Shall I use him as a buyer agent?

[Ying Tang]

First off, really appreciate BP. I got into real estate about a year ago, and now I’m up to 4 rental properties already. Learned a ton from this community.

I have a question though, especially for other investor-agents here.

I’m an agent myself, and recently another agent I’ve worked with before told me he could send me some off-market opportunities, which is why I agreed to let him send me deals.

But in reality, most of the deals he sends are either:
- already active on MLS under his brokerage
- or properties his brokerage is about to list publicly on MLS

From a relationship standpoint, I feel weird buying something he sent me and then not using him as the buyer's agent. At the same time though, I also don't really feel like I'm getting much actual advantage, because I check MLS constantly already and probably would've seen the listings anyway.

And honestly, on a lot of deals, if I give up the buyer-side commission, the numbers stop working for me.

I even asked him twice whether there was any flexibility on giving me some rebate if I used him, since I’m an agent myself. Both times he basically just ignored that part of the conversation and replied to everything else. 

So my real question is: how would you handle this relationship going forward? Is this type of relationship actually valuable long term?

I don’t want to burn bridges or act unethical, but I also don’t want to feel obligated to give up every buyer-side commission on deals that are basically public anyway.

[Bill B.]

I would tell him to only send you the off market deals HE PROMISED/PROMOTED. 

"As an agent (I assume licensed in that market.) I can't pay you any commission on MLS listed deals where I'm going to represent myself. I don't want any confusion when I buy one, so please refrain from sending me any more properties listed on the MLS. I'd still love to see those off market properties you have for sale. And I'd be happy to pay you full commission on those…. Thank you and please keep in touch…"