I do San Diego hard money loans and Los Angeles hard money loans. Many of the clients I do business with are realtors who refer me business so I LOVE realtors. In this Southern California real estate market, there is hardly any housing inventory. From what I hear, many parts of the rest of the country are having the same problem.
My wife and I are looking to buy a rental property. I was told by one of my realtors who did 5 fix and flips last year to NOT use a realtor. Since I need my real estate license(and my NMLS license) to do California real estate loans, I can get the buying commission if I represented myself.
If you have a real estate license and you represent yourself, according to my realtor, may very well cause you to lose the house you are trying to buy. She told me to let the agent double end the commission, or represent you and the seller (called dual agency) and then there is more of an incentive to get the sale for the seller’s agent.
Many agents may get mad at me for typing this but the reason they might get mad is because they know it’s true in many cases. If a realtor is considering which offer to “recommend,” they might put more of a sales pitch in your direction if they know they can get double the commission. When I tell a selling agent that I don’t have representation, I get a noticeably perkier voice on the other end of the line.
Which agent hasn’t lost out to an agent representing a buyer where the selling agent represented both the buyer and the seller? In all of the several San Diego hard money loans I did for her, each time she let the seller’s agent double their commission.
Yes, this sucks. It may give you as a buyer’s agent an ulcer(or AGITA as my Italian Grandma use to say) thinking about all of the shenanagins going on in this crazy California real estate market. The listing agents are in control. During the really down years, the listing agents were begging for offers. The tables have now turned and some of the listing agents are “subtly” steering the sellers in a certain direction. That direction just happens to be pointed at them.
They have a fiduciary duty to present all offers equally. Does this happen? I am sorry to say not every selling agent does this adheres to this duty to the seller. Yes, this does suck but that’s the way it is.