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I'm a little surprised at some of the comments here that seem to be, if not quite defending the actions of the OP's agent, certainly not speaking against them either. If everything the OP says is accurate, if the buyer agent compensation was disclosed at a certain number before the offer was made and then changed to a different number during the negotiation/contract acceptance process, then I think the agent had an obligation to make his client aware of that change, and to be sure he still wanted to go ahead with the transaction. If the fee was disclosed, then his calculations took into consideration that he would have a certain amount of money coming back to him as a credit at closing, and that money may have impacted his ability and desire to complete the transaction. The fact he "squeezed" the agent to give a rebate is of no consequence, as the agent had the ability to accept or reject that request. Once he agreed to it, he is obligated to work in the best interest of his client, which, in my opinion, included informing him that the amount of his rebate may have changed.
Was the OP the recipient of some karmic justice? Maybe. Did he get what he deserved? Possibly. Does that make it right for real estate agents to condone shady - and possibly downright unethical - dealings? NEVER.
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Was the OP the recipient of some karmic justice? Maybe. Did he get what he deserved? Possibly. Does that make it right for real estate agents to condone shady - and possibly downright unethical - dealings? NEVER.
I am very heartened to see a realtor say this. Thank you for speaking up.
If the agent agreed to work for 1%, there is no benefit to lowering the commission at the 3% level by .5%
I can't imagine the Listing agent agreeing to an under the table pay out but it is possible.
We're only getting a small part of the story, the agreement and the timeline.
I'm a little surprised at some of the comments here that seem to be, if not quite defending the actions of the OP's agent, certainly not speaking against them either. If everything the OP says is accurate, if the buyer agent compensation was disclosed at a certain number before the offer was made and then changed to a different number during the negotiation/contract acceptance process, then I think the agent had an obligation to make his client aware of that change, and to be sure he still wanted to go ahead with the transaction. If the fee was disclosed, then his calculations took into consideration that he would have a certain amount of money coming back to him as a credit at closing, and that money may have impacted his ability and desire to complete the transaction. The fact he "squeezed" the agent to give a rebate is of no consequence, as the agent had the ability to accept or reject that request. Once he agreed to it, he is obligated to work in the best interest of his client, which, in my opinion, included informing him that the amount of his rebate may have changed.
Was the OP the recipient of some karmic justice? Maybe. Did he get what he deserved? Possibly. Does that make it right for real estate agents to condone shady - and possibly downright unethical - dealings? NEVER.
I agree with you, Bill. And I don't want to be seen as condoning what the OP has described as acceptable deportment for a licensee.
A licensee has standards to uphold. He should hold himself to a higher standard than the OP holds himself.
This isn't exactly a court room or grievance meeting, though. And it is the OP's thread, not the agent's thread. OP is looking for support after behaving poorly. Tough on him.
If the agent was on here gloating, it would be easy to hit that ball out of the park, for sure.
And, I think that what goes around, comes around. There IS a bit of karma at play, it seems.
And, I think that what goes around, comes around. There IS a bit of karma at play, it seems.
Not sure about that. The agent is an adult and has the right to make their own business choices regardless of how other people feel about them. The agent has a business where he/she takes 1% and rebates the rest. Really, the only question is what the rebating/buyer agency agreement says. If it says agent to keep 1% and the buyer to get any additional compensation offered on the MLS rebated, then from where I sit, the agent has a problem. I don't think there is anything slimy about negotiating a service and payment agreement.
My MLS functions like rjrcm's. It doesn't matter that the agent forgot to update it. Whatever compensation is in the MLS at the time of the offer, is the compensation. It seems to me the agent owes the buyer an additional .5%.
So either we accept that the agent is competent to enter into legal contracts for services, or we assume they are mentally incapacitated. People don't have to make the same decisions that we would. How the agent stays in business doing that is beyond me, but that's not my concern.
Not sure about that. The agent is an adult and has the right to make their own business choices regardless of how other people feel about them. The agent has a business where he/she takes 1% and rebates the rest. Really, the only question is what the rebating/buyer agency agreement says. If it says agent to keep 1% and the buyer to get any additional compensation offered on the MLS rebated, then from where I sit, the agent has a problem. I don't think there is anything slimy about negotiating a service and payment agreement.
My MLS functions like rjrcm's. It doesn't matter that the agent forgot to update it. Whatever compensation is in the MLS at the time of the offer, is the compensation. It seems to me the agent owes the buyer an additional .5%.
So either we accept that the agent is competent to enter into legal contracts for services, or we assume they are mentally incapacitated. People don't have to make the same decisions that we would. How the agent stays in business doing that is beyond me, but that's not my concern.
We don't know that the agent has a rebate business model in place, just that the OP claims to have a written agreement of some sort with the agent.
But, you seem to agree with most of my post, and my point that the agent is responsible to uphold a higher standard than a consumer is.
Our MLS function is similar to yours and rjrcm's, but our MLS offer of compensation is an agreement between member agents, not between an agent and a consumer.
Exact terms in the buyer agency agreement would be needed to determine the answer to the OP's question if the proceedings are legal.
The OP's struggles with English language and admitted duplicity make it difficult to assume that the entire story is being relayed accurately.
I'm willing to consider that there are two sides to the story.
Maybe it's a Taoist principle in action:
"When the pigeon is ready, the scammer will appear."
Someone who bought a $1,000,000 dollar house is bitching about an agent getting a couple thousand dollar additional commission.
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Why does someone buying a $1000+ TV look for a $10 rebate? We don't know and we shouldn't care. We should care if the rebate isn't made good as advertised, because if unchecked, not keeping an agreement or changing up an agreement behind our back could happen to any of us.
Probably the vast majority of agents. Pay for an average agent is not a big multiple of $10K.
And I would assume the vast amount would not. Of course we could ask them.
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