Real Estate Agent Questions

[Scott S.]

To start, I'll say that I've used the same real estate agent for the past 5 transactions over 15 years or so.  He's a friend at this point and has started keeping an eye out and knows what I'm looking for.  Deals are hard to find in this market and he puts me on them as soon as he knows about them.

That said, I ended up looking at another property and had the listing agent show me the property.  I also know her.  She was glad to help and offered the property at the buyer's lowest acceptable offer, but I get the feeling that she believes that I'd use her as my buyer representation.  I doubt I'd get such a good deal on the place if I went through my real estate agent.

My question is to those of you who use real estate agents as buyers and those of you who are real estate agents.  Is it common for your clients to use multiple real estate agents (i.e. - not just you).  Those of you that utilize multiple real estate agents, do you have a reason to use more than one in the same market?  Benefits?