Exclusive right to rep (A post Burnet et Al world) for Real Estate investors

[Craig Sparling]

First of all, let me pay my respects to the hardworking people in real estate and the treacherous waters they navigate—fronting hours of effort with only the chance of commissions and an abundance of non-forthright people out there. AND it just got harder with Burnett et al. v. The National Association of Realtors.

That said, I will not be signing an Exclusive Right to Represent as an established real estate investor, and I’m honestly a little annoyed to be asked.

I also realize this may qualify for Reddit’s AITAH channel. Here’s the scenario:

I went to see a few places this weekend. My realtor/contractor/friend agreed to show them to me. This friend and I have done 2–3 deals together, and there’s never been a payment dispute or even a hint of cutting him out of something. He’d likely play the role of buyer’s agent, contractor, and rental listing agent—something we successfully did last June. However, he asked me to sign a one-year Exclusive Right to Represent agreement, as presented to him by his brokerage.

His interpretation is that it applies only when he materially assists me, but I think the boilerplate brokerage language he was given reads much more broadly:
"If during the term of this Agreement Buyer enters into a contract for the purchase of Property through the services or efforts of the Broker or Buyer’s Brokerage Firm, or by or through any other persons during the term of this Agreement" (emphasis mine).

My concern is that, under my interpretation, if a fellow real estate investor wants to unload a property or if I get pointed to an opportunity by a former agent, colleague, or friend, this agreement could create an obstacle to moving forward with the deal.

In the end, I didn’t sign. We went to the showings, and we’ll likely still do a deal together.  I'll happily pay the commission and his GC fees, and we'll hopefully do this a few dozen times over the coming years.

My general question is: how are other people handling this awkwardness? The Exclusive Right to Represent makes sense for prospective individual homebuyers, but for real estate investors, it seems unfair and limiting.