Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
now, there were scams that defrauded large mortgage servicers back in the 2004-2008 era. It was a conspiracy of attorneys, loan origiantors, and agents. "Fake" buyers/borrowers got loans in excess of the real transaction value. Some really bad example, a sap buyer was paid $10's of thousands of dollars to sign and thought they had no obligation, the other players made 100K, and the servicing lender was left holding the bag. It was still less than 1% of transactions, and several people went to jail.
Not to be argumentative but how can you write about a “classic scam” and then state you have no idea if it is actually done?
Sorry, I should have clearer that is HAS been done in the past, enough to make it necessary to change the real estate regulations. At the time, 1950's and 1960's, it wasn't specifically illegal, although both agents were violating their fiduciary duty to their customers. I don't think you could juggle the escrow accounts now.
Does this ever really happen? Do buying and selling agents ever work together behind the scenes to dupe a buyer so that they can get an increased profit to share, or is this just paranoia? Anyone ever experienced this, or heard of it?
often times they will hype up a property to get the best and final offer. the buyers agent wants to get the deal done as soon as possible and the sellers agent wants the highest price. works out for them
When an archaic system rewards the buyer's representative as equally as the seller's as prices go up there are bound to be inevitable conflicts of interest and room for nefarious conduct.
Sorry, I should have clearer that is HAS been done in the past, enough to make it necessary to change the real estate regulations. At the time, 1950's and 1960's, it wasn't specifically illegal, although both agents were violating their fiduciary duty to their customers. I don't think you could juggle the escrow accounts now.
In the 1950's and 1960's, long before buyers' agency existed, both agents only had fiduciary duty to the Seller.
In the 1950's and 1960's, long before buyers' agency existed, both agents only had fiduciary duty to the Seller.
Yep. Buyer agency came about in Hawaii in the early 80's and spread east by the early 90's. Before then all agents represented sellers. Today's buyer agent was called the sub-agent of the seller although they didn't represent the buyer in any way. In fact, it used to be if you belonged to an MLS you were required to represent the seller. So that is why we still have the system where the seller pays the buyer agent because the seller used to be paying a sub-agent that had fiduciary duties only to them.
I think it's far more common for a listing agent to trod the dark path to get both sides of a transaction. No co-conspirator to squeal makes it a safer scheme.
I certainly have seen them work together to make a deal happen faster.
Changing the selling price is not really that important to RE agents. Closing the deal is the key to maximizing their return on their time; because then they can move to the next sale.
I have also personally seen, experienced, and benefited, two different times, from working directly with the listing agent. That double commission is a good incentive to make things happen. I will not say that we got the deal done for less money, but rather that pressure was placed on the seller to get off the dime and accept our offer and close the deal.
Why do you think your seller's agent, if the place is a bit slow to sell, immediately tells you that you need to lower the price? You might think they are harming themselves, since the commission will be less on a lower selling price. But selling your house tomorrow and have more time to spend either on other listings or on securing additional listings, is way more profitable than pouring time and effort into squeezing out a couple hundred bucks more on the commish of your sale.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
