I like dual agency so much that I’m writing a commercial for it — and you can help!

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Okay, I don’t like dual agency. The more I’ve thought about it, over the years, the more I see that it cannot possibly done in a manner that it is actually fair to both parties. And that ignores the perceptions of the principals.

The one little bit of glue holding the Rube Goldberg machine of dual agency together is the fact that very few consumers even know what it is. Many times, I have had to explain dual agency to people who were either going through it or had in the past. Not surprisingly, none of them had been fully-informed by their agent about the risks of dual representation — although many of them suddenly understood what had smelled fishy to them.

My argument would be that no fully-informed consumer would embrace dual agency, but there are exceptions: People who want to take unfair advantage of the other party. There is a name for the role you would play in that scenario, as the Realtor: Shill.

Not only is dual agency exceptionally good for cheating one of your clients — normally the buyer — it’s also excellent for leaving the impression in the minds of both buyers and sellers that you yourself are a cheater, a liar and a person of egregiously low character. That’s some first-rate marketing, Jasper!

Here’s my take: As a very easy baby-step on the road to raising your own standards for the benefit of your clients, swearing off dual agency can’t be beaten. There’s a lot more you can and should do, and BloodhoundBlog is full of ideas for raising your standards. But there is nothing else you can do that will communicate to your clients your commitment to putting their interests first as compelling as renouncing dual agency. And no matter what else you might do, if you do not renounce it, you’re still going to look like a snake to anyone who actually understands dual agency.

So as a step toward informing consumers about what is really going on in a dual agency transaction, I thought I would make a commercial about it. The spot would feature a bunch of Realtors extolling the benefits of dual agency — to them. At the punch line, the video would link to a landing page explaining dual agency in detail.

[Two or three of our contributors are in the web site business. If one of y’all wants to build this landing page/landing site, I have ideas. For example, it could feature a “pledge” page for Realtors. Agents would pledge never again to do dual agency, and the site could reward them by linking back to their own sites. You could offer a badge for those who pledge, also, earning a link back. A site like this could hit PR5 in no time.]

Anyway, here is the beginning of a script for this commercial. I’m posting it here to induce you to add to it.

• I like dual agency because… buyers don’t have to go to the trouble of finding their own agent.
• I like dual agency because… communication between sellers and buyers is so efficient.
• I like dual agency because… busy home-buyers don’t have to waste time looking at other houses.
• I like dual agency because… it just cuts down on the confusion.
• I like dual agency because… I get paid double!

And like that. The premise is simple: You’re a Realtor selling dual agency on the basis of its advantages to you, not to the consumer. If you want examples to draw upon, the comments threads to every post on dual agency are ripe with puerile rationalizations for facile self-dealing.

There’s an even more fun step after this, but you don’t get to play at that level unless you suggest ideas for the commercial script. So get writing.