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OK.
It is important to understand the roles and responsibilities of agents, and "nomenclature" seemed dismissive.
Nothing dismissive in my intention. The only term until now I have read about where the listing agent and handle the sale without a second realtor involved was "dual". I didn't know I could say I was an "unrepresented buyer". It sounds better than dual, because not all realtors would accept a dual from what I read in this thread.
The only thing snarky here was your remark saying I must not have a good attorney if I don't know the terms. That was uncalled for.
Nothing dismissive in my intention. The only term until now I have read about where the listing agent and handle the sale without a second realtor involved was "dual". I didn't know I could say I was an "unrepresented buyer". It sounds better than dual, because not all realtors would accept a dual from what I read in this thread.
The only thing snarky here was your remark saying I must not have a good attorney if I don't know the terms. That was uncalled for.
You have interpretation issues. There was no snark whatsoever intended.
It was just meant to reinforce the thought that the terms, and the agent roles and responsibilities matter very much.
I knew you would use an attorney. I think you had not said you had already engaged an attorney. Those also are two very different situations.
Last edited by MikeJaquish; 05-23-2017 at 02:27 PM..
We did when we bought our current house a year ago, and since moving in, we've discovered some issues that weren't disclosed, and the agent hasn't been very helpful when we discussed them with him. His answer was basically, "Well you should have brought in more inspectors then". It was a mistake to let him recommend all the inspectors that he usually uses.
It's impossible for one person to have 100% fiduciary responsibility to two different parties at the same time. Human nature dictates that the agent will lean toward siding with the party who's signing his check (seller).
There's a reason many states have made dual-agency illegal.
Dual agency isn't illegal here in Georgia, but if an agent chooses to do it (assuming their brokerage even allows it -- brokerages can forbid it), then both the buyer AND the seller must be informed, and be given information that explains what dual agency is vs. other forms of agency, and the ramifications. I tend to agree with you -- it's very difficult to represent both parties fairly, and unless the circumstances are exceptional, we shy away from dual agency. In fact, as the listing agent for a property, I spent an hour at an open house this weekend talking to a first time home buyer, had a great rapport, but ended up telling him that while I would love to work with him on any other purchase, this was the one purchase I couldn't help him on, and strongly recommended that since he was a first time home buyers and didn't know what he didn't know, he would be best served working with a buyer's agent to put in an offer for this particular listing -- and if he wasn't successful, I'd be delighted to help him on his next one. :-) Wouldn't you know, the agent he got wrote a terrific offer and he won the multiple offer situation?!
It's funny, but a buyer's agent working with a FSBO doesn't seem to run into quite the same set of expectations as a listing agent with an unrepresented buyer. Buyers tend to be needier. The agent in your case was caught between a rock and hard place -- do they recommend more inspections to a buyer? Is that putting his seller at risk? Is it putting the buyer at risk? Impossible for both parties to walk away from that situation feeling as if their interests have been served.
The problem with real estate attorneys is they generally are familiar with a few hotspots of a contract, but a rare few have been exposed to the nitty-gritty of line by line language. Unless your guy was involved with the local BOR when the contract was written, there's a good chance s/he may be looking at your contact with a high level of detail for the first (or a few) time(s). Then, rarely do good real estate attorneys make good litigators when you hit a pothole. I'm not a fan of dual agency, but I am also not a fan of the attorney as the sole representation of a buyer - do you really want to pay someone $350++ to order a termite or schedule a closing? (I once had an attorney rack up a ton of billable hours tearing apart a loan commitment that was all standard language. Did he tear it apart to justify his fee? Or due to the lack of being familiar)?
If it's working for the OP, great. But others may be disappointed to not get the same results.
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