I wrote a story last week about some things you should ask your listing agent before you hire them. Here’s the link to the story, in case you missed it: www.thinkglink.com/Nine_Thing_You_Should_Ask_Your_Agent.htm

The story has generated a fair amount of email from brokers, some of which I’ll include in future stories. Strangely enough, I haven’t heard from any sellers.

To get you going, here’s one of the replies I received from a broker in Westerville, Ohio (I have made a few copyedits for clarification purposes):

A very important question you forgot to ask: When you tell me you will represent me as a buyer or seller is there anything that could happen in the future which would cause you to no longer represent me?

NOTE: Every representation agreement I have seen (with the exception of EBA’s) contains a renege clause when an in-house (read: double dip) transaction is about to take place. At the same time the Brokerage Firm is doubling its income, both the buyer and seller loose their fiduciary representation and are now working with a Dual Agent Brokerage who can not represent either party.

Feb. 1, 2007.