THE ANSWERS
Risks of Dumping an Agent
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Q: Arlington: Are there any laws that give a real estate agent recourse if we end up working with a different agent to buy a house that the first agent initially took us to see? My fiancée and I have gone out with a real estate agent twice and seen about seven or eight houses total. We are not sure she would do an adequate job representing our interests when we are ready to make a move on a house, based on comments she has made and general attitude. We have not signed any documents, nor made any oral agreements. We were basically just "dating" to see if she would be a good fit for us. We are concerned that she will sue us for not giving her the commission.
A: Lawsuits against a buyer in this situation would be exceedingly rare, said Mike Thiel, a lawyer with the National Association of Realtors. And that's because the commission in this case was never yours to give.
"The obligation to pay a commission is . . . going to require that there have been a written agreement between the client and the agent," Thiel said.
Buyers can sign agreements with agents, under what's called buyer's agency, but as you point out, you never signed anything.
So who has an agreement here? The agent representing the seller does, with every member of the local multiple-listing service, a database that real estate agents use to market their clients' properties. "Customarily in the residential practice, the agent working with the buyer is compensated by the listing broker from the commission being paid to that broker by the seller pursuant to the listing contract between the seller and the listing broker and not directly by the buyer," Thiel said. The local multiple-listings service "allows the brokers to establish the terms upon which they will cooperate with one another."
Thiel suggests that you let the second agent know you have already seen the property with another agent. "This will allow the brokers involved to address the issue of compensation separately," Thiel said. If they can't resolve the issue on their own, and they are members of the local association of Realtors, they could seek arbitration before a panel there.
-- Mary Ellen Slayter
