When I asked about the status of a deal my agent was trying to line up for me, he (to his credit) told me he and his partners just put it under contract and that he would keep looking for a deal for me.

I’m new to rental investing, but not new to buying houses/dealing with agents... and this seems off to me. Understanding that there is always competition, I believe the Agent should have notified me that he and his partners were interested in this deal from the outset.

Thoughts?

I'd get a different agent.  I always tell my clients, I would never buy in front of them.  Now if they don't like it, can't buy it, won't buy it, I might buy it, but I always give them the chance first.   Buying in front of a client that has either alerted you to the property or one you sent them as a potential buy, is a great way to kill that relationship.   I also ask them to tell me pretty quickly if I see a nice deal while we are there looking.  I tell them straight up if they don't want it, I probably have another investor that does.  If they want it, I don't shop it around to other investors, but if you don't and it's a deal, I want some other client to get it.

I guess it kind of depends on where you were in the process, if you have financing together.  Not sure what lining up a deal means exactly.  Had you seen the house?  Had you made an offer?   Do you have your financing in place?   How many other homes have you seen with the agent?  Have you bought other homes with the agent?  

@James G. How far along were you in the process? Had you made an offer on that property?

If you hadn’t made an offer yet, and were just looking into the property, you may decide not to fire the agent, but just tell him/her that you want better communication in the future.

However, if you had made an offer on the property already, then I’m sorry your agent did that to you. I would fire him/her and get a new one. An agent that doesn’t respect their fiduciary duty to serve you isn’t worth your business anyway.

That’s the issue with agents that also invest sometimes. Some might “compete” with their clients in this hot market.

@James G. I would say it depends on the timeline of everything. Did you tour this property with your agent and then he wrapped it up for himself? Then yes, fire him and that could potentially be a violation of his license.

If you didn’t have any relationship with him before and just reached out to him with an interest in this property, he wouldn’t have technically owed you the duty of loyalty but still should have said something.

@Bruce Lynn

@Dalyn Hazell

@Inessa Stysis

I was not far into the process. I have seen a number of properties with this agent so far. Prior to Christmas he told me about this property and that he thinks that he’s convinced the owner to sell. At that point he told me that if I couldn’t buy it that he’d have someone else lined up anyway. He went to the property and took some photos and sent them to me, indicating that after Xmas I could go and see it. This week, I asked him about it and he told me he was meeting them the next day and to give him the time to confirm if they would be selling. I waited, then asked how it went. He then called me to tell me that he and his partners bought it.

I certainly see a failure in communication. He should have given me the full picture.

@Bruce Lynn thanks

@Dalyn Hazell thanks. Communication for sure.

That's odd, are they typically a wholesaler? Seems like odd behavior and a quick way to build bad blood with clients. 

Originally posted by @James G. :

@Bruce Lynn

@Dalyn Hazell

@Inessa Stysis

I was not far into the process. I have seen a number of properties with this agent so far. Prior to Christmas he told me about this property and that he thinks that he’s convinced the owner to sell. At that point he told me that if I couldn’t buy it that he’d have someone else lined up anyway. He went to the property and took some photos and sent them to me, indicating that after Xmas I could go and see it. This week, I asked him about it and he told me he was meeting them the next day and to give him the time to confirm if they would be selling. I waited, then asked how it went. He then called me to tell me that he and his partners bought it.

I certainly see a failure in communication. He should have given me the full picture.

 What you’re describing is a little bit of gray area. The agent is obviously Hustling deals for himself/partners as well. In this particular instance it appeared that he would probably have made more money by  grabbing the deal himself than the commission he would make off of you. 
Have you ever closed a deal with that agent? If you have never closed a deal with that agent he basically seen the opportunity that was good enough to bag for himself and did not leave it hanging out there for time to kill. If the agent was the one that mentioned the deal to start with it was not like you brought him the deal and then he swiped it from you. In the event you ever brought a property to an agent’s attention for you to buy and then they went and made an offer on it for themselves then I would think that would be pure rotten on their behalf. Now if you brought a property to an agents attention and they showed you the property and you did not make an offer on it and then they made an offer on it that’s a little different story. I have known people that  didn’t want to pull the trigger on a house,  but didn’t want anybody else to have it either. 

Hey  sounds like a communication error or he probably flip the deal.