Do you need an agent when you buy new construction?
You can legally buy a new home without your own agent. Whether you should is a different question, and it turns on one fact: the licensed person at the model-home desk represents the builder. They are not obliged to advise you against the builder's interest, the contract they hand you was drafted for the builder, and if you walk in alone there is nobody in that transaction whose job is you. The second fact worth knowing before you go: when and how your agent is identified to the builder can determine whether the builder will work with them at all - so if you intend to have representation, sort it out before your first visit, not after.
Who the person in the model home works for
Builder sales representatives are typically licensed, often extremely knowledgeable about their product, and genuinely helpful. None of that changes who they represent. Their duty of loyalty runs to the seller. When you ask which lot is the better buy, whether the upgrade is worth it, or whether you should look at an established neighborhood instead, you are asking someone whose employer benefits from one set of answers.
Both Missouri and Kansas require licensees to disclose the relationship they are operating under. Use it: on your first visit, ask "who do you represent in this transaction, and can I have that in writing?" A straight answer takes ten seconds and it reframes every conversation that follows. It also tells you whether anything you say about your budget, your timeline or your urgency is being said to a neutral party. It is not.
| In the transaction | The builder’s sales representative | Your own agent |
|---|---|---|
| Who they represent | The builder. Their duty of loyalty runs to the seller. | You. Walk in alone and there is nobody in that transaction whose job is you. |
| The advice | Ask which lot is the better buy and you are asking someone whose employer benefits from one set of answers. | A straight answer to whether you should be looking at an established neighborhood instead. |
| The contract | Hands you the builder’s own form, written by the builder’s counsel. | Reads it with you, flags what to ask a lawyer, and gets the written specification list before you commit. |
| During the build | Nobody in the sales office is going to call you and say the grading behind your lot changed. | An independent pre-drywall inspection, every change order in writing with a price before work happens, photographs at milestones. |
| At the end | - | A full final inspection, a punch list documented before closing rather than after, an escrow holdback where work is genuinely incomplete. |
| The money | Builders set their own policies on when a buyer’s agent must be identified, and may decline to recognize or compensate one identified later. | Your written buyer agreement states the amount or rate, and you owe it unless someone else agrees to pay it. |
What is actually different about the builder's contract
On a resale you sign the contract form the local association of REALTORS® publishes - a document written to be workable for buyer and seller. On a new build you will generally sign the builder's own form, written by the builder's counsel. That is normal, and it is the main reason people who are comfortable buying resale on their own are not always comfortable buying new the same way.
Do not take anyone's word for what is "standard", including this page. Read the document for these paragraphs, and ask about any that is missing:
- Delivery date. Is there one? Is it an estimate or a commitment? What are the permitted extensions, and do you have any remedy if it slips past a date you can live with?
- Inspections. Are you permitted to bring your own inspector, at which stages, and with how much notice? What happens to items your inspector raises?
- Deposits. How much, when, held by whom, and at exactly what moment does any of it become non-refundable? Design-center and selection money often has different terms from the initial deposit.
- Change orders. How are they priced and approved, and what is the cut-off after which a change becomes impossible or expensive?
- Specifications. Is there a written, itemised list of what is included, and does the contract let the builder substitute materials of "equal or better" quality at its own discretion?
- Warranty and disclaimers. What is warranted, for how long, administered by whom, and does accepting the written warranty limit other remedies?
- Dispute resolution. Does the contract require arbitration, and where?
- Assignment and resale restrictions. Can you sell or assign before or shortly after closing?
On the warranty paragraph specifically: Missouri courts held long ago that "implied warranties of merchantable quality and fitness exist in the purchase of a new home by the first purchaser from a vendor-builder" (Smith v. Old Warson Development Co., 479 S.W.2d 795 (Mo. banc 1972)), and later that a knowing waiver of that protection will not be readily implied (Crowder v. Vandendeale, 564 S.W.2d 879 (Mo. banc 1978)). That is precisely why disclaimer language in a builder's form is worth a lawyer's time rather than a skim. This page describes how the process works; it is not legal advice, and a builder contract is one of the few real-estate documents genuinely worth paying a lawyer to read.
Registration timing: the mechanism, and the question to ask
This is the part that most often goes wrong, and it is worth being precise rather than repeating a rule of thumb.
Builders set their own policies about how and when a buyer's agent must be identified in order for the builder to work with that agent, or to compensate them. Those policies are the builder's own commercial decisions. They are not set by statute, they are not set by the MLS, and they vary between builders and sometimes between communities operated by the same builder. Nobody can tell you truthfully what "most Kansas City builders" require, because it is not a published, uniform standard - it is a set of individual company policies.
What is generally true is the shape of the risk. If a builder operates such a policy and your agent is not identified at the point the policy requires - which is often at or before first contact - the builder may decline to recognize or compensate that agent later. That does not usually mean you cannot bring an agent. It means the cost of bringing one may shift to you, because under your written buyer agreement your agent's compensation is owed by you unless someone else agrees to pay it.
So ask these two questions, by email, before you set foot in a sales office:
- "Do you have a policy about when a buyer's agent must be registered or identified, and what is it? Please send it in writing."
- "If I bring my own agent, will you contribute to their compensation, and if so on what terms?"
Both answers are things a sales office can give you in a sentence. Getting them in writing before your first visit costs you nothing and removes the entire problem. Bringing your agent to the first visit, rather than the fourth, removes it as well.
What you sign before touring anything now
Under the industry practice changes now in force, real estate agents who use and list properties on a Multiple Listing Service are required to enter into a written agreement with a buyer before touring a home, in person or on a live virtual tour (National Association of REALTORS®, Written Buyer Agreements 101). That agreement must specify and conspicuously disclose the amount or rate of compensation the agent will receive, state that the agent may not receive more from any source than what you agreed to, and state that commissions are not set by law and are fully negotiable.
Two consequences for a new-construction buyer. First, your agent's compensation is now an explicit number you agreed to, not an assumption. Second, the builder is a separate party who may or may not contribute toward it. Those two facts together are why the registration question above matters in money terms rather than as etiquette - and why "I'll just find an agent later if I need one" is a more expensive plan than it sounds.
What a buyer's agent actually does on a build
Not showing you houses - the builder does that. The work is concentrated in four places.
Before you sign
Comparing communities on the things a floor plan does not show: what the lot actually is, what will be built behind it, how the community drains, what the commute becomes at the hour you actually drive it, and which school district the address genuinely sits in - which is not always the one people assume, as MoveToKC's guide to the school district boundary trap explains. Reading the contract with you and flagging what to ask a lawyer. Getting the written specification list before you commit rather than after. And giving you a straight answer to "should I be looking at resale instead?" - new construction or resale? is that comparison written out.
Base price, lot premium, upgrades: getting to the real number
The advertised price is the bottom of a stack. Base price, then the lot premium, then structural options that must be chosen before framing, then finish selections at the design center, then anything the community requires. Each decision happens weeks apart, which is exactly why the total surprises people - no single item is shocking, the sum is.
The useful work here is unglamorous: building one running total from the first conversation, so the number is never a surprise; separating structural decisions that cannot be undone later from finishes you could do yourself in three years for less; and being blunt about which upgrades tend to be reflected when the house is appraised or resold and which are simply things you wanted. Ask early whether upgrades are financed into the loan or paid separately, because that changes what you need in cash.
During construction
An independent pre-drywall inspection while framing, wiring, plumbing and insulation are still visible - the only chance anyone gets to look at the bones. Every change order in writing with a price before work happens. Photographs at milestones, which matter enormously if you are relocating and cannot visit. And keeping the delivery date honest: asking for updates against the schedule rather than accepting "on track" as an answer.
At the end
A full final inspection run like any other home inspection, a documented punch list before closing rather than after, and where work is genuinely incomplete, asking for an escrow holdback rather than a promise. Then an inspection at around eleven months, before a first-year warranty period expires, so that everything that settled or shifted in year one is documented while it is still someone else's obligation. Reading a home inspection report covers how to triage what comes back at each stage.
Financing a build is not financing a resale
Three differences worth planning for.
Rate locks. A standard lock will not cover a build that closes months from now. Ask what extended-lock options exist, what they cost, and what happens if delivery slips past the lock. This is the single most common financial surprise on a to-be-built home.
Builder-affiliated lenders and title companies. Incentives are frequently conditioned on using a lender or title company connected to the builder. That is legal and disclosed, and the incentive can be genuinely valuable. It can also be worth less than it appears once you compare the rate and fees against an outside quote. Get one outside quote - not to be difficult, but because you cannot evaluate an incentive without a baseline. Ask directly whether the lender, title company or insurance agency is affiliated with the builder, and ask for the written disclosure of that relationship.
Appraisal timing. On a to-be-built home the appraisal happens against plans and specifications, and again closer to completion. Understand when yours occurs and what happens if it comes in below the contract price - that answer lives in the builder's contract, not in resale custom. When the appraisal comes in low covers the general mechanics.
Read the incentive, not the headline
"Up to $20,000 in incentives" is a headline, not a term. The useful questions: what exactly is being offered - a rate buydown, closing-cost contribution, upgrades, or a mix; what is each piece conditioned on; is it available on this lot and this plan or only on standing inventory; does it survive if your delivery date moves; and is it written into the contract or promised in conversation. If it is not in the contract, it does not exist. That sentence is worth more than any negotiating tactic.
When you genuinely do not need your own agent
Being honest about this is more useful than pretending otherwise. You may not need one if you are paying cash on a completed inventory home with no construction risk, if you have bought from this builder before and know their contract, if you are comfortable reading a contract carefully and have a lawyer doing so, or if you are buying a small, standardized product where there is genuinely nothing to negotiate.
Even then, note what you are giving up: the builder does not reduce the price because you came alone. The commercial terms are set by the builder's policy, not by whether you brought someone. So the question is not "do I save money by not having representation" - it is "do I want someone on my side of the table for a transaction where the seller wrote the contract, controls the schedule, and will still be building next door for the next three years."
If you are relocating and cannot visit the site
Independent eyes matter more here than in almost any other scenario. Nobody in the sales office is going to call you and say the grading behind your lot changed, or that the finish that arrived is not the one on your selection sheet. Insist on independent inspections at pre-drywall and final, ask for dated milestone photographs, and put the delivery-date language under a magnifying glass, because a build that slips twice while you are living in a rental in another state is genuinely expensive.
Buying a Kansas City home from out of state and remote home buying cover the rest of the remote workflow, and MoveToKC's suburb profiles are the fastest way to understand the areas where new communities are actually being built before you commit to one from a thousand miles away.
Before your first model-home visit
- Email the sales office and ask their buyer-agent registration policy and their position on agent compensation, in writing.
- If you want representation, engage your agent first and bring them to visit one.
- Ask the sales representative, on arrival, who they represent.
- Ask for the written specification list and a sample of the purchase contract to read at home.
- Ask for the builder's written warranty document - before contract, not at closing.
- Ask for any special assessment or district charge schedule attached to the subdivision.
- Get one outside lender quote before accepting a financing-linked incentive.
Talk it through before you walk in
The cheapest possible time to have this conversation is before your first visit to a sales office. Nataliya Hennings, REALTOR®, RE/MAX Innovations, 3200 NE 83rd St, Kansas City, MO 64119. Call (816) 258-7356 or email Nataliya@NataliyaSells.com. If you are still deciding whether to build at all, the Kansas City home buying guide puts this decision in sequence with the rest.
Questions buyers actually ask
Does having my own agent cost me more on a new construction home?
Not automatically, but you need to establish who is paying before you commit. Under a written buyer agreement your agent's compensation is an agreed amount that you owe unless another party agrees to cover it, and a builder may or may not contribute. Builders set their own policies on this and they vary, so the only reliable answer is the one you get in writing from that specific sales office before your first visit. What is not true is that walking in alone gets you a discount - the price is set by the builder's pricing, not by whether you brought someone.
What happens if I already visited the model home without an agent?
It depends entirely on that builder's policy, which is why it is worth asking rather than assuming. Some builders will still work with an agent you bring in later; others operate policies that make it difficult or shift the cost to you. Ask the sales office directly, in writing, what their position is now that you have visited, and ask your prospective agent to confirm what they can and cannot do in that situation. Do not sign anything until you have both answers.
Is the builder's contract really that different from a normal one?
Different enough that you should read it as a new document rather than skim it for familiar paragraphs. On a resale you sign a form drafted to work for both sides; on a build you generally sign a form drafted by the seller's counsel. The paragraphs that most often differ are delivery date and your remedy if it slips, what inspections you may conduct, when deposits become non-refundable, how change orders are priced, whether materials may be substituted, what the warranty covers, and whether disputes go to arbitration.
Can I use the builder's lender and still have my own agent?
Yes. They are separate decisions. Financing incentives are often tied to a builder-affiliated lender, and that can be a real saving, but you cannot evaluate it without a baseline - so get at least one outside quote and compare the rate and the fees, not just the incentive headline. Ask directly whether the lender, title company or insurance agency is affiliated with the builder and ask for the written disclosure of that relationship. None of that requires you to give up representation.
Do I need a home inspection if the city already inspected it?
Yes. Municipal inspections check compliance against a code, at fixed points, on the jurisdiction's schedule, and they are not a condition assessment carried out for you. Book three: pre-drywall while the framing, wiring, plumbing and insulation are visible, a full inspection before closing, and one at around eleven months so anything that shifted during the first year is documented before a first-year warranty period ends. Experienced builders expect this, and resistance to it is information.
Which upgrades are worth paying for?
As a rule, pay for what you cannot change later and defer what you can. Structural decisions - ceiling heights, window placement, a wider stair, rough-ins, anything behind drywall - are effectively permanent and expensive to retrofit. Finishes, lighting, fixtures and landscaping can be done later, often for less than the design center charges, and on your own schedule. Also ask whether upgrades are financed into the loan or paid separately, because that changes how much cash you need and when.
The delivery date keeps moving. What can I actually do?
What you can do was determined when you signed, which is why the delivery paragraph deserves so much attention up front. Read what it says about permitted extensions and about your remedy if the date passes - that is the whole of your position. Practically, ask for written updates against a schedule rather than accepting "on track", talk to your lender early about extending a rate lock and what it costs, and have a written fallback for where you will live if the date moves twice. That is not pessimism; it is the most common outcome on a to-be-built home.