Smart Home Buying

By Larry Schottenstein on May 10, 2010

This is a common story in real estate. There is a buyer looking in a specific area of town so he selects a  Top Producing agent specializing in the area. There are twelve listing currently in the buyers  price range and the agent has five of them listed.  As a buyer you are looking to have a buyers agent working as your agent to protect you and negotiate the best price.  After viewing several homes you end up liking one of her listings and decide to make an offer on it. She started as your buyer’s agent but how can she also work for the seller at the same time? You want the lowest price possible and the seller wants the highest price possible. Now she switches from being your agent to being a dual agent. Their job is to remain neutral. You had someone on your side but now they aren’t. It’s like being on a football team and as you arrive at the game your coach says he also coaches the other team so instead of coaching either to victory he will be a referee to make sure the game is played by the rules and no one has an advantage over the other.

Your options are as follows:

1. You can always change agents and select your own buyers agent to work directly with you.

2. Continue to work with this agent as a dual agent and live with the issues of her being neutral

3. Ask her to assign another agent in her office to work with you. Or ask her to reimburse you for the services of a lawyer that can also work on your side. Both of these approaches accomplishes the same end result. You end up with someone on your side who is not neutral.