Buyers agent contract requiring exclusivity - is this normal?

[Steve H.]

After silently watching the BP forums for about a year, I'm ready to find my first investment property. There are a couple of houses on MLS in the West Chester, PA and North Wilmington, DE areas that I am interested in, so I thought a good start would be to find an agent who could give me some feedback and show those properties to me.

I made contact with a Realtor outside of BP and let them know that I was a new investor who was searching for houses on my own, but also would be interested in having an agent help with properties on the MLS. We set up a face to face meeting and talked about what I was looking for. At the end, the Realtor told me that he would be happy to work with me, but that he would require a exclusive buyers agreement to do so. I politely declined and left, saying I wasn't ready to sign into an agreement.

So, my question is whether this is normal or not? It doesn't make sense to me to have to sign an agreement that would require me to pay him a buyers agent fee regardless of how I find the house. If the Realtor brings me the lead or takes time to show me a MLS property and I buy it, then of course he deserves to be paid. But if I find my own FSBO property or purchase from a wholesaler, why should I be obligated to pay him? I understand that in a retail situation where a home buyer wants a full service agent, this might make sense, but I don't need his help learning how to be approved for financing, and I don't need his help on leading me through the steps of buying a house.

Is my expectation realistic? Do the investor-friendly agents on this site require their investor clients to sign agreements requiring the use of their services? Is exclusivity expected? Even though Southeast PA is not far from Northern DE, the houses in these two areas are quite different, and in this first experience with a Realtor it was clear he was familiar with one of those markets but not the other. Can I not use a separate Realtor for the two different markets to make sure they are experts of their respective areas?

Edit: I just saw a thread from 3 years ago on this issue, buyers agent exclusivity , so I guess the answer is that many agents ask for it, but the advise is that REIs shouldn't enter into such an agreement. That means there are Realtors that don't require this, perhaps here on BP?