If a real estate agent acts as both the seller's and buyer's agent, does he/she get the full commission?

Question

Normally, the commission would be split, so on a 6% commission, it would be 3% and 3%, but if one agent handles both sides of the sale, does he/she get to keep the 6%?

If I'm the seller and since the seller pays for the commission, can I suggest that I just give him/her 3% if I don't go with my own seller's agent, since that's what he/she would get anyway...that way, I would save money on commission. I don't know if I made any sense, but I hope I did.

Answer 1

Yes the agent will get both commissions from the deal representing both parties. The agent is acting as an intermediary.

Prior to the deal being executed both the seller and buyer must sign a document authorizing the agent to act on behalf of both parties. If you feel uncomfy with the agent acting for both (since under this arrangement he/she cannot give any type of advice or info) you can request another agent from the same office be assined to represent the buyer. This is intermediary with appointments. The seller still pays both commissions but you'll be paying the broker for the work of 2 agents instead of one - which would be the same case if they came from different offices.

Answer 2

Do can't do it in this transaction, especially if the selling agent actually BROUGHT you to his/her own listing and that is how you found out about it.

The paperwork and contracts is a small part of the process, the agent has to be the "precuring cause" of the transaction...in other words, you can't use the seller's agent for everything and just show up contract day with your Realtor...they can legally refuse to pay your buyer's agent a commission b/c they were not the precuring cause of the sale...they didn't do anything but show up.

This happens ALOT in new construction sales with an on-site sales agent. This is what I did as a brand new agent and we would get people that we had DOCUMENTATION of how they found out about the property (purpose of the registration card)...they would come back 3 and 4 times to ask questions, they would even call to agree to purchase and schedule an appointment...and then at contract time bring in their Realtor....the Realtor was permitted to sign as their agent, but the contract was going to be written as paying ZERO commission....b/c the Realtor didn't bring us that customer...the customer found us themselves and that is 100% legal to do that. Usually Realtors were usually clueless that their clients had been there before.

So the answer to your question...if you want to use another Realtor, that is fine, but don't expect to do that on this transaction after you have already been working as a dual agency with the sellers agent.

Answer 3

If you haven't already signed a Listing Agreement, and an agent comes to you with a Buyer, yes, you can negotiate the commission.

The agent doesn't keep the full commission, they get part and their broker gets part, and that agent probably drove that Buyer to a number of houses before they signed an Offer, more than you might believe. Don't push them too hard, but again, yes, you can negotiate the commission if you haven't signed an agreement already.

Answer 4

Well you can suggest anything you want, but what matters is what the listing agreement says. Some agreements state that if the listing agent also sells the property, then the commission is reduced to some such percent, like 4%. They're not going to be willing to accept only 3% total if they sold it also.

If you haven't signed a listing agreement yet, then I suggest that you decide what terms you want, and then see if the agent agrees to your terms. But it has to be spelled out exactly what happens in the listing agreement.

Answer 5

yes they get both sides. if you already signed a listing agreement for 6 percent, you would be sued and ps. the broker gets the check at closing, so you don't give it to them.