Can you use multiple real estate agents at the same time?

A lot of the time, the relationship between a home buyer or seller and their real estate professional runs deep. In the process of getting to know their client and what they are looking for, a real estate agent has an idea of their goals, financial situation, and potentially future ambitions for their property. However, some clients are turning this concept on its head – recruiting more than one agent to sell a house or putting together a co-listing agent agreement for buying a property. Is this a surprising new option, or a breach of conventional etiquette? Let’s take a closer look.

Why Go Multiple?

To add a little context, we should first talk about what it is that would drive someone to want to work with more than one agent for buying or selling. To clear one major thing up, as long as you haven’t signed an exclusive agreement, there’s nothing legally keeping you from doing this. As to why? One common reason from a buyer’s perspective is if they are looking for homes in two different potential areas. Part of the reason people choose a specific agent or agency is because they have expertise in their area. Working with two different agents is simply getting the best service possible.

For sellers, things may be a little murkier. Some sellers are interested in going this route because they think it will give them a better chance of getting more attention to their property. In some ways, they may be using the competitive spirit of the different agents to their benefit. Generally, this is only really effective if you’re living in a very popular area that has many people trying to move in at any cost.

Pros and Cons

The motivations for wanting to use multiple professionals are pretty solid, but how exactly does it work out in practice? Let’s take a look at some of the major pros and cons for the buyer and seller side.

For buyers, as we mentioned before, one major pro is the fact that multiple real estate agents mean that you have local expertise in several areas. If you had two different places on your mind, but only one agent, their advice on the secondary area may not be as strong as their main one.

One drawback here is that agents may not take your request as seriously without an exclusivity agreement. The reason for this, from an agent’s perspective, is that there’s a chance they could do the work of finding a place, then walk away with nothing. This means that finding your dream home may not be at the top of their priority list.

Conclusion

For sellers, the major pro of working with several agents is the freedom of choice. Different agents have different selling styles, and in time, one may gel better with you or those interested in your property than others. This can be better than sticking with one agent who isn’t working well with you. The tradeoff here is that you’re not necessarily speeding up the selling process. Most agents are working off of the same databases, so they will probably be reaching out to the same prospects.
While it’s not the ideal option for every single home buyer or seller, the fact of the matter is that using more than one agent is a viable option in a variety of different scenarios. However, in order to make the most of using multiple agents to sell a house, you need to have the proper resources/tools in place. A key example of this is a proper listing of real estate leads to work off of. This will help you and your team of professionals find potential options, whether you are looking for someone interested in buying a home or open properties in your area.