We have our house listed by one of our friends in one of the largest real estate companies in the area. I always knew it was possible another broker in her office would bring a buyer because there are dozens of brokers. But, yesterday our listing agent brought another one of her clients to see our house. The prospective buyer liked our house but needed to think about it for a few days. This could go nowhere, but on the other hand it may not. I'm not sure how I feel about our listing agent being the buyers agent as well. I don't think she is going to be working 100% for us if she were to represent the buyer as well. On the other hand she is has more motivation to sell our house because she would be making double commission, so I suppose that is good... but I feel like we should get a break in commission if it does go that far because again I don't see how she can be representing us 100%.
I am not a fan of having one agent represent both the seller and the buyer.
I may be biased since the time that our selling agent brought us a buyer was a total shitshow, that ended up with the deal falling through and us having to put the house back on the market. I felt like she wasn't honest with us about the true strength of the offer and just pressed us to take it.
Do you know if the buyer is her client? Or is the buyer an unattached buyer who just contacted her about your house?
If the buyer is unattached, she can represent you only and the buyers will proceed without an agent.
If they are her clients, then she would be a dual agent. If you aren't comfortable with it, you don't have to agree to it. You can have your agent refer the buyers to another agent in her office. I am not a fan of dual agency, although I have done it once or twice.
Our agent was up front with us when we signed on with her to sell our house. She had several clients looking for a house like ours in our price range and asked if we would agree to a dual agency. She sold our house in one day. Her fee for us was reduced by 1%.
When I sold my house the people that bought it didn't have an agent (they were relatives of the neighbors). My agent offered to represent them and she cut her commission in half since she didn't have to share with another agent. It was fine with me and I was happy to spend less in commission.
When this happened to us, the agent had another agent in the same company handle the other half of the transaction, and the brokerage discounted the transaction 1% since the other agent had no leg work - the deal was handed to them.
Do you know if the buyer is her client? Or is the buyer an unattached buyer who just contacted her about your house?
If the buyer is unattached, she can represent you only and the buyers will proceed without an agent.
If they are her clients, then she would be a dual agent. If you aren't comfortable with it, you don't have to agree to it. You can have your agent refer the buyers to another agent in her office. I am not a fan of dual agency, although I have done it once or twice.
They are her client. So if I don't want to agree to it I would just be upfront if an offer came through?
For those that had the commission reduced, when did that paper work happen? Because our contract says 3% for buyers agent and 3% for sellers agent... would they just void that contract and make a new contract with the reduced commission?
Do you know if the buyer is her client? Or is the buyer an unattached buyer who just contacted her about your house?
If the buyer is unattached, she can represent you only and the buyers will proceed without an agent.
If they are her clients, then she would be a dual agent. If you aren't comfortable with it, you don't have to agree to it. You can have your agent refer the buyers to another agent in her office. I am not a fan of dual agency, although I have done it once or twice.
They are her client. So if I don't want to agree to it I would just be upfront if an offer came through?
For those that had the commission reduced, when did that paper work happen? Because our contract says 3% for buyers agent and 3% for sellers agent... would they just void that contract and make a new contract with the reduced commission?
In my state, all parties have to sign a form that says they agree to dual agency. So if you don't agree, you would need to tell your agent so that she can make other arrangements.
If you are ok with it, but want to negotiate the commission, you would need to do that up front too. You probably wouldn't need to sign a new listing agreement, just put something in writing to make the new commission clear.
When I sold my condo last year, my agent was the one who brought the most prospective buyers and she ended up also representing the eventual buyer. I didn't like the idea at first, but she acted in my best interest first and I never felt as though she was pushing for a better deal for the buyer.
thanks everyone! As much as a pain and not the best way to go about things, a buyer is a buyer, so maybe we can hope for an offer and make this route work.
Here it would not be a dual commission. She just wouldn't have to split the commission. If another agent brings a buyer to you, the 2 agents split the commission. If she lists and sells your house, she keeps the entire commission. So if the commission is set at 6%, she keeps all 6 if she lists and sells. If another agent brings a buyer they would agree to split it and the percentage is up to them - whether they split 3% and 3% or she keeps 4 and the other agent 2% or whatever.
We just sold our house to another client of our own realtor. I feel like we are in a better position as sellers than we would be as buyers, in this situation. Our realtor wants to make the sale go through to earn his 6%, so he has pushed the buyer in ways that I wouldn't be comfortable with if I were them. In the future, I will try not to be the buyer in this situation but I might consider being the seller again. It's definitely uncomfortable at times, though, when you're not sure whose interests the realtor is looking out for.
Post by thatgirl2478 on Jul 9, 2014 12:14:17 GMT -5
This is why I went with a sales team - 2 people who worked together for the same agency even though they were separate agents. That way, if the same agency brought us a buyer (or an unattached buyer came to an open house & loved it), one could take care of our negotiations & the other could handle the buyer's side. For that we did negotiate a lower commission (4% instead of 6 IIRC).
I don't know if I would feel comfortable having the same realtor negotiating for both sides...
We used the buyer's agent when we found a house we wanted to make an offer on. I never felt that she didn't have our best interests in mind. We did our own research on the comps in the area, but she also provided comps. Ultimately, we had to walk away from that house after being under contract (structural issues that could not be resolved in timely manner.) But we liked the agent so much that we used her to continue our search and purchase another home.
We signed that we are open to dual agency. If it does happen, our agent still protects us as the seller. There are clearly defined things she can't mention to the buyers. She then can't provide the buyers much help with negotiations. We've been in that buyer position before too.
This isn't allowed in my state. They have to let the buyer be represented by someone in their office that is not part of their team. I would not be okay with it.
This isn't allowed in my state. They have to let the buyer be represented by someone in their office that is not part of their team. I would not be okay with it.
Yes, my mom has told me this is true in NY. If it happened, they would pass the buyer to another agent, most likely.
I would not be comfortable with it. However, technically, she has an incentive to sell your house for as much as possible, because she makes commission off the sale price. But she also has an incentive to close the deal and not lose the buyer.
I don't know if dual agency is even allowed in my state. I know our agent wouldn't do it. She did show us a house that was one of her listings, but she was upfront about that. She said if we ended up liking that house, she would set us up with a different agent for the offering/purchasing process. She said she didn't feel that she could fight for what is best for both parties at the same time. We didn't like the house anyway.
I've bought 4 properties basically in this scenario only I was the buyer. I just didn't have my own agent & asked if they could make the offer for me. I mean, I'd just be giving another agent anyway. There was zero issue & I felt like all 4 times the asking price was fair so it was a very easy process. The agents were good to me (negotiated a cheap inspection, did quick claim deeds to put the properties into an LLC, etc) probably because I did that but it had zero impact on the seller.