What if a buyer and seller talk directly without their Realtors involved as intermediaries? This can happen, sometimes unintentionally, and sometimes before closing a buyer and a seller have an occasion to meet each other and talk. What are the pros and cons of a buyer and seller talking to each other?
Buyer and Seller Talking! OMG!
Most Realtors get paranoid at the very thought of a buyer and seller talking to each other. Realtors want to “control” their clients, because they fear their clients will say something wrong. There are many stories about the seller who says to the buyer, “Since we got rid of the termites, we haven’t had any issues.”
Buyer and Seller and Ethics
There is an ethics issue for Realtors. A Realtor cannot communicate with the other Realtor’s client directly or indirectly. That’s why a seller should communicate through his listing agent, and the buyer should communicate through his buyer’s agent. But the clients themselves are not subject to the Realtor’s Code of Ethics, so if they talked to each other, they would not be in violation.
As a general rule it certainly is not a good idea for a buyer and seller to talk directly with each other during negotiations. But I have had buyers who did talk to a seller to get instructions on how to operate an irrigation system. And frankly, if buyers and sellers have to go through their Realtors just to say, “Hello,” or something else that does not effect the transaction, especially when the buyer and seller get along very well, a Realtor would be hard pressed to stifle the clients when it would just be rude and offensive.
I believe there’s a bigger danger. If a Realtor does not communicate well with their own client, and they are making poor decisions on behalf of their client without telling their own client what is really going on, the Realtor can be the cause of a transaction dying.
Good communications between the buyer and seller are important, and that also means that both Realtors need to be good communicators, too.
Possibly Related Posts:
- The Buyer Timeline
- Should I Submit a Backup Offer on a Pending Transaction?
- Home Ownership in Sequim
- Sequim Locksmith: Change The Locks
- The Home Buying Process
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Agreed. Our realtor is doing a very poor job in communicating our needs and wishes to the sellers. It’s a rather complex deal and we’ll write a letter to the sellers only to have the realtor change the letter on our behalf (because he thinks it’s better his way, even though his grammar and spelling are much worse than ours).
We’ve had several direct meetings with the sellers with both realtors present as we try to hash out our details. In several instances, our realtor (who is new) has misinformed the group about real estate details and had to be corrected by the other realtor. Even in the complex real estate environment of the North East, we still feel this is unacceptable. But as we are on contract we have no choice. It’s frustrating.
What should I do if the seller’s agent is not communicating with my (buyer) agent? We have submitted the sellers agent 3 offers and have called multiple times, but no call backs or emails. Is this allowed. We have given a time limit on my offers.
Answer: That’s not supposed to be happening, at least if the Realtors are professional and courteous. Unfortunately, I have heard way too many stories like this over the past 40 years in real estate. There are both legal and ethical obligations on the part of the listing agent representing the seller, but the remedies are not readily available. In other words, you can lodge complaints verbally or in writing to the right broker, association, or state agencies, but honestly, none of that seems to provide practical remedies for consumers, and none of that seems to stop bad behavior. I gave up years ago calling another Realtor’s managing broker to discuss unprofessional conduct, because none of the broker/managers I called ever gave a darn about the unethical conduct, and would not do anything to stop it or create a better environment for their own agents. Sad but true. I guess the bottom line is more consumers (buyers and sellers) need to do a very thorough job hiring the right Realtor, because the nightmare if you don’t could be big.