Selling to Land Developer or Going through 'Middle Man'?

[Laura Kathryn]

I live in a rural residential neighborhood that has recently been zoned medium density (townhomes). We are already surrounded on three sides by urban zoned homes.

My neighbors and I have been approached by two individuals, one is a neighbor who is a real estate agent, and the other one a friend of a neighbor, who works with a real estate attorney; both individuals asked us to join them in working with the 5-6 developers they have approached. They want to share our names and numbers with these developers. They say we will be better off working through them, with the developers they have approached.

Are we better assembling ourselves and working with a developer(s), rather than going through this middle man? Does this middle man make a percentage or profit by bringing us to the developers, if we sign through them, with one of ‘their’ developers?