But I had to get to a rep in the commercial department first.

Given the potential conflict of interest, I'm thinking of switching management services  to someone impartial when the warranty period expires.  

I have been living in Austin for over 3 years now (obviously love it) and I've been in commercial real estate working as a tenant-rep broker focused on retail properties for the past year.

Here's what I've learned so far with my experience....1- Find out if there is a local housing assistant rep that you can build a relationship with.

Some background: I toured a 15 unit property with a pm rep and the company worked up a budget for the property based on something similar they manage.

With the market being the way it is, there are usually a handful of reps from the various hard money lenders standing there with a big folder of checks ready to buy almost anything in sight.

It's tactics like this that causes landlords to get a bad rep.

The internet lender loses nothing by saying "yes" when the correct answer is "no," the local lender is putting their rep on the line for you if they say "yes." 

If the Sellers Agent ends up working with both the Buyer and Seller then they are now performing as a Dual Agent and will need to disclose to both parties and would need to be impartial throughout the negotiation.

I watched a video of the Zillow rep discussing this change, and it sort of seemed like he wasn't quite on the reality train.