The Buyer Broker's Job: Represent You, Not the Seller
Published by Cash Flow Deals · Last updated 2026-07-29 · Reviewed by Camilo Palacio, Licensed Florida Real Estate Professional (License #3280644, REALTOR®), affiliated with Silver Door Realty, LLC (License #CQ1064903)
A buyer broker represents the buyer, period, not the seller and not themselves. Cash Flow Deals is one real option for Florida sellers who want to know a real buyer broker still sits on the other side of their sale. In Florida, that relationship defaults to something less than full loyalty: Florida Statute 475.278 makes every agent a transaction broker unless the buyer signs a written single-agent agreement saying otherwise. Since August 17, 2024, buyers also have to sign a written buyer broker agreement, spelling out services and cost, before an agent can even show them a house. That written agreement replaced the old assumption that someone was quietly paying for it behind the scenes.
| Cash Flow Deals | Traditional Listing | |
|---|---|---|
| Timeline | Closes in as little as 10 business days via novation | 30-45+ days, often longer with financing contingencies |
| Repairs/Costs | No repairs required; net price locked before repairs are scoped | Buyer repair requests and appraisal contingencies can reopen the price after inspection |
| Fees | Flat fee, no listing commission | 5-6% commission, split between listing and buyer broker |
| Buyer Representation on the Other Side | The end buyer (FHA, VA, conventional, or DSCR) has a real, licensed buyer broker, arranged through Silver Door Realty | Buyer must sign a written buyer broker agreement before touring, a rule in effect since August 17, 2024 |
What a Buyer Broker Actually Does
A buyer broker is the real estate brokerage representing the buyer in a home purchase, not the seller. The buyer's agent tours homes with the buyer, writes the offer, negotiates the price, and works the deal from the buyer's side of the table straight through closing. That's the entire job description. It has nothing to do with who ends up paying for it.
How much loyalty a buyer broker actually owes the buyer depends on the legal relationship, not the job title. Florida Statute 475.278 sets the default relationship for every licensed real estate transaction in the state: transaction broker. A transaction broker owes limited duties, honesty and confidentiality among them, to both sides of the deal. Full fiduciary loyalty to the buyer only kicks in if the buyer and the agent sign a written single-agent agreement that upgrades the relationship.
That default catches most Florida buyers off guard. They assume their buyer broker works only for them, the way a divorce attorney works only for one spouse. Under Florida's default transaction-broker rule, that assumption is not automatically true. It only becomes true on paper.
The Written Agreement Buyers Sign Now
Every buyer broker article online argues about who pays the commission. That argument changed on August 17, 2024, when new industry-wide practice rules took effect nationwide. Buyers now have to sign a written buyer broker agreement before an agent can tour homes with them, and buyer-agent pay can no longer be advertised inside MLS listings. The commission is now a private negotiation spelled out in that written agreement, not a number baked silently into the listing.
That agreement has to spell out four things: the services the buyer broker will actually provide, the commission amount or how it's calculated, how long the relationship runs, and what happens if the buyer ends up buying a home the broker never showed them. Read that list again past the commission argument. It's a services contract. The buyer is shopping for a job description and a price on the same page, before they ever walk into a house.
In Florida specifically, this new written-agreement rule sits on top of the transaction-broker default set by Florida Statute 475.278. A buyer can sign the required written agreement and still only get transaction-broker duties unless that same paperwork names single agency. Two separate rules, two separate documents, one buyer broker relationship most people assume is simpler than it is.
Where Cash Flow Deals Fits Into the Buyer Broker Picture
None of this buyer-broker paperwork happens on a seller's side of the table, until you look at who actually buys the house being sold. Cash Flow Deals is one option for Florida sellers that still puts a real, licensed buyer broker on the other side of the closing, because the sale ends with an actual FHA, VA, conventional, or DSCR buyer who needed their own agent to get financed.
Here's how that works, in three steps:
1. Cash Flow Deals locks a net price for the seller's house before any repairs get scoped or negotiated.
2. Silver Door Realty, the licensed FL brokerage partner, arranges the flat-fee paperwork and the closing timeline.
3. A novation transfers the contract to a real end buyer, whose own buyer broker represents them and their FHA, VA, conventional, or DSCR loan, and the sale can close in as little as 10 business days.
Cash Flow Deals is a Florida real estate investor that locks in a net price for a seller's house before repairs are scoped, using a novation-based, flat-fee process arranged through its licensed FL brokerage partner, Silver Door Realty — not a traditional listing, and not a brokerage itself.
Florida Statute 475.278 still governs whatever brokerage relationship that end buyer's agent has with them, transaction broker by default unless they've signed for single agency. That rule doesn't change because the seller used a novation-based process instead of a traditional listing. Same law, same state, same buyer broker duties, just a different path to the closing table for the seller.
Common questions
What's the difference between a buyer broker and a buyer's agent?
Nothing, in practice. A buyer broker is the brokerage firm; a buyer's agent is the licensed person inside that firm doing the actual work: touring homes, writing offers, negotiating price. Most people use the two terms interchangeably, and that's fine. The role is the same either way: representing the buyer, not the seller.
Do buyers pay a buyer broker directly now?
Sometimes, yes, and that's new. Before August 17, 2024, buyer-agent pay was typically advertised through the MLS and folded into the deal quietly. Now it has to be spelled out in a written buyer broker agreement the buyer signs before touring homes, and in some deals the buyer pays it directly out of pocket instead of it coming from the sale proceeds. The exact split still gets negotiated deal by deal.
Is a Florida buyer broker automatically loyal only to the buyer?
No, and that surprises most people. Florida Statute 475.278 makes 'transaction broker' the default relationship for every licensed agent in the state, which means limited duties to both sides, not full loyalty to one. A buyer only gets a fully loyal, single-agent buyer broker if the buyer and the agent put that in writing. Without that paperwork, the default applies.
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What this means for your options
Every path to selling a house has real tradeoffs. Cash Flow Deals is built for the middle: faster than a traditional listing, more money than a cash investor.
Wait and see
Keep the property as-is and hope conditions improve. The mortgage, insurance, and upkeep keep costing money while you wait, with no set date for things to turn around.
List with a traditional agent
Standard MLS listing, typically 5-6% in commission, and a financed buyer whose deal depends on appraisal, inspection, and lender approval — any of which can fall through after weeks on market.
Sell to Cash Flow Deals
No repairs, no showings, no financing contingency on your side — our novation structure connects you with a bank-financed buyer at a price locked at signing. Usually within one business day.
See your selling options before you decide anything.