Agents Refusing to Make an Offer on Real Estate

First of all, you need to know, that it is against the law for any agent or broker to refuse presenting an offer. We are required by law to present all offers, and any agent who does not will get into serious trouble. This is the case in Washington State, Nevada, and I am certain that this is the case in all 50 states. You can check on this by contacting your state's real estate licensing board for more information.

Now, for the reason I am blogging on this topic:

I came across a blog belonging to an agent who regularly advises against signing an Exclusive Buyer Agency agreement, and who used the following scare-tactic in an attempt to scare buyers away from utilizing exclusive buyer agency agreements:

"'buyers agent refuses to make offer' was a search hit I got recently. This is yet another reason not to sign exclusive buyer's agent agreements."

My thought:

It is against the law for any agent or broker to refuse presenting an offer, regardless if it's a buyers agent, listing agent, dual agent, etc.

Therefore...

The person cited above is not correct in what he is saying. An Exclusive Buyer Agency agreement should not be signed until after an interview process, and after there has been a "meeting of the minds," where both buyer and agent agree to ground rules for a mutually beneficial working relationship.

I should also point out that this agent takes listings, therefore, does not know what he is talking about regarding the important role of exclusive buyer agents; including the agreements necessary to engage their services. It seems that this agent is accustomed to "double-dipping," meaning, he finds the buyers for his listings and gets paid for both sides of the transaction. It appears that this agent does not wish to let this practice go.

It would be interesting to know if this agent would be willing to sign a non-exclusive listing agreement with sellers, especially, since most listing agents do not traditionally like to sign them.

I suppose this answers my question:

"Mind you, the listing agents will resist this, but until you sign their contract (which has to be exclusive, by the nature of things, at least for a given property), you are the one who holds the power to control the transaction by walking out."

In closing...

Buyers deserve to receive the same level of service as sellers do. An Exclusive Buyer Agency Agreement for the buyer, is the equivalent to what an Exclusive Listing Agreement is for the seller. Fair is fair, and not a double standard.


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Suzette West, RECS, EBA
Exclusive Buyer Agent Seattle