In California and a few other states, buyer's brokers have become a fixture but in many places they're still pretty new. What's slippery is how fast buyer's brokers can ease into being dual agents. Problem Say you've asked your broker to represent you exclusively. Then you get interested in a house owned by a seller that your broker represents. Supposedly, the broker agrees not to reveal that information to either party, but you can't be sure of how well that works in practice.
Some brokers ignore the question of who they represent, but that's getting riskier to do so.
A group of home buyers just won a decision against Edina Realty Inc., in Edina, Minn., charging that they weren't adequately informed that the broker represented the seller. That led them, they said, to pay more than necessary for their homes. Edina Realty will appeal. The objective is to get to the closing rather than help buyers make informed decisions. By contrast, Steve Alexander of the Steve Alexander Group in San Diego will act for either a buyer or a seller although not both at once.