re: Realtor Negotiations

quote:

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My first house, we bought using a dual agent. We were new to the area and no one clued us in on areas that would have been more appropriate for our family. We found a nice house, contacted the listing agent, she showed us the house, and we bought it.

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Please don't get me wrong... I'm certainly not defending her, her actions or her attitude. But unless the laws or standards and practices are different in the state where you bought, it doesn't sound like she was legally a dual agent. Had you signed an exclusive buyer's agency agreement with her before seeing the house? You just contacted the listing agent and she sold you the house, right? If so, then her fiduciary duties were still to the seller.

Dual agency usually comes about when someone has signed an exclusive buyer's agency agreement with an agent (legally making that person THEIR agent) and the buyer becomes interested in a property that the agent or his agency has a listing on. Not all states permit dual agency. And the ones that do usually require that both parties (seller and buyer) sign off on disclosures.

But the confusion around this issue is what causes a lot of people to either get burned, or at least feel like they were short changed.