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When the listing agent offers to write the buyer's offer too

Take a buyer who finds a small three bedroom through an open house, and the agent standing in the kitchen offers to write the offer herself and save everyone time, sliding across a consent to dual agency form and calling it routine. Say the buyer has no agent of their own yet, asking is 289k, and the plan is to come in around 275k with a credit toward a roof that looks close to done. The problem is structural: nobody is arguing for 275 if the same agent is also paid by the person who wants 289. Neutral information-passing sounds fine until the buyer wants to know something like whether the seller has already had one deal fall through, which the dual agent would know and the buyer wouldn't, because most dual agency consent forms explicitly bar the agent from disclosing either party's price flexibility to the other. That's the exact information the buyer wants, and the exact thing the agent is promising not to share. The decision that forces: sign and move fast on a house worth pursuing, or spend a week finding independent representation and risk losing it to another buyer.

aaron_fitz10 PU1APRO 13

Answer

monica_tran3 SF2APRO 15

That neutral line is worth reading carefully. In most states a dual agent is limited to passing along facts about the property and cannot advocate on price for either side, but the exact duties vary state to state, so read your form and ask her to point to the statute it is written under. The practical piece: the failed prior deal is usually a material fact about the house if it fell out over inspection, and might be nothing if it fell out over the buyer's financing. Different categories. Ask her directly whether anything came up in the prior inspection, because that question she generally does have to answer.

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monica_tran3 SF2APRO 15

3 replies

jordan_ellis2CapitalPRO

Nobody showing at an open house on a Sunday tells you something. That house is not going anywhere in a week, and if it does, you were bidding against someone with better information than you.

I'd take the week. The dual agency form you're describing is doing what it says. She keeps both sides' cards face down, which sounds even until you notice she already saw yours.

jordan_ellis2CapitalPRO

chriswalton8 CC1CPRO 17

Kestrel, you said the roof looks close to done. That is the whole negotiation, and you are planning to run it through someone who gets paid more if the credit is smaller. Even assuming she is completely straight with you, she has no reason to help you build the case for 14k off plus a roof allowance. Get someone whose only paycheck comes from your side of the table.

chriswalton8 CC1CPRO 17

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