[majormajor]

> I bought a few years back and we didn't really use an agent to find the house at all. Looking into it, I found that a certain percentage of the sale amount goes to pay the agent(s); 6% I think. If there are two agents, they each get half. If one person doesn't use an agent... the other person's agent gets it all. The person without an agent doesn't get to keep their half... it just all goes to the other agent. Wtf...

In hot markets this is a way people often get an advantage as a buyer: tell the selling agent you want to use them as your agent too, so they get the whole 6% if the seller picks your offer. So if the bids end up being close, the agent ends up lobbying for you (or lobbying you to make your offer closer).

Some selling agents refuse to do this because it's pretty shady, but definitely not all.

I've also heard of similar things including negotiating down the selling agent's cut as part of it but haven't seen as much of that firsthand.

[_aavaa_]

> Some selling agents refuse to do this because it's pretty shady, but definitely not all.

This is a blatant conflict of interest. My god.

[ethbr1]

It's only a conflict of interest if either the seller or the buyer expect their agents to negotiate price for them.

Generally agents steer well clean of that, for legal and time reasons.

A realtor is there to put properties in front of you / put your properties in front of others, and then close the deal when you tell them which property you're interested in.

Volume pays realtors, not price-over/under-replacement.

[DavidPeiffer]

>It's only a conflict of interest if either the seller or the buyer expect their agents to negotiate price for them.

There are other details that come up through a transaction that many people wouldn't even think about. Are appliances included? Window treatments? Leftover paint? What year the transaction closes could impact taxes or incentives for either party. Inspections (what types of inspections are permitted, their timeline, what will be repaired prior to sale).

If there are disagreements about any of those, or if the property was materially misrepresented by the selling agent, it's way more messy than if another agent is involved and it's clear who represents who.

[_aavaa_]

It’s a conflict regardless of negotiating price.

Your realtor (as the seller) is now going to give preferential treatment to one buyer for their own personal gain.

[ethbr1]

The realtor doesn't care which side of the party "wins", as long as the deal goes through.

So they're only preferring whoever is bitching the loudest?

[ska]

The entire thing is a bit of a racket.

[conductr]

It will be presented to both parties. It's not a hidden conflict.

[_aavaa_]

Hidden or not it still is one.

[conductr]

I guess my point was, if it’s transparent the seller can easy take that into consideration when evaluating the offers. I’ve never given much thought to an agents opinion once I’m at that stage. I can evaluate the offers, their job is to bring them to me.

If people are out there just doing what their agents say with no questions asked, well, then yeah probably insist your agent doesn’t represent the other party too. That even gets murky given a large number of agents represent a few brands and they’re completely incentivized to have one of their partner agents on the other side of the transaction.