The Sterile Smile
My eyes are watering, and my sinuses feel like they’ve been packed with damp museum insulation after sneezing seven times in a row. It’s a rhythmic, violent sort of internal rebellion that usually happens when I’m forced to stare too long at something that doesn’t quite sit right. Right now, it’s the fine print on a disclosure form. I’m leaning over the mahogany kitchen table-a piece I spent 48 hours restoring three summers ago-and looking at my real estate agent, who is currently wearing a smile that feels as sterile as a gallery wall.
We’re talking about the offer on the table. It’s $748,000. It’s a good number, technically. But the buyer is also his client. I asked him, point blank, if he thought we could push for another $8,000 to cover the closing costs, or if the buyer had more room to move. He tilted his head, that practiced, non-committal tilt that suggests both deep empathy and a total lack of actionable information.
‘Well,’ he said, his voice dropping into that soothing register people use when they’re about to tell you nothing at all, ‘you could certainly try a counteroffer, but there’s a risk the buyer might walk. They feel they’re at their limit. It’s really about what level of risk you’re comfortable with.’ I realized in that moment that I wasn’t talking to an advocate. I was talking to a referee who was also somehow trying to play for both teams. He wasn’t giving me advice; he was giving me a weather report. And in the world of high-stakes negotiations, a weather report is useless when you need a strategist.
The Vault with Two Keys
Dual agency is often sold as this streamlined, friction-free way to navigate a transaction. It’s pitched as the ultimate efficiency-one person, one point of contact, one commission pool, one path to the finish line. But in reality, it’s an impossible tightrope walk where the agent is legally and ethically required to be a ‘neutral’ party. Think about that for a second. When you hire a professional-whether it’s a lawyer, a doctor, or an agent-you aren’t paying for neutrality. You are paying for a bias.
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The silence of a neutral room is never truly empty; it is filled with the things neither side is allowed to hear.
You want the person who knows the secrets of the other side to use those secrets to your advantage. But in a dual agency scenario, the agent is suddenly a vault with two keys, and they aren’t allowed to turn either one.
Adversarial Interests vs. Dual Agency Myth
Highest Price, Fewest Contingencies
Lowest Price, All Repairs Addressed
Dual agency forces the agent into the middle, turning consultation into mere courier service.
Provenance and Partitioned Brains
I’ve spent the better part of 18 years as a museum education coordinator. My job is essentially about translation-taking complex, often contradictory historical narratives and making them legible to the public. In the museum world, we have strict codes about provenance and acquisition. You cannot represent the seller of an artifact while also advising the museum on the purchase price. It’s a conflict of interest so glaring that it would end a career in a weekend. Yet, in real estate, we’ve normalized this idea that a single individual can somehow partition their brain to serve two masters with opposing goals.
The Insider Track Illusion
I remember a specific instance back in my early 30s-I was much more naive then-where I bought a small condo. The agent told me, ‘I can make this really easy for you because I know exactly what the seller will take.’ It sounded like a shortcut. It felt like I was getting an inside track. What I didn’t realize until much later was that if the agent knew what the seller would take, he was already betraying the seller’s confidentiality to get a quick deal. And if he was doing that to them, what was he doing to me? He probably told them exactly how much I was willing to overpay. In the end, the only person who truly benefited from the ‘efficiency’ was the agent, who collected both sides of the commission without having to negotiate against another professional.
This isn’t to say that all agents who practice dual agency are nefarious. Most of them are well-meaning people trying to navigate a system that rewards the ‘double-end.’ But the system itself is rigged against the client’s best interest. It’s like trying to have one lawyer represent both the spouse and the petitioner in a divorce. Sure, it might be cheaper and faster, but someone is going to walk away from that table feeling like they were left in the dark.
Neutral Advice
Focused Perspective
Uncompromised View
Shark vs. Courier
In my current situation, looking at that $748,000 offer, the irritation in my sinuses began to mirror the irritation in my gut. I didn’t want a courier. I wanted a shark. Or at least a very loyal golden retriever. I wanted someone who would tell me, ‘Felix, they’re bluffing. They’ve looked at 28 houses and this is the only one with the original crown molding they crave. Hold firm.’ But my agent couldn’t say that, even if he knew it was true, because that would be a violation of his duty to the buyer.
This is why the philosophy of dedicated representation is so vital. It’s about more than just paperwork; it’s about the sanctity of the fiduciary relationship. When you work with a firm like Deck Realty Group REAL Brokerage, the underlying assumption is that your interests are the only interests on that side of the ledger. There is a clarity that comes with knowing your advocate isn’t also whispering in the ear of your opponent. It’s the difference between a curated exhibit and a flea market stall; one has a clear, directed purpose, while the other is just trying to move inventory.
In Dual Agency, that time is cut, but the Client Risk Triples due to lost checks and balances.
If my agent misses a crucial clause in the inspection report that favors the buyer, is he going to point it out to me with the same vigor if he’s the one who wrote it for the buyer? It creates a psychological blind spot. We are naturally inclined to defend our own work. If he drafted the offer, he’s less likely to find the flaws in it upon review.
The Subtle Betrayal
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Loyalty is not a divisible resource; when you split it, you don’t get two halves, you get a fragment that serves no one.
The real danger of dual agency isn’t always the overt betrayal. It’s the subtle omissions. It’s the advice that isn’t given. It’s the ‘I can’t comment on that’ when you need a professional opinion the most. It leaves the most vulnerable person in the room-usually the one with the least amount of market data-at a massive disadvantage. In most cases, that’s the homeowner who doesn’t sell properties every day, whereas the agent does this 48 times a year.
Friction Creates Value
The look on his face was one of pure, unadulterated stress. He wasn’t annoyed at the price; he was annoyed at the friction.
I ended up turning down that $748,000 offer. Or rather, I countered. I told the agent I wanted $758,000 and I wanted the appraisal contingency tightened. He had to go back to the people he’d been sweet-talking and tell them the ‘easy’ deal was getting complicated. But friction is where value is created. Friction is how you know the gears are actually meshing.
We need to stop treating real estate transactions like simple retail exchanges. They are complex legal and financial transfers of generational wealth. They deserve the same level of ethical rigor we apply to law or medicine. If we wouldn’t accept a ‘neutral’ surgeon who is also the hospital’s budget cutter, why do we accept a ‘neutral’ agent?
The Currency of Trust
As I sit here, finally done sneezing (seven is a lucky number in some cultures, though it feels like a curse in my nostrils), I realize that trust is the only real currency we have. Once you realize your advocate has a foot in both camps, that trust evaporates. You start second-guessing every piece of advice. You start wondering if the delay in the inspection report was a tactic or a mistake. You become a cynic in your own living room.
The Necessary Exchange
Dedicated Focus
Undivided fiduciary duty.
False Efficiency
Compromise that costs generational wealth.
Peace of Mind
Knowing someone fought for every dollar.
Real estate should be about more than just closing a file. It should be about the peace of mind that comes from knowing someone has your back, entirely and without reservation. Anything less isn’t efficiency-it’s a compromise that most of us simply cannot afford to make. If the industry wants to reclaim its standing, it needs to start by acknowledging that you cannot serve two masters and do justice to either. It’s time to move past the era of the ‘double-ended’ deal and back into the era of the true advocate. Because at the end of the day, when the papers are signed and the keys are handed over, you want to know that your representative fought for every single dollar, not just for a smoother path to their own payday.