Tom Wemett

When the family business was sold in 1970 he continued his real estate career as a negotiator for a real estate investor, putting together real estate investment deals in 15 states totaling approximately $22 Million. From 1975 to 1980 Tom was employed with the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company as a financial planner and sales supervisor. In 1980 Tom re-entered the real estate field with his own property management company.

Over the years, Tom has been employed with other real estate firms as well as owned and operated his own. He opened a Help-U-Sell franchise in 1988 focused on serving the needs of home sellers. However, his desire was to find a way to help home buyers rather than home sellers. In 1978, the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, conducted a survey of home sellers and home buyers. The results, published in 1982 showed much confusion in the real estate industry. 75% or so of buyers thought the agent they were working with “represented” them. That was not the case in the 1970’s and early 1980’s. True buyer representation hadn’t come on the scene yet. There were some isolated examples of brokers who represented buyers only, but they were rare and perhaps only a dozen or so at the time. So, although home buyers thought they had representation, they didn’t. To underscore the confusing situation, another startling statistic emerged from the survey. Nearly the same percentage of home sellers also thought the agent was representing the buyer.

Tom decided to represent buyers only and formed his own “exclusive buyer agency” in 1992. Tom is a founding member of NAEBA, the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents and served as their National President in 2002-2003. Tom quickly became a well known national authority with regard to the representation of home buyers and continues to be involved with the buyer agency movement on a local and national basis. Tom currently is a Broker Associate/District Manger with ProRealty of New York in the greater Albany, NY area.

Tom has earned the following designations:

•CEBA (Certified Exclusive Buyer Agent) through NAEBA (the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents).

•CBA (Certified Buyer Agent) through the Buyer Broker Institute.

•ABR (Accredited Buyer Representative) through REBAC (the Real Estate Buyer Agency Council).

•ABRM (Accredited Buyer Representative Manager) through REBAC (the Real Estate Buyer Agency Council).

•CBR (Certified Buyer Representative) through the Real Estate Training Institute.

•CRS (Certified Residential Specialist) through the National Association of Realtors.

•GRI (Graduate Realtor Institute) through the National Association of Realtors.

•CSP (Certified New Home Sales Professional) through the National Association of Home Builders.

•CHEC (Certified Homeowner Educator and Counselor) through the American Homeowner Education and Counseling Institute.

•CEA (Certified Exchange Advisor) through the American Institute of Exchange Advisors.

•CNSA (Certified Notary Signing Agent) through the National Association of Notary Signing Agents.