Quick Tip Thursday! My Buyer Cheated On Me With Another Agent!
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Welcome to the B-Word, the podcast for women who want to unlock the clarity needed to put your big girl panties on and rock your real estate career like the true boss you are. I'm Joanne Bolt, your host, and together we'll dive into the things your broker doesn't teach you in order to own your own truth, disown the things getting in your way to finding your place, and stop apologizing for the obstacles you have to overcome along the way.

All right, guys. Hey, we're back for another Quick Tip Thursday. I picked this question this week because, quite frankly, I see it show up all the time in Facebook groups that I'm a member of. And while I do refrain from posting my answer in Facebook because I don't want the thousands of agents to respond to it in the group that are uneducated, it absolutely drives me insane when I see it because...

I realized just the true lack of understanding and education in our industry. So buckle up, Buttercups, because here we go. You're not going to like the answer to this one. But Kelly in Statesboro, Georgia, wrote in last week and said, Joanne, I just don't know what to do. I've had a buyer's brokerage with my clients for over six months. I've showed them everything under the sun, and I just recently found out

that they went and put a contract on a home without me. I've reached out to the listing agent asking for at least at a bare minimum a referral from the commission and the listing agent has not responded. I went to my broker and my broker told me there was nothing she could do. I don't understand why I can't get paid on this deal. I'm owed my money. All right, Kelly, here's the hard fact that you need to understand.

The other agent does not owe you a dime. I'm going to just pause for a second and let that sink in. You never had a contract with the listing agent who wrote the contract for your client. You never had a referral agreement with that agent. For all you know, that agent didn't even know you existed. Now, I understand that you're going to tell me next, oh, I know for a fact that my buyer told the listing agent they had a

an agent that they were working with. However, here's the sad truth of life. Buyers are liars. And they may tell you when you ask them, did you tell the listing agent that you had a

representation? Oh sure, of course I did. But girlfriend, if you weren't there, you didn't hear them verbally tell that other agent that you existed, or you were not copied in on an email or any other form where you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that that listing agent knew about you, you cannot know for a fact that your clients actually told them they had representation. Here's the other sad fact of the matter.

The only recourse if the listing agent did know that they had an agent is this. You can take them potentially up to the ethics board. There may be a violation of ethics here if it can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the other agent induced or enticed your clients to let you go in order to get a better deal on the home they were buying. But that's it.

There's no commission tied to it. It's simply an ethics violation, and it's really up to you to prove that the ethics violation actually did in fact occur. So if you don't have that email stating between your buyer and the other agent that they had representation, it's going to be very hard for you to prove that inducement actually did occur.

Or if your buyers don't have it in writing and are willing to show you that the other agent told them, hey, don't use your agent and we'll take a percent off the commission and you can have that towards closing cost or whatever.

then you really have no ethical violation that you can showcase, show, proof, and therefore get the listing agent in any way, shape, or form. And oh, by the way, even if you do prove an ethics violation occurred, that listing agent would pay a fine and it is not to you. So unfortunately, you're still out on this.

Here's where you have to understand and be truly educated on what that buyer brokerage agreement states. And I know that every state has a different agreement. So I'm speaking from the perspective of the Georgia contracts because that is the one that I am the most well-versed in. But I will also say I am not an attorney myself.

a lawyer, I have never gone to law school or taken a law exam. So please understand that this is not attorney advice. This is another real estate agent telling you how they interpret those contracts and what they have been told by other attorneys when they've questioned the same thing. Your buyer brokerage agreement is where you have a meeting of the minds between you and your client. Did you fill it out correctly? Did you fill in all the blanks?

You know the one that I see the most often here in Georgia? I see agents on the commission section. There's a little separation between, hey, here's what I'm expected to get paid and here is what will happen if the seller doesn't pay that.

And a lot of times our agents here will put zero in that little bucket. And it is because they, quite frankly, are afraid to tell a buyer that, you know what, if I'm not getting paid by the seller, then you have to pay me. And so they'll put a zero there. Honey, if you put a zero there, guess what? You have no recourse. You agreed to work for free. If you did fill it in properly,

And there is a commission amount in there. And you have filled in the rest of the buyer brokerage agreement properly, i.e., did you put a start and an end date? Did that buyer actually go look at the house that they are under contract in after the end date or before the end date of the contract?

Did you fill out all the sections of the contract appropriately or did you skip them and leave them blank because you didn't truly understand what they meant? Or because some broker somewhere did not fully explain how this contract works to you? If you did in fact fill out the contract appropriately and...

the buyer is in breach of the contract, that is when you can go to your broker because at that point the broker can choose to sue the buyer for the compensation. That is the only way you are going to get paid. Fact. That is the only way you're going to get paid. Because in this instance, you had a contract for compensation between you and your client.

Your client chose to go outside the contract and put an offer on a property with a different agent. Again, that other agent does not owe you compensation because there was no purchase and sale agreement with both of your names on it. The person who owes you compensation is the person you had a signed contract with, which was your buyer.

Now, here's a couple of things to consider very, very carefully, ladies, because I know that I just blew your mind and all of you are sitting back. Some of you may have even parked the car and just taken a moment. Deep breaths, girls.

Because we all automatically assume that our buyers are always the one who pay us. And that isn't true, especially when our buyers don't fully understand a buyer's agreement, go and write a purchase and sell offer at an open house with another agent, or they go to new construction and they don't tell their new construction on-site person that they have an agent, or whatever may happen, they end up under contract but not with us.

In that case, yeah, it's up to the buyer to pay us and not the listing agent. A couple of things for you to really take into consideration. Did you understand those contracts?

If you're in a brokerage where there is little to no education, or maybe a team leader or a broker sits you down at some point, or a mentor, productivity coach, whoever it is, and they simply fly through that contract and they don't really make you understand what all the blanks mean that you need to fill out and what that contract truly represents between you and the client, then you need to ask more questions.

You need to never go into a situation where, oh, I always just fill out 6% because that's what I've been told. No. Find out why you were told that. Find out why six months is the norm at your brokerage to put in for dates of buyer brokerage agreements. Ask questions so you truly understand. The only way that you are going to be successful in this business is

is to actually really understand in depth those contracts that you're filling out and not just the purchase and sale ones, but the ones that are meant to protect you and your time and energies. And that's the buyer brokerage as well as the listing agreement. By the way, girls, if you're hearing this, this also applies to the listing agreement. Just because you fill one out doesn't mean that that seller has to list with you if there was not a meeting of the minds and everything was filled out correctly.

The second thing you really need to consider when you're especially newer in the business is what brokerage are you with? Will your broker actually stand up for you in the event that that contract was filled out correctly and you can prove to your broker that the client actually did breach the contract? I know that this seems really basic and in your head you're thinking, well, of course my broker would stand up for me.

But if you are interviewing brokers, I would ask the question, please tell me a time when one of your agents needed your help to get commission from something and you were able to help and support them. Every broker is going to tell you that they'll educate you. They'll show you what to do and they'll stand behind you. Have them give you an example.

It doesn't happen often in our brokerages that we do have to sue our clients for commission. Thank God that is not really the case. However, you do want to know that, hey, if I have signed a buyer's brokerage appropriately and my buyer is in breach and I want to pursue compensation because you know what? Maybe you don't.

But if you do want to pursue compensation, the only person who can actually go after it is the broker. You as the agent cannot. So argue with a broker who's willing to stand up and say, hey, this is worth it. Let's go to arbitration. We will stand by you. You're owe your commission. If you can't honestly answer yes to that, then it's time to have another conversation with your broker.

Or if you can't honestly answer that you know those contracts back and forth and you understand the meaning behind them, then it's time to have another conversation with your teacher, your mentor, or heck, go sit down in your closed attorney's office for 30 minutes and ask them to explain it to you. Because the only way you're going to be successful in this business, again, I can just reiterate it over and over and over again, is to truly understand the contracts.

And if you've been in this business for a hot second, please always make sure that you're paying attention to the updates to the contract. Just because it said one thing three years ago, doesn't mean it still says the same thing today. Those contracts get changed all the time, mainly because of lawsuits and other things that occur. And so you need to know your rights as an agent and how they affect you and your client relationships at all times. So I hope that this was helpful information.

I know that most of you are sitting out there going, I cannot believe she just said that I'm not actually owed anything from the other agent. Just dropped a bomb on you. Take a second and absorb it in your brain and absorb the why behind it. And if you have a question, go ahead and text it to me. 678-736-8055. And who knows? Maybe it'll show up on the show.

Hey everybody, it's Joanne here and guess what? We are getting ready to launch our private community for our listening audience. It is a place where you can grab all the snarky comments, all the fun of the membership and meet your new business besties. So if you want in on the launch and the membership and you want to get it before

else does text the word launch l-a-u-n-c-h to my number 678-736-8055 and we will get you on the waiting list

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