patrick.net

When the seller's agent also acts as the buyer's agent in the same transaction, it's called dual agency and it's truly unbelievable that this legal. I've worked with listing agents before on short sales. In one case, the agent looked me in the eye and said, "I have no problem writing your offer letter, however, I am already doing this for other buyers already." How wonderful.

There is a good discussion about this topic on REDFIN:

http:/s.redfin.com/t5/Bay-Area/lose-bid-because-of-dual-agent/m-p/344226/highlight/true#M58933

Due to lack of laws and regulations, agents are welcoming this dual commission opportunity. So who are the losers in this type of a dual agency short sale transaction:

1.) The bank who owns the loan - The bank is a loser because the listing agent now has incentive to not take the highest offer and instead present the highest offer as coming from their own buying client. It is illegal to not present all offers to the bank, but the incentive for fraud is there and there are absolutely no paper trails of offers since the listing agent controls it.

2.) Other agents - Since dual agency is legal, any buyer who is smart will call the listing agent the day a short sale comes on the market. How can other agents even compete in this short sale situation?

3.) Buyers who are represented by their own agent. Forget it! It took me 6 months to learn that this doesn't work at all, EVEN when you have the highest offer!

In any case, what/who out there is responsible for keeping dual agency legal?