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Category: Dual Agency (page 4 of 4)

July 19, 2006

Location, location, location: Refusing Dual Agency puts Realtors above reproach . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I may have stirred up a hornet’s nest on the subject of No Dual Agency. Jim Duncan at Real Central VA posted his thoughts, and the sellsius° real estate blog posted a round-up, asking Are Buyers Customers or Clients? From Arizona, taking a trip Back East is also taking a trip back in time: Agency as it is understood in New York has been absent from this remote cultural backwater for at least 15 years.

That’s as may be. I work in Arizona. Plus which, if seller sub-agency is not already in the past in your state, buyer agency is definitely in your future. There’s a new sheriff in town.

This is all to the good, by me. The slim justification for our licenses is consumer protection, and it seem obvious to me that exclusive representation is the only way to achieve truly transparent protection for both of the parties to a real estate transaction.

Ardell DellaLoggia, in comments posted here, seems to disagree:

Due to the internet access of homes for sale, the trend is UP and not DOWN with regard to buyers calling listing agents direct vs. seeking separate and distinct representation. When the Buyer Consumer chooses to call the listing agent, if you outlaw Dual Agency, you leave them with NO representation at all.

It sounds good to say “outlaw Dual Agency”, but it leaves the Buyer Consumer back where they started, if and when they call the listing agent direct, with NO representation whatsoever.

I see that as a false dichotomy. In that circumstance, the listing agent can either refer the buyer to one of several trusted buyer’s agents (we do this) or simply advise the buyer to seek separate representation. The Buyer’s Broker’s commission is already built in to the MLS listing. There is no reason for the buyer not to seek representation.

Prove my point, Greg. Buyer calls you on your listing and only wants to deal with you personally when making an offer on your listing. Where do you go with that scenario if Dual Agency is “outlawed”, without leaving the buyer high and dry with regard to representation in the Read more

July 14, 2006

Dual agency benefits neither buyer nor seller

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Quote: “Double-dipping isn’t very far from double-dealing, and dual agency has always been the Achilles’ heel of the real estate industry.” That’s me in today’s Arizona Republic. Here’s a more permanent link. And here is the BloodhoundRealty.com policy on dual agency. The topic is important enough to us that I want to quote the entire article here.

Dual agency benefits neither buyer nor seller

Imagine you’re in a lawsuit. You’re representing yourself, but, as the suit progresses, you realize your opponent’s attorney is particularly good – thoughtful, incisive, attentive to detail.

At an appropriate moment, you say, “You’re doing such a good job representing his interests, I know you could do just as well representing mine too.”

You now understand what’s wrong with dual agency in real estate.

Dual agency is the fanciful idea that, at the same time that I am zealously and faithfully representing all of your interests as the seller, I can perform the exact same services for the buyer of your home.

In fact, if I am acting as a dual agent – fully disclosed and consented to by both parties – I can’t provide zealous representation to either party.

Instead, I become a facilitator, a go-between, a messenger. I can’t advise one client in a way that would hurt the other. I owe the same, insanely limited duties to both parties.

This applies even if two different agents from the same brokerage are involved. The contracts are with the broker, not the agents. The broker represents both parties.

The individual agents should act as facilitators. In reality, each will act as an advocate, actively betraying the interests of the broker’s other client.

So how much will the broker get paid for this farce of his fiduciary duties?

Double.

All of this predates the idea of buyer’s agency altogether. When brokers represented only the seller, the buyer was never represented. If the listing broker could scare up a buyer on his own, he didn’t have to split the sales commission with a cooperating broker.

Double-dipping isn’t very far from double-dealing, and this has always been the Achilles’ heel of the real estate industry.

So, even now, when buyers have Read more

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