Procuring Cause

I have buyer's who I have known for about two years.  A few years ago, we were all ready to write an offer on a house, but some extenuating circumstances arose, and they decided to hold off a bit.

Fast forward a year or so, and they called to see a house.  They were super excited!  They wanted to see the house with their contractor.  Could I show it to them?  They had already seen the house during a private showing with another Realtor.  They had gotten so excited about the house after seeing it on Zillow, that they pressed the "button" to have a Realtor contact them to see the property. Uh oh!  That's a problem.

There is a little know Real Estate law called Procuring Cause.  If a buyer sees a house with one Realtor, (open houses are excluded from this law), but wants another Realtor to write the offer, the first Realtor who showed the buyer's the house has what's called "procuring cause".  In a nutshell, it means the first Realtor would get a commission if the sale goes together.  The second Realtor, who wrote the offer, scheduled the inspection, handled all the documents, did all the negotiating, etc. would get...well, NOTHING. It doesn't matter if the buyer "likes" the second Realtor better, or if they have a relationship, or if the second Realtor is their mother.  Procuring Cause prevails.

So, if you see a house you would like to see, even if you don't think you'll want to pursue it, call the Real Estate Agent you want to work with.  It will save lots of headaches down the road.

Happy house hunting!