Real Estate the Ramsey Way - Am I Making a Huge Mistake Not Hiring My Own Real Estate Agent?

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

When deciding whether to use the listing agent or bring in your own, it can raise questions about representation and trust. We walk through what to consider so you can make the best decision for your situation. Next steps: ·   🏠Not sure what to do next when buying or selling your home? Check out our ⁠⁠Real Estate Home Base⁠⁠ for free tools and resources to guide your next steps. ·   🏠And if you’re ready to buy or sell your home, ⁠⁠connect with a RamseyTrusted® real estate agent⁠⁠. They’re experts who’ll help you confidently navigate homeownership the way we teach. Explore more from Ramsey Network: 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💰 George Kamel 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

I am looking to buy a lake house, and I have found a house that pretty much checks all my boxes. I've called the listing agent and got some information from her, and I think I'm at the point now where I either need to enlist the help of my own real estate agent or get involved in a dual agent agreement with her. And my question is, what are some advantages and disadvantages of being in a dual agent type of scenario, and would a dual-agent scenario benefit me in any particular way? Well, typically what happens, and it's technically negotiable, but the typical transaction is, say, 6% commission,

the person bringing the buyer gets half of that, and the person that has the listing gets half of that, as the real estate agents go. If the agent that has it listed does the contract with you, the buyer, she or he gets both sides of that, so they get the entire commission, obviously. I assume you knew that. And so the only advantage might be that since he or she's getting paid a lot more, that they're going to work really, really hard to get this deal done.

Okay. You know, they got twice the incentive to get this closed, right? Well, she's already working very, very hard because there's a lot to unpack with the owners. And I just figured that if we entered into a dual arranging agreement, it would remove one link from the chain of communication. It could turn into a pretty complicated sale. Why? Well, the owners are in their mid-80s. They live well out of state.

I think they live in Maryland. She said their cognitive skills are on the decline. They have a reverse mortgage on this property. They are supposedly upside down. I don't know how you could be upside down in their rebroad. mortgage. It's impossible. It seems to be, their financial situation seems to be headed for a short sale or maybe even a foreclosure, she said. Oh, well, okay. It's, I guess it's possible because the property could have declined. Is it in disrepair? It's, it's,

it's not pristine, but it's, uh, it'll take some work to update it and fix a few things. So you have any reason why it would have gone down in value 35%? Because reverse mortgages are supposed to cap out at 65% loan to value. Yeah, I don't really know anything about reverse mortgages. I think they're terrible. Yeah, I mean, 65% maximum, though, so it means there should be 35% equity unless the property went down in value. By 35% they wouldn't be upside down.

That's what I'm confused. I don't know. Okay, so it doesn't matter. She's still got to untangle that barrel of fish hooks anyway. And dual agency simply means that she has a responsibility to both you as the buyer and a responsibility to the seller, which morally and ethically she does anyway. Okay? You're not, you know, if you're a member of the board of realtors,

you're supposed to represent all parties in the transaction with ethics. In other words, you don't set out to screw the other side in any case in the real estate business. It's against ethics. You get you thrown out of the board of realtors for one thing, gets you sued for another thing. And so you just can't, you know, just because one party or the other, is paying, getting paid, does not remove you from ethics and your fiduciary responsibility. So if she's got the mental capacity to work through all of their complication, meanwhile getting

you on contract and you and her ganging up on this thing, there's no downside to the dual agency. It just adds another cook in the kitchen if you bring your agent in at this stage. Well, she's already working very hard to get all this information out of the cellar. So, I mean, she would probably be interested in keeping more of the commission to be quite honest. Yeah, well, I'm sure she won't. Yeah. So there's no issue with that.

And honestly, she should have done that for. She put a stupid thing on the market. So it's kind of incompetent. But, I mean, how are we going to sell this house that I have for sale? That's a question you would ask before you put a sign in the yard. Yeah, well, like I said, they're in their 80s and they're old and grumpy. And I just, it could turn into a mess for her. Yeah, not sure you're going to get this house.

It sounds like, yeah. I'm not sure we're going to get these, you know, this ski rope's got a lot of knots in it. Maybe a while you may be standing on the boat untangling this puppy. I don't know. It's possible, but, you know, I don't see an upside or downside either way for you. That's dramatic. So you're working with her. You think she's got it on the run.

I would just go with her, honestly. I mean, there's, but if you're out there just wandering around, you're starting to look for a house, and you want to get a buyer's agent. That's very standard in today's world. There's nothing wrong with that either. A lot of our Ramsey trusted real estate agents have a buyer's agent on their team. And that's a good thing. All they do is represent buyers.

It's all they do. And that's a very clean transaction. You're not questioning who's getting what. This guy is my guy. That's your guy. But they still both have to operate from ethics. They still have to tell the freaking truth. you know and so that there's a lot of discussion around the eight dual agency thing in just the

last few years with some antitrust lawsuits and things that came through but um overall you know if you're dealing with good people they're supposed to do the right thing anyway and that is legally and uh you know from the association of realtors all of that is is all guiding all of that We're in a military family. We have one income, no debt, and we're just feeling a little bit behind on the steps six because of our frequent moves. And so we have a new this summer. And I was just curious if you would recommend. I know you guys don't normally running out our current health since retirement is on the horizon. Rensing out your what? Sorry, say that again? Our current home we live in right now before we move this summer. So you're talking about being a long-distance landlord? correct yeah yeah we're not fans of that it's it's just if you run the numbers on it I bet you'll find that the amount of profit after all of the expenses that are required to take care of this home

if you take what I'm going to get in rent okay minus the mortgage minus expenses I'll bet you're going to find it's very little profit if any at all and it's a whole lot of hassle right our Our thought was that we might potentially move back to this house, and we have a really great interest rate. So I didn't know if any of those factors mattered if you guys always recommend it just sell them. How long would it take you to get back? Somewhere between two and four years. So it's a short-term deployment, and there's a, how much of a, how much control do you have over being transferred back in, or is this the idea that we're going to get out of the military and then settle back? he's at 20 years right now so retirement is very much on that.

Okay, I do think that changes the question a little bit if they're talking about short term coming back. Yeah, I know, but the only thing, which this is going to be. Still a headache and all the things I said are still true. Yeah, and this is going to be picky, but I'm going to be honest, Stephanie, too. You've got to remember, if you have someone living in your house, maybe two or three different people on 12-month rentals and you move back in, it feels different. There is a reality of people living in your home, that's your home, that you're going to do it. Do you know what I mean? So not that that that's a reason not to, but I think we paint this ideal situation.

And then when the rubber meets the road and we're actually walking in it day to day, it's like, oh, it just hurts so much when you go in and the house is all banged up because of renters and you know what I mean? All the things. Yeah. Okay. That actually brings up a good point. Is this house, Stephanie, that you're currently in that you would rent and go somewhere else and then come back? Is that a house you would stay in long term if the move wasn't involved? If you weren't transferring out.

Yeah, five to seven years. It's not like a forever house, but we do like it. We just like we're feeling very behind on baby steps six because we just haven't had a mortgage to work to pay off and we're 43. That's fine. But how much is the house worth if we were to sell it today and how much would you make on it? So we would make somewhere around 100, 110. It's worth about 450. Well, the fact that you guys would not stay in it longer than five to seven years and it's

I would probably honestly, Stephanie, I would too. If you had said this is our dream home, that was where I was going, I would have changed my mind. I'm with Rachel. I'd sell. Pocket the $100,000, let it work for you. Yes, put the $100,000. Gosh, for $4 is, you may even just throw in an index fund, Stephanie, honestly.

and then when you guys are ready to buy again after and settle down, yeah, you'll have a good amount in there too. I mean, you know. And I also sense that he's probably going to go into a private sector job. If that's the case, we want to know what that is, how much money he's going to make because that's all going to play into what we buy when we come back. I love selling this house. Peace of mind, extra cash.

I like it all. You guys are not behind it all. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to Real Estate, the Ramsey. way. Now, if you're here, you're probably thinking about buying or selling a house. It's exciting, and one of the biggest financial decisions you'll ever make. But you don't want to do it with an inexperienced agent who will rush you into costly mistakes, like the ones some of our callers find themselves in. You need a pro who knows what the flip they're doing and will keep you on track with your financial goals. That's why we only recommend Ramsey trusted real estate agents.

These are vetted, hand-picked pros who actually listen to your needs, guide you through the process, and fight to get you the best deal. To find a Ramsey trusted agent near you, go to Ramsey Solutions.com slash trusted agent. That's ramsysolutions.com slash trusted agent.