A Phoenix area buyer recently had problems with his real estate agent. Obviously, the report didn’t mention names, so this anonymous story could come up with anyone, and it’s a story worth retelling.

Briefly, the buyers found their dream home and instructed their real estate agent to prepare a full price offer to increase their chances of purchasing the home. The real estate agent said he would, but only if they signed an agreement that if they ever sold the house again, he would get the listing. The buyers said “No way!”. However, after due consideration, they decided they wanted the house so badly that they agreed and signed the agreement. After the shutdown, they filed an ethics complaint with the local board. Good for them.

The real estate agent lost. The board found that it was putting its own financial gain ahead of its fiduciary responsibility to its customers. The “prelist” was canceled and the real estate agent presumably received some kind of punishment. This can range from a warning letter to additional education requirements and sometimes license revocation; in this unlikely case.

The buyers in this case did the right thing, and the real estate agent was despicable, and is the type of person I would like to see out of the industry. To that end, I would have gone a step further, if I were the buyer.

I would have contacted a strong and experienced agent and asked him to write the offer, after fully explaining the situation. The deal would be done then, as he had done before. Then, in all likelihood, the scorned realtor would likely take the second realtor before the board demanding a commission as “acquisition cause” in the transaction.

If I were that second real estate agent, then I would argue forcefully that the drifter had abdicated his fiduciary responsibility to the buyers, who no longer justifiably felt he was acting in their best interest. I think he would win that argument. The buyer would still have his house, but the dishonest realtor would not receive a commission. After a while, people like that go back to their “real work.” Have a good trip.