Listing agent offered a point off if she brings the buyer herself

The $12,400 only matters if the price ends up the same either way. Do you have any sense of what the second-best buyer looks like, or is this the only one in the room right now?

The March maturity is the part I'd worry about. Once she's on both sides she doesn't have to say a word about it, and she still knows it. Information doesn't unlearn itself when you sign a form.

I'd ask her broker to point at the exact line in the state form that covers your loan timeline and your $1.18M comment. Most consent forms I've read say the agent can't disclose price motivation without written permission, but the wording varies a lot by state and some of them carve out anything the agent "reasonably believes is material." That carve-out is where your March date lives.

Numbers so we're all looking at the same thing. 5% of $1.24M is $62,000. 4% is $49,600. You save $12,400, which is exactly 1% of price. So any outcome where the dual-agency version closes 1% lower than the separately represented version leaves you even, and anything past that leaves you behind. On a nine unit priced at a 6.7, 1% is $12,400 of price, which is about $830 of NOI at your cap. That is one bad roof credit. The discount is thin cover for the exposure, and I'd want more than a point to consider it.

@ledger is right on the arithmetic but the 1031 clock cuts your way. A buyer who has to identify by a date has less room to grind you than a buyer who doesn't. That's worth something and it disappears the moment your own agent is also his agent, because she can just tell him to wait you out on the maturity.

Dumb question but I want the answer. Is she allowed to tell the buyer about the March loan maturity, or is that the exact thing the consent form is supposed to stop?

@compass in most states the form is supposed to stop it, but the enforcement is a complaint after the fact, which is worth roughly nothing to you mid-deal.

@keystone, has she named the buyer or shown you a proof of funds? A referred-in 1031 buyer who exists is a real asset. A referred-in 1031 buyer who is a reason to get you onto a double-ended consent form is a different thing and you can tell them apart by asking for the identification letter.

Worth knowing which state you're in before this thread runs further. A handful ban dual agency outright and a few more make the disclosure timing so tight that a form sent before an offer exists is already off pattern.

I'd counter her rather than pick from your three. Keep her at 5% for now, agree in writing that if her buyer closes at or above $1.21M the total drops to 4%, and below that it stays 5%. That puts the discount on the outcome instead of on the arrangement. If she's confident in her buyer she'll take it. If she balks at a floor, you've learned what the $12,400 was actually buying.

Separately, get the roof quote out of her hands or accept that the buyer sees it.

@canton that's the version I'd sign. The other thing I'd price is the cost of not doing it, which is the carry between now and the next real offer. If your bridge payment is $6k a month, two extra months of marketing eats the whole $12,400 anyway.