Q: Hi: I’m writing about your January 24, 2021, column in the Bay Area News Group’s The Mercury News: “Sellers make a deal and move out of state, then agent calls asking for help with brokerage fee.”

In the column, the seller’s agent claimed that he was entitled to the brokerage fee paid to the buyer’s agent. For some reason, because the first-time homebuyers responded to his advertisement about his seller’s home and he showed the house twice, he’s owed an additional brokerage fee. In other words, the seller’s agent is already receiving a brokerage fee for his actions to promote a favorable outcome for his sellers. So why would he think he earned a second brokerage fee in the course of his duties and especially when he did not even represent the homebuyers in the eventual sale?

A:  That seller’s agent, a salesperson, was motivated by his bank account, not his sellers’ account. Salespeople who think of themselves first, and the customer, client, or prospect last, cross an ethical line. That seller’s agent wanted to represent his seller clients and those first-time buyers in the same transaction in the form of dual agency.

Lest we forget, real estate attorneys put their kids through college working dual-agency cases. Disgruntled homebuyers filing claims against home sellers is the primary source of residential real estate litigation in California. Due to that fact, judges, juries, arbitrators and mediators do not look kindly upon the home sellers when their seller’s agent also represents the homebuyers. So much so, real estate attorneys remind us that our job is to reduce risk in home sales, not exponentially add to it by acting as dual agents.

This seller’s agent seeking the brokerage fee from the buyer’s agent is pure folly. The homebuyers will claim they wanted their own representation, and rightly so.  The best transactions include excellent seller disclosures and presale inspections, followed by a second set of inspections ordered by the eventual homebuyers. That’s when home sellers safely drive into the sunset.

Questions? Realtor Pat Kapowich is a career-long consumer protection advocate and Certified Real Estate Brokerage Manager. (408) 245-7700 Pat@SiliconValleyBroker.com DRE# 00979413 www.SiliconValleyBroker.com YouTube.com/PatKapowich