My dual agency deal closed last week and I genuinely think it saved me money
The property was a fourplex in Riverside, listed at $610k. I had been watching it for about six weeks and the listing agent reached out after I emailed twice with questions. She said she'd cut her commission in half if she wrote my offer, so instead of paying a buyer's agent 2.5% from her side she'd take 1.25% total on the buy side. That put roughly $7,600 back into the transaction and the seller agreed to apply it as a closing cost credit. I walked in with $14k less out of pocket than I had budgeted. Inspections went fine, lender didn't blink, we closed in 28 days. The part I kept thinking about during escrow was that she had the seller's baseline number in her head the whole time, and I had no way to know if I left something on the table in negotiation. Seller had it listed 45 days before I came in, no other offers. I offered $592k, we settled at $597,500. Whether a buyer's agent would have pushed me harder to lowball or found a reason to counter differently I genuinely don't know. But the credit made the cash flow math work on day one where it didn't before, so for this specific deal, at this specific price, I'd call it a win.
