Today the Tables Were Turned ~ Rebate or not to rebate?

A few days ago I wrote a post on what I expected of rebate agents representing buyers during the transaction, Rebate Agents Please Take Note.  It was not my intentioned, yet it did turn into a rant of sorts. Bottom line, I wanted them to do their portion of the transaction, plain and simple. They do their side actually representing the buyer, meaning more than just writing the contract. In that post, I also identified what they could expect of me as the seller's agent.

Well today the tables were turned with a phone call this a.m. I received a voice mail from a woman saying she found me on the Internet and saw that I was a Realtor with a lot of experience.  She asked if I would be interested in representing them. Initially I wasn't sure if it was a buyer, seller (or both) type of call.

Upon returning the call she told me they had just moved from Missouri to California and were looking to buy a home. In fact they had already found one they wanted to buy. She said they were well qualified, high FICO's and were pre-approved, so the financing was in place.  They were looking for representation from an experienced Realtor (she did not use the term agent) who would represent them and rebate a percentage of the commission. She said there was little to do, they had already negotiated the price.

As the dialogue continued she explained they had previously seen the property with the listing agent and in fact the listing agent was willing to rebate 2% of the commission (to them as buyers) if they used him for the purchase, but would not make any concession if they brought in their own agent. Their issue, they didn't trust that this agent would also be working for them. They wanted their own representative, but wanted two-thirds of the commission rebated.

My answer was NO, I was not interested for multiple reasons. Fortunately I didn't need to go through the list, the first one was enough. I questioned the fact they had already contacted the listing agent to view the property with the him, discussed price and terms, that sort of thing. I explained that there couldbe a potential cause of action for procuring cause from the listing agent and I wanted no part of it. They were astonished, they thought because they had not signed anything with him, that was o.k. The husband then took the phone (from his wife)and I explained generalities of procuring cause. The fact that it was not just one thing/event.  For example the mere introduction to the property would not be sufficient for p/c. I explained it was normally a chain of events and this may or may not be the case here, but I would not represent them as buyers in this situation. 

The buyer's husband asked then how they were supposed to see the property if it was not through the listing agent?  I explained that if they were not working with a specific Realtors right then, yet wanted to see the property and didcall the listing agent it would be advisable to explain they were interested, yet would be using their own Realtor in the event they wrote an offer  I suggested they ask if the listing agent would be willing to meet them on that basis.  I said they may or may not. They may suggest you call your own agent or they may be willing to go ahead and show home.  Now I know most of us who are sitting on listings would meet a buyer at the property under the circumstances, especially if the showing agent was unavailable. After all, isn't it in the best interest of your seller?  Yet we would all appreciate knowing in advance the intentions of the buyers to use their own agent and this could also avoid the issue of procuring cause.

I explained that since this was not the case, I would not represent them. I didn't even need to get into the other reasons, the issue of ethics and the other Realtor was another.  Also the fact that I'm not a rebate agent. These buyers indicated I only need to write the offer, you and I know that's not the case. I am a full-service Realtor and nothing less. And besides, I only heard one side of this story, who knows what they did or didn't say to the other Realtor. I was thinking of Missy Caulk's post on the same subject, What would Simon Cowell do?  I wasn't about to take advantage of another Realtor in this situation. End of story.