2 agents, 1 broker agency, 1listing agreement

[Need.To.Know]

Jurisdiction

Montana

Me and a real estate agent (a neighbour in walking distance) were working out the kinks for a listing agreement of my home and land in Montana in a hot demand area with no inventory. Our price should render a quick sale. With prior negotiations and a week gone by, I thought we were ready to make the deal when my well experienced professional agent said he'd be bringing his working buddy over to see the place before we sign. Huh? What buddy? The broker/owner approves of this pairing for they usually deal in multi-million dollar land deals. I could understand this, however I'm a 20 acre peanut with property to sell in a very favourable market. A well seasoned agent should have no problem going solo. What problems would this set up be for me however. Why did he wait to spring this on me? They both work for the same broker and the agent said it mattered not if his partner was on the listing agreement or not. He would be a co-agent recieving an even split of the agent's 5% commission and whatever they decide out of that to any buyer agent.
I do see double agents now and then being advertised on a listing but this is so unnecessary and, well just plain ole sneaky, by not telling me about this sooner. Why keep it a secret unless you're up to no good. Is there something I should be aware of? Should I request an exclusive right to sell with just the one agent?

PS Tell the Grandkids to quit school and go sell homes. Listing price of $1.2 mill. and 5% commission for @20 hrs. work in 2 week period = $3,000 an hour. Why wouldn't you want to be the only agent on the receiving end?

Are the flags up all over and I walk away or is this common and no problems with it?

Thanks for your opinions.

 

[adjusterjack]

This is the kind of sneaky shit that makes me hate realtors.

On the one hand having two people marketing your property may be an advantage as they may have a different set of contacts to work with.

On the other hand your neighbor may have the coworker do all the work while the neighbor goes hunting for more listings.

Real estate is a listing game. The more listings an agent has the better the odds of making sales and having a client trapped in a 6 months listing gives the agent plenty of time to rely on the MLS to bring in the buyers.

You think your property will sell in two weeks? If you think so offer your agent a 30 day listing agreement instead of 6 months. See how well that goes over.

Above all, make damned sure you read every word of the listing contract and if there is something you want the agent to do, like an open house every weekend or something else, put in the contract. Don't rely on what they "tell" you they are going to do.

Bottom line, I have developed a serious distrust of realtors over a lifetime of buying and selling houses. I put them in the same category of car dealers.

Be careful.

PS: No way would I pay 5% on a million dollar property. Matter of fact I sold a house FSBO a few years ago for $375,000 and paid the buyer's agent 1%.

 

[welkin]

I would hope by now that you know about the landmark antitrust lawsuit settlement with the National Association of Realtors, that was settled in March this year. You can pretty much write your own commissions agreements.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/15/economy/nar-realtor-commissions-settlement/index.html

Sellers can now offer a flat fee to agents.

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/22/1239486107/realtor-fee-commission-homes-for-sale

 

[adjusterjack]

I know. It's way past time for this to have happened.

I was talking about it to my sister in NY last night. She's in contract to buy a co-op. Expects to close before July.