Ways to Unintentionally Part Ways from Your Favorite Agent
- Adam Garrett
- Nov 5, 2024
- 5 min read
Here are some ways to unintentionally part ways from your favorite agent, in some cases, with no option to turn back the time when you don't get the opportunity to make another choice.
See a home without your favorite agent arranging it.
There are a number of things (just 3 examples below) that can happen where your favorite agent will no longer be available if you see a home without them and without consulting with them to ensure that you'll be able to see a home without them and still use them for offers.
The moral of the story below is to have a written buyer brokerage agreement signed with your agent of choice and to reach out to them regarding showings and questions about properties. If you don't, it could cost you. If your agent isn't available, see if your agent can arrange for you to have another agent to fill in for them. In a case like mine, it's typically a very experienced agent (over 150-700 prior closings) who I can get to fill in for me.
A. Seeing a new construction home without them
In some cases, builders have policies where if you see a home solo, with no agent, such as on your agent's day off, it will disqualify that agent from receiving a commission on that property. If you want to still use them, you may need to pay up, and it's typically not cheap. 2%-3% of the purchase price is common, and in some cases you may need to pay more, depending on your agent's policies, the price point of the home, etc. One agent I met charges 4% to her buyers, so the buyers almost always pay something, but typically only 1%.
B. Seeing a home with someone with a written buyer brokerage agreement that isn't your agent (even if you don't know until you show up for the showing(s)
If you see a home with a buyer's agent, such as a buyer's agent who is available when your favorite agent is not, and they show up to the property only to spring an exclusive buyer brokerage agreement that they haven't previously mentioned before they'll let you through the door (which some agents will do), you might be losing out on that favorite buyer's agent under pressure sales.
C. Seeing a home with someone with an unwritten exclusive buyer brokerage agreement that isn't your agent
Even if someone doesn't spring an exclusive buyer brokerage agreement in writing on you once you show up to an appointment as a pressure sales tactic, I've also had a buyer tell me firsthand how the agent requested a "gentleman's agreement" over a handshake for that buyer to be exclusive to that agent, without telling them about such an agreement until the buyer showed up to a sequence of showings.
Intentionally or unintentionally reach out to a business (lead source) the agent or their firm is associated to & inadvertently tack on a referral fee to your agent (or a 2nd).
Let's say that there's an agent that you love, that you would absolutely use if you ever purchased, but it's been a bit since you've reached out to them. If you reach out to something like Zillow about a property, if your favorite agent, or even if your favorite agent's large firm of 100+ agents, has a referral partnership with Zillow (even if your favorite agent isn't part of that partnership) and you didn't communicate back and forth in the past 30 days, your agent may be on the hook for a referral fee if you use them, with a median-priced home in our area costing them a hefty 40% referral fee in a case like mine. It's not uncommon for an agent to be unwilling to work with you if tagged with a 40% obligatory referral fee that came out of nowhere, no matter how much you've worked with them before you accidentally triggered that fee.
It gets worse. If you contacted them through another referral source with referral fees involved rather than finding them and calling them directly without ever giving your information to a referral source with referral fees (there are many, and the referral fee element is often hidden in terms you haven't read), that means that they may need to pay 2 referral fees in order to be your agent. Many agents would rather not even work with you at that point. Even if they are willing, the terms of at least one of the agreements may explicitly forbid 2 referral fees being paid, so to abide by the terms of each, the agent may be forced to not work with you. Sometimes, as in Zillow's case as of 11/5/24, there's a 2-year expiration after you trigger a referral fee, while in other cases, there is no expiration.
Example:
A buyer I had been working with for over a year, who I had previously established a buyer brokerage agreement with, made the wrong click on Zillow. In this case, the buyer was saved because a prior agreement I had made had expired, but that 1 click still cost me over $4k. Some agents would have walked after something like that, though I stayed until the end when he closed.
Getting fired by your agent & agents refusing to work with you
While some are aware of Termination of Listing or Buyer Brokerage Agreement With Agent & Their Buyers/Sellers In SE Virginia, not as many are aware that termination can go both ways. If an agent thinks that you are unreasonably demanding or volatile, they can seek to terminate their relationship with you, and that can often happen via mutual agreement. Likewise, if they think that working with you would be too risky, they can decide not to work with you.
Shifting parameters outside the agent's coverage area or expertise
If your parameters for a purchase or sale shift to outside the agent's coverage area or expertise, they may be unable to adequately support a transaction with you. For instance,
if you shift across state lines, most agents only are licensed in 1 state.
If you shift to an area where they are not part of the multiple listing service local to that area, or too distant from them, they may also no longer be in a good position to help you.
If you shift to a lower price, they may not work in that price range in that area, or maybe not at all.
If you shift from residential to commercial, they may not work commercial.
If you shift from residential to land, they may not do that either.
Some agents don't represent sellers, and other agents don't represent buyers.
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