A New Jersey seller’s guide to agency and how homes really sell
Who Actually Brings the Buyer?
Recently, a prospective seller asked me two things. He wanted to know how many buyers I had that might be interested in his property. And he wanted my assurance that I would not act as a dual agent.
Both are fair asks. The second was easy, because as a rule, I do not work as a dual agent. But if I am not representing the buyer, then my buyers are not really the point. Which made me realize that most people don’t know how rare it is that a listing agent brings the buyer.
So I pulled the record. Every residential sale that closed in Bernards Township between January 1 and December 31, 2025. Three hundred and five transactions. Want to guess in how many of those deals the agent who listed the home also represented the buyer?
Twenty-three. That is 7.5 percent.
In the other 282, the buyer came from somewhere else. I am in that number too. Only three of the 183 agents who listed a home here last year listed more than ten. I was one of them, with thirteen, and I represented the buyer on none of them.
This changes the question a seller should be asking. It’s not how many buyers does this agent have. Instead, it’s what will this agent do to get every other agent in town through my front door?
I walk through the whole thing in the video below. Why the two questions contradict each other, what the 2025 numbers actually look like, and what the job is on both sides of that front door.
Source: Garden State MLS. All residential sales in Bernards Township, NJ closing between 1/1/2025 and 12/31/2025. 305 transactions. The Blanchard Team works across Somerset, Morris, Hunterdon and Union counties; this analysis covers Bernards Township only.
Frequently Asked Questions sellers ask
Usually not. Of the 305 homes that closed in Bernards Township in 2025, the agent who listed the home also represented the buyer in 23 of them, or 7.5 percent. In more than 92 percent of sales the buyer came through a different agent, and in 83.6 percent that agent worked at a different brokerage entirely.
Yes. New Jersey permits dual agency, but it requires informed written consent from both the buyer and the seller. Neither party can be placed into a dual agency relationship without knowing about it and agreeing to it first.
In dual agency, one agent represents both the buyer and the seller in the same transaction and has to stay neutral. In designated agency, the brokerage is on both sides but two different agents are assigned, one to the buyer and one to the seller, each advocating for their own client. Designated agency preserves real representation on both sides. Dual agency does not.
Because a dual agent has to remain neutral. They cannot advocate on price, cannot argue inspection items on your behalf, and cannot share what they know about the other side’s position. The agent has to go quiet at the point in the transaction where a seller most needs advocacy.
It is a fair question to ask, but it is not a strong reason to hire someone. If that agent produces the buyer, they either go dual agency, hand the buyer to a colleague under designated agency, or the buyer arrives unrepresented. What matters more is the agent’s relationships with the other agents working your market and the quality of their marketing, because the data shows most buyers do not come from the listing agent.
Yes. Consent is required, so you can decline. If you do, ask the agent how their team handles a buyer who contacts them directly, since designated agency is the usual alternative.
