I would not avoid his listings (why punish or limit yourself because he's the listing agent?)... but if you should fall in love with one of his listings, and decide to pursue it, I would ask him, (or his managing broker) to designate another agent in his office to represent you in the purchase.

While dual agency is legal in many states, and transactional agency is available in many others, I do believe that it's a conflict-of-interest, and a lawsuit waiting-to-happen. The only person who's well served when practicing dual-agency, is the agent who gets a double-bang off the commission.

The clients (both of them) can no longer count on the "expertise" of the agent they hired. Her negotiation ability, her advice of what the home is worth, what inspection issues should be pressed, credit, or when we should walk away from the deal... all of those are compromised when she is getting both sides of the deal.

Yes, as John mentions, sometimes it goes smoothly. Everything will be fine... until it isn't. And if/when it goes bad, it goes bad very quickly and very big. Make sure your agent understands that if you should decide on any of his properties, you're going to want him to "designate" another agent.

As long as the agent is practicing Dual Agency, explains it well to you and to the seller and you and the seller agree that it is ok, then there should be no problem with it. I have closed 4 dual agency transactions in the past 3 months and have had no problems. These deals tend to go smoother anyway as there is not a "competing" broker to worry about doing their end of the transaction up to speed.

The point is that the buyer wants to buy and the seller wants to sell and a good agent in the middle facilitates the transaction. If all parties are in agreement, then move forward. Also, There is a chance that the agent can represent only one party in the transaction - the buyer or the seller - and that is again, up to the clients involved - look at that as a viable option as well.

You should have no problem as long as the agent acts ethically and represents both parties according to the law of dual agency.

As a real estate agent, in OHIO, I do think it is a conflict of interest for an agent to try to represent both the buyer and the seller in an offer. That is called an dual agency in real estate terms and an agent can not legally practice dual agent without your permission. In reality, in dual agency neither the seller nor the buyer are represented as the agent has to remain neutral in the transaction. Don't be afraid to look at the agent's listings, but I suggest you choose another agent to represent you in a purchase.

If you are questioning the conflict of interest you can ask that agent to have their manager or another agent out of the office present the offer to keep things unbiased. There is a Realtor code of ethics where the agent should be fair in representing all parties involved. You shouldn't steer clear of his listings because that would limit your possible homes. I think regardless of the representation the key is to work to achieve the same common goal of you buying & a seller selling. I work as a team and when we have a buyer interested in one of our listings I work exclusively with one side while she works with the other.