Ah. I understood that backwards. I thought you were house hunting and he found an unrepresented property. In that case, it wouldn’t be strange at all.

In this case, he’s already negotiated with the seller (you) for his compensation. He should not be bothering the buyer for anything else.

If he isn’t newish (only a few transaction) or working for a shady broker, this would be unexpected behavior.

It’s worth calling his broker to complain, if he put the deal in jeopardy. If the broker doesn’t make it right, or is dismissive, I would escalate it to the real estate commission.

State real estate commissions don’t fuck around. It is nothing like a police union. One bad apple spoils the bunch, and bad realtors get hit with $10,000 in fines for stuff that’s just standard procedure in other business sectors.

If something was done to hurt your deal, the real estate commission would want to know that. It would also STRONGLY dissuade this realtor from ever fucking with anyone else again. Second offense is usually a lifetime ban, or some huge fine.

Coming from someone with a brokers license: fuck this dude.

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Otoh, kinda shows why an agent would've been smart for the buyer, if they were tricked so easily into signing something they shouldn't. I wonder where else they were screwed over? (not saying you had any intentions there, but there're just so many details that go into home buying.)

Actually, as a dual agent you still do a good amount of extra work most of the time. You have to do all the work on the buyers side that a buyer's agent would normally do. It also brings on a lot of liability. That being said, I'd still give my seller a very nice discount but I wouldn't expect to do all of the buyers side work for free. I have done this many times.

I just finished the real estate class in Oregon. It’s legal here. And they teach how to do it legally.

It is, it’s not super common as it’s seen as honorable to refer one client out to another realtor (unless both parties are established clients and all parties agree).

You are a prime candidate to never hire a Realtor.

You’re paying for experience doing the thing, not the “work” itself.

I’ve had clients that didn’t need me at all, but wanted another set of eyes, even after me explaining exactly why they didn’t need us.

I’ve had other clients who I’ve saved 100k+ worth of mistakes because me and my guys have experience they simply don’t have.

Folks Don’t generally keep track of zoning ordinance changes, basic code conformity, etc. People are also very frequently looking for property that will not, in fact, meet their needs, and don’t realize it until they speak with someone who does know.

10% of folks need no help at all with how simple their needs are. Another 50% could just use a real estate attorney, and have the vast majority of their needs met. In my experience, it’s that remaining 40% that truly benefit from using a realtor.

That said, the act of simply “hiring a realtor” is meaningless unless you are are reasonably convinced the agent has experience in what you are needing. You can hire the best agent in the city, but if you’re buying farmland, this realtor may have minidress about the laws surrounding “usufruct” of the crops currently growing on the land.

A homeowner may be buying out “in the country” to fulfill their dreams of owning chickens, only to find that they’ve purchased a home in a restricted area that doesn’t allow livestock of any sort, regardless of size, while less than a mile a way, it would have been no issue.

A buyer may have no idea that just across the street from their target property, the property tax drops by 2/3 because it’s no longer a historic district.

These are all just quick and dirty examples of where expertise is beneficial. It’s often what you never saw coming that hurts the most.

I assure you, Zillow does nothing a good realtor does, except allow you to see a house and throw some inaccurate numbers at you.

Zillow is fine for a great many people. I personally find Zillow’s numbers to be inaccurate, it’s service to be near non-existent, and to contain a lot of misleading estimates on payments, taxes, etc.

You are correct though. Not everyone needs an agent. Those who do, are wise to seek outside opinions.