About Ray Anderson…

Ray’s goal is to get his clients the best property at the best price and terms through true agency representation..

He is one of the few agents in the area able to offer buyers Exclusive Buyers Agency providing a true common law agency relationship up front even before finding a property. This allows him to be a counselor and advocate for the buyer not before available. He can therefore help the buyer become prepared to be in the best position to negotiate an offer resulting in the best price, terms and other details of a property purchase.

Ray has been a real estate professional since 1987 and has practiced in the Sierra foothills in El Dorado, Placer, Nevada, Sacramento and Yuba counties during that time. He was an associate with Bertrando and Associates (which is now Coldwell Banker Residential - Auburn Office) in Auburn for the first 6 years. Previously he was an electronic engineer working with the infant personal computer industry. After Bertrando, he spent the next 2 years working with a mortgage broker. He then opened Buyer’s Advantage Real Estate in February 1995 and has operated it since.

While working for Bertrando he realized that buyers were generally not treated equally with the sellers by the industry. Sellers had a client relationship with the broker acting as the agent for the seller via a written listing agreement but the buyer was just a customer to which the broker had no agency responsibility. The training salespeople received emphasized when working with buyers to first find out their financially capacity and motivation to buy then sell them a property with the least amount of time and effort. Ray felt this was ethically wrong to do before and without any commitment to the buyer.

Also most of the effort of the salespeople was directed to obtaining listings to the extent that it was recommended to limit the service to the potential buyers. When confronted legally that the buyers were not being represented equally in 1988 the industry in California adopted dual agency in order to keep both sides of the transaction, and therefore all the compensation, in house. This created the situation whereby the salesperson could not declare what the firm's agency relationship to a potential buyer would be until the property was identified. If a property was listed by the firm, they could not represent the buyer exclusively but only as an agent for the seller or a dual agent or just a customer with minimal duties.

Dual agency necessarily decreases the agents responsibility to both principals as one agent cannot represent both parties with full fiduciary duties. Specifically both duties of Undivided Loyalty and complete Confidentiality are compromised. Dual agency is often improperly practiced by many licensees. The firm and associate are put in the position of deciding what is best for both parties in any advice or counsel given whether or not the parties agree. The lure of double the compensation is great. The associate licensees are agents of the brokerage; the brokerage is the agent of the seller or buyer.

Ray decided to offer home buyers a better choice by offering Exclusive Buyer Agency. The only way to do this was to open a firm having no agency relationships to any sellers by not listing any property. That led him to obtain his brokers license and open Buyer’s Advantage Real Estate. It is the first and a pioneering effort in this area. It is dedicated to providing the finest buyer representation and to be the primary real estate resource for it past clients.

He’s a member of NAEBA - the National Assn. of Exclusive Buyers Agents (1998 Pacific Region Director, past Chair of the Bylaws committee, have served on the Legal/Legislative Action Committee and currently on the Professional Standards committee), NAR - the National Assn. of REALTORS®, CAR - the CA Assn. of REALTORS® (currently Region 3 director and member of the Professional Standards and MLS/Bus. Tech. committees). Also have served on the CAR Task Force to write the Buyer Representation agreements and recently the Task Force to update the Residential Purchase Agreement, PCAR - the Placer Co. Assn. of REALTORS® (currently member of the Assn. Professional Standards committee and Chair of the Ombudsman Advisory committee), and Metrolist and Nevada County Multiple Listing Services. He is the 2007 REALTOR® of The Year for the Placer County Assn. of REALTORS®. He is active full time in his profession.

Ray and his wife Sue have two grown sons and one grandchild. Ray’s hobbies are flying, sailing, skiing, target shooting, and vintage machinery. He intends to retire here in Auburn.