to you. Might take years; but it will come back to you.

As already stated, check the tax records. Depending on the County, it might take a couple of weeks to update. Best of luck.

Look for sold properties on your MLS. Ours gives the name of the buyer. It's a lot of data, but you may be able to narrow it down as you know the specifics of the kind of house they were looking for.

If it was sold by another agent, you may have an action against him for interfering with your contractual relationship.

Wow - our MLS only gives the name of the seller.
My broker signed up to receive monthly property transfer notices from the various townships we work in.

Notices of transfer may also be published in the county's newspaper of record. The newspaper of record is usually located in the town that is the county seat, and it's the one where you will find the greatest number of foreclosure notices.

Like Perky said, my MLS does not give buyers' names. I wish it did!

BTW, in Missouri, a Buyers' Agency Exclusive Agreement does not automatically exclude FSBO's. When I sign a Buyers' Agency with a client, I explain that it obligates the buyer to pay me a commission if the seller will not. In the case of a listed property, the seller has already agreed to pay commissions. If my buyer wants to look at a FSBO, they must let ME make the initial contact, so I can negotiate a commission.

What would you do if you did discover that they bought with or from another agent? Is there a way to get compensation?
As far as I know up here in Canada, if the agent asked them if they are working with a realtor and they say no, the agent did no wrong.. you would have to sue the buyers

A lot of time can be devoted to seeking out this information, and the end all you have to show for your effort is a Broken Heart.

I've seen Agents put a lien on the purchased property, so that they might get a Commission (or a settlement) when that property sells in the future; but that produces some very bad P.R.

If you had a "tidy" Buyer Broker Agreement, have an Attorney prepare the Lien. Depending on the circumstances, and the sophistication of your "former" Clients, they might settle with you before the filing but it's still bad P.R. because the uninvolved General Public will only hear that you were wanting to be paid for doing nothing on the property they bought, and will fail to recognize the contractual obligation of the Buyers.

If the buyer/client signed an Exclusive Right to Represent Agreement, they usually contain a clause that allows you to collect the commission from the Buyer if they purchase a home without you.

Only if there was an unbroken chain of events that led from the agent showing the home to a closing.
Obviously, if the agent was NOT at the closing, the chain of events was broken somewhere along the way.

I would begin with tax records. I know this can be a frustrating scenario.

I have had to check tax records before because I thought my buyers used another agent. The bad thing is, around here it takes 3-6 months for the records to be updated online. I guess it gives me time to cool off.

Same here; but because in Vermont, Land Records are retained at the Town Level, and not at County, it's far more tedious.

My heart has been broken before; and it'll probably be broken again. Our business requires that we deal with one of the most un-predictable species on the planet. When the suspicion arises, a call to the Buyers' Old Telephone Number may provide the New Number, which helps to trim the number of Towns I have to look in. But the question still has to be asked . . . . if you find out they were unfaithful and you've been jilted; "Whattcha gonna do 'bout it ?"

If you had a "tight" Buyer Broker Agreement, then check into filing the lien that I mentioned above . . . . otherwise do the introspective evaluation to learn from the experience so that "It won't happen again !" (but sadly, it probably will)

We check up on this when it happens by searching the tax records on Realist. Mostly I check out of curiousity to see who we lost the business to.

Would I ever pursue a commission payment for someone who left us mid-stream? Even if we were in the right, such a demand for compensation after the fact is sure to leave a bad taste in that buyer's mouth, not to mention make potential enemies with the agent that they used.

For me, I chalk it up to a learning experience. Ask yourself where the relationship went wrong. I always try to ask the buyers to explain the switch and how I can improve. You are not going to win and keep every client that comes your way, but use it as a learning process to improve your service and client interactions.

LOCALLY:
We have a buyer’s registry system where the brokerage firm that has the buyer under contract registers their buyer and when any other brokerage firm is approached by a buyer, part of the due diligence of a buyer’s agent is to check the buyer’s registry to see if the buyer is already committed to another brokerage firm.

Brokerage firms who fail to check the “Buyer’s Registry” and proceed to work with a buyer who is registered as currently under contract to another brokerage firm, forfeits their entitlement to commission on the completion of a transaction.

Contracts:
On the issue of whether or not to enforce a binding contract against a former client, ask yourself if the situation were reversed would the client expect the brokerage firm to live up to the terms of their contract and would they take steps to enforce it.

One might wonder why anyone would go to the trouble of entering into a binding contract, if they had no intention of enforcing it, unless it was cost prohibitive or there were other issues.

The other side of the coin is that the buyer’s defence may be that you breached your fiduciary duty to them and as a result they terminated the agency relationship. Under the law of agency, where the agent has breached their fiduciary duty, the agent can be terminated without notice.

Therefore, unless you can prove that you did not breach your fiduciary duty, having crossed all the T’s and dotted all the i’s and documented everything, then the success of your legal action against the buyer may be in doubt.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This information is provided as basic educational information by the author and is not a substitute for the advice of an expert and/or the advice of a Lawyer. There is NO representation as to legality, accuracy, correctness of the herein information and the reader is strongly urged to consult a lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction to ensure accuracy before acting on this information.

If we had such a "Registry", I guess I would even check the registry for potential "Customers" with whom I DO NOT intend to have an Agency Agreement, but are known to have had recent contact with other Practitioners.

Does your "Buyer Registry" indicate the duration of the Buyer Representation Agreements, or their Expiration Dates (like Listing Agreements) ?

I think if we had such a "Buyer Registry", Agents might be cool to using it for fear that they would lose Buyers to their Competitors when the EBA Expired. Has that been your experience?

Vermont:
The Buyers Registry is described as follows:

The Buyer Registry Service (BRS) is a database of Buyers under a Buyer Representation Agreement. It will serve to help clarify any
confusion about a particular Buyer’s relationship with a REALTOR®. It will ultimately help to make the “Buyer side” of real estate transactions more professional and offer greater Buyer consumer protection. Also, the BRS acts as a useful tool for listing representatives to find buyer representivatives for a specific property. For privacy, no details about the Buyer are accessible except to the Buyer’s REALTOR® and Broker of Record.

Entering a Buyer’s information into the database requires a Buyer Representation Agreement with a term of at least 60 days and an optional consent form called the Buyer Representation Agreement Data Form. Information from the data form is entered into the database by the broker or an authorized representative. For privacy,again no details about the Buyer are accessible except to the Buyer’s REALTOR® and Broker of Record.

There are several benefits to members who use the BRS. Authorized TREB users are able to search the BRS to determine whether or not a potential Buyer is already registered and under a Buyer Representation Agreement with another REALTOR®.

Using the Reverse Search tool, Members can search the BRS to determine if there are registered Buyers for a specific listing. By
entering characteristics of a property, including price, location, type and style, the BRS will reveal a list of Brokers with registered Buyers with similar search criteria. (Buyers’ names remain confidential.)

The Buyers benefit by having more people working to find them a suitable property. In addition, having an indication as to the number of potential buyers for a property type or specific area will also help both Listing and Buyer REALTORS® to develop more precise strategies with respect to multiple offers.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This information is provided as basic educational information by the author and is not a substitute for the advice of an expert and/or the advice of a Lawyer. There is NO representation as to legality, accuracy, correctness of the herein information and the reader is strongly urged to consult a lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction to ensure accuracy before acting on this information.