Re-connecting even after years is worth the effort. I called Marcie last week to be sure I was remembering accurately a serendipity that involved her. And to be sure she remembered as I did "who represented whom."
“We still love the house.” “You should see what we’ve done with it.” “The deep voice when you called wasn’t Bill’s. That’s the kid who was a baby when we bought it.” It’s always neat to connect with people we’ve not talked to in too long.
Marcie and Bill had been looking for a house in Silver Spring MD with a really big garage. After we’d looked for a good while and hadn’t found the right combination of features, I mentioned casually that I had friends with the perfect place - three-car garage with the house backing to parkland, but it wasn’t on the market. The next time we were driving near there, I mentioned the house again, and detoured a couple of blocks to drive by it. The setting was fantastic - parkland behind and on one side, and riding stables and regional park within walking distance. The three-car garage was behind the house, but just thinking about it made Bill covet. He asked me to call them, just in case.
That evening, I called my friends. Good timing – another serendipity. Kathy was in Florida interviewing for a job, and if she got it, I would be marketing their house. They decided to let the young couple see the house, just in case, not knowing whether the job would be offered and not having decided on a price yet. Marcie and Bill saw the house without knowing for sure that it would even be available, depending on whether or not seller got the job. I volunteered to reduce my fee if this couple bought it, to compensate for their not being represented and to make it possible for sellers to give them good closing help.
Kathy got the job and they listed the house. When I did the comparables, we decided on a reasonable price - a little high for the young couple, but they couldn’t have made an acceptable offer anyway with their house not yet sold.
I worked on both houses and a lot of people came, but no offers had been made on either after a couple of weeks. On the very day another buyer made an offer on the three-car-garage house, Marcie and Bill got an offer on theirs so that same day so they could make their competing offer. They offered the maximum they were qualified for and the amount that another agent would have made for selling the house gave them the closing help without which they couldn’t have paid that price. I made detailed written disclosure about my relationship with each party and that fact that the buyers were not represented.
Marcie remembers all that clearly - I had been their agent for a few weeks and had explained this new thing called "BUYER AGENCY" to them. (This was many years ago and I was one of the four agents in Montgomery County offering to represent buyers - before our fee was even in MLS.)
Now I had to remind them that the sellers were long-term friends and I would be listing their house shortly. Having heard many times in those days that Dual Agency is DANGEROUS, I couldn't represent both, and I agreed with the principle - "No one can serve two masters" in real estate either. They were comfortable with not being represented.
I don’t know how else I could have handled it - the buyers didn’t want to work with another agent, the sellers wouldn’t have wanted to pay another agent and the necessary closing costs, and I could not have represented buyers in selling my long-term friends’ home. It’s ironic that as a pioneer buyer’s agent and opponent of dual agency, I could attract a situation like this.
All's Well that End's Well, as Shakespeare said.
Johnson City Tennessee
