Real Estate Buyer's Contract: Exclusivity??

[Aften Hennricks]

My spouse and I are just getting started in BRRRRs and flips in the Portland Metro market (Oregon), and we have a question about working with a Real Estate agent. We're selling a property to have our seed money, and working with an agent that initially seems to be very well connected, professional, and can deliver. Once sold, we plan to BRRRR a multifamily. The agent has brought up a buyer's contract and I'm wondering...

1) What if we are looking at wholesale? Or using our own connections/marketing to find a property? Does exclusivity in the contract limit our ability to do this?

2) What if we find our own property, using means unrelated to their support? Current investors: do you have standing buying contracts with an agent? Or just an understanding?

3) We like the person we're working with, would definitely send referrals their way, and would like to hear about leads they find that meet our criteria. If they're helping us find properties, I do want to make sure their compensated appropriately, but if they aren't at all involved in finding something, negotiating, or closing, is it common practice and curtesy for them to still get a commission?

We'd like to do this right where we are maintaining healthy, mutually beneficial working relationships, but don't want to pay when we aren't utilizing a service.

[Brad Hammond]

I never use an ongoing buyer's contract.  If a buyer does not want to work with me, I don't want to hold them to it via a binding contract.  When I am representing a client on an off-market deal, I will have my client sign one for that one deal.  That outlines how I will get paid and the title company will need that.  

I would ask this agent for clarification as to why they want you to sign one.