Agent Will

There are some people out there who may be confused about commissions and a lot of this has to do with the incorrect, yet popular, term “double ending”.  Let me state right off the bat that there is no such thing as double ending. For that to occur you would need to have two ends to the commission.  A Selling side and a Buying side. Taking a look at any Multiple Listing Contract we see only one commission being paid:  The Selling side.

The contract calls for the Seller on a legally enforceable contract being entered in to to pay the Listing Brokerage a gross commission.  It then further states that the Listing Brokerage will offer co-operating brokerages a portion of the Listing Brokerage’s commission to assist in obtaining a buyer.

See that?  Only one person has a contract with the seller:  The Listing Brokerage.  The Listing Brokerage offers to share the commission with another co-operating broker who brings a buyer.  There is only one end.  The Selling end.

Now there is a lot you can do to make sure that your Listing Brokerage (and the agent who you are directly represented by there) does a really good job getting the other co-operating agents fired up about your listing and one of them is to make sure the co-operating commission is as juicy as possible.  Especially in this slower market.

But all the same, the Seller contracts with the Listing Brokerage (through their agent) to sell the home.  Getting it sold at the best possible terms and for the most money is job 1.  Easy, simple, clean.

There was a question posted at Real Estate Talks where one poster questioned how it seemed that homes which had stayed on the market 100-200 days (much longer than average currently) appeared to them to get sold either through a dual agency or no agency relationship with the buyer.  That is, no Buyers Agent.

I had four possible scenarios, none of them truly nefarious, to explain this seemingly more frequent occurrence.

1) Seller was not motivated and overpriced listing. Then became motivated when listing had become stale. From my experience the majority of action (calls from other realtors) happen in the first 3-5 days… then it will drop a bit over the next two weeks… then just random calls. Public inquiries will come randomly from MLS visits and sign calls. Seller gets motivated to sell and the agent recalls all those agents/public viewers as well as new unrepresented parties and one turns into a purchaser.

2) Property was tenanted (difficult to show), run down, not appealing. Seller gets motivated and repairs the place to the most common comments made at viewings. 100 days is not so long. Think about it. A tenant can take 60 days to vacate and the property may have been on the market for all of that time plus some. Once the tenant is out the property shows poorly as it needs work so then the work is done and all the comments from those who viewed but did not buy get addressed. New MLS/sign call and the place looks terrific. Sold!

3) Seller foolishly chose a bad agent who promised the moon at a cut-rate price. Thought they’d save money on commissions and get a higher price than any other respected agent recommended. Then gets more desperate to sell, lets their agent know, and they bring in a buyer who purchases the place below what it could have sold for months ago (seen that happen a couple of times).

4) Place is an absolute dive/dump/hell hole with tons of problems and to get it sold requires very good salesmanship. Other agents show it but have no ability to close the deal. Finally after several private viewings (no buyers agent) the Listing agent gets a deal closed. Seen this happen several times and the agents were truly artists at their craft when repping a seller.

Yes, there is also a fifth kind of scenario but I would like to believe that the agents who list places using MLS promising full co-operation actually do co-operate and are abiding by the rules.  Agents who do not are easily busted and we have a very good Real Estate Board who will take the non-cooperative agents to task.  Every month we members get a newsletter of who did what naughty things and what their penalty was.  It is a very rare occurrence to see an agent not acting co-operatively.

The vast majority of Agents out there (at least, the ones I have worked with) are some of the most dedicated people I know with the ultimate goal of helping their clients achieve their goals.  If someone “double ends” I congratulate them on getting the home sold.  Commission is not an issue.  Just getting the deal together.  That is the goal.