Rob wrote:
After moving to the area and looking around at properties for a while, I saw one place I was interested in and contacted the seller ‘s agent directly. She agreed to show me the property, and since she was located out of town encouraged me to find a local agent who could show me more things in the area. After looking for a while with another agent and not finding much that I was interested in, I told him about this place that I had already seen and we went and looked at it together.My question:
-Is there any reason that my agent would like me to buy another property instead of this one? Is the sellers agent entitled to more of the commission? I get the impression that he was hesitant to show me this property again and that he is trying to steer me toward other places.
-Also, would it be unreasonable to ask that he reduce his commission since I was the one that found this place?
I just saw the excellent response from Doug Quance, after writing this one. Decided to go ahead and post mine too – as my answer is a bit different.
Rob, the issue your current agent seems to be concerned about is called “Procuring Cause” – who was the “reason” you chose that particular property. Based on my understanding of how it works – and would be enforced if a subsequent agent were to interfere with an existing relationship – your current broker doesn’t have much to be worried about. There is a vital component of procuring cause that is not evident here and that is usually referred to as an “uninterrupted chain of events“. Also, taking into consideration the fact that the listing agent encouraged you to get your own agent, my take on this is it would be totally alright for your current agent to write the offer on the house you want.
I wouldn’t have any way of knowing what the listing agent’s commission would be if she wrote the offer or if it was written by another agent, so can’t answer that one with specifics.
Regarding your third question – if you would like to ask for a commission rebate, ask. I don’t know of any “standard” you would be violating, nor would the agent be in violation if he said no.
Marlow Harris says:
Anyone could ask for anything, but, as Russell pointed out, the sales agent would not be in violation of breaking any written or unwritten rule if they said “no”.
Even if you did “find” the house yourself, without that agent showing you dozens of other homes, perhaps you would not have been able to come to a decision about this first one. That agent helped prepare you and get you to a place where you could articulate what you wanted. Without seeing other homes too, you may not have been able to identify that first house as the house you actually wanted, because you’d have nothing to compare that first house to.
Agents aren’t just paid for finding you the house. They’re also compensated for helping to educate you about the market, the neighborhood and house values in your town. They’re also paid for negotiation of the sale, assisting with inspections, financing and getting the sale to closing.
With listings of homes for sale on the computer so ubiquitous, there’s a good chance of you “finding” your home “yourself”. But again, they and their industry laid the groundwork for that happening. A real estate agent got the listing and then entered it on the website for you to “find”. They and thousands of other agents have built the MLS & IDX systems to make it easier for you to find your home! So rather than try to penalize them and take some of their profit from building this unique system, perhaps you should recognize that without their and thousands of other agents efforts, there would be no means for you to “find” your home online.
January 21, 2007 — 9:39 pm