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Dual Agency Gone Wrong

Dual Agency in Real Estate

For those of you that don’t know, dual agency is when an agent “represents” both the seller and the buyer in the same transaction. This practice is illegal in some states, but perfectly fine in others. Virginia is one of those states that allow it, but personally, I don’t do it. That isn’t to say that I haven’t in the past, and from my experience, it causes way too much stress and someone usually feels cheated.

If there is a buyer that wants to buy one of our listings, we refer that person to a team member or another agent to have their own representation. It’s just cleaner with way less risk.

However, there are agents that still use dual agency and in this particular story, an agent represented the seller and buyer in a $4.5 million dollar transaction……now that is a huge commission! But the agent’s mistake? He had another offer that was better by $500,000 and he didn’t tell the seller. Real estate and ethics 101. Present all offers in a timely manner to the sellers.

How did he get caught? The buyer that didn’t get the deal but wrote the better offer ran into the seller in this tight little community in Florida and had a conversation and it all came out in the wash. Now…..there is a lawsuit.

Read: ‘Double-end’ real estate sale in Sarasota nets big commission but provokes lawsuit, questions

Watch this episode of the “Shawn and Matt Show” to learn more about it, along with foreclosures possibly hitting the market and 7 ridiculous requests realtors have received (sometimes we are psychiatrists).