For many years there has been an interesting challenge going on between potential home buyers and real estate agents listing a home for sale on behalf of a homeowner. Potential buyers will approach the listing agent and want that agent to also represent them to make an offer to purchase the home.
The potential buyer may be thinking that they will be more likely to succeed with their purchase offer because the listing agent knows what the seller wants or they may even believe giving the listing agent a financial incentive to help pick their offer over competing offers can only help. If an agent is representing both the seller and the buyer for a home sale, the agent is said to be “double-ending” the sale.
There are actually a number of risks buyers are taking by wanting to have the listing agent represent them and thus double-end the sale. Real estate agents are very aware that if something goes wrong, double-ending immediately casts suspicion on their actions because it is very difficult to represent two opposing parties, giving each full diligence. For instance, if an undisclosed property condition pops up during escrow how can one agent negotiate with herself to represent both the seller and the buyer?
The risks involved with double-ending, lead most experienced listing agents to have buyers who approach them to instead have the potential buyer use a separate agent represent them. Even this strategy has some risks for the listing agent. If a buyer has been working with their own buyer agent and then goes to the listing agent’s team member, the buyer’s previous agent may have doubts about the listing agent.
A listing agent, who has the trust of buyer agents, is very beneficial to a home seller. The home will be shown to more buyers and with more enthusiasm. Juliana Lee has begun an interesting strategy to deal with double-ending. If a buyer agent on her team makes a successful purchase offer on a home Juliana (JLee Realty) has for sale, she will not charge the seller a listing side commission. JLee Realty will only receive the buyer side commission.
This zero-percent listing side real estate commission removes any financial incentive from JLee Realty to accept an offer from a JLee Realty buyer agent over an offer from any other real estate agent. Juliana believes having no hesitation by 10,000+ Silicon Valley real estate agents, is important to get the best results for her sellers.