What Is a Subagent in Real Estate?
A subagent is an agent of an agent. In real estate, that usually means an agent from a different brokerage who helps a buyer find a home… while legally working for the seller. If that sounds backwards, you’re not alone. It confused so many buyers that the whole industry moved away from it.
Subagent: A subagent in real estate is an agent from another brokerage who helps sell a property but legally works for the seller, as an agent of the listing broker. In subagency, the subagent owes their duties to the seller, not to the buyer they’re showing homes to, so the buyer is a customer, not a client.
How Subagency Works
The chain goes like this. The seller hires a listing agent. The listing broker invites other brokerages to help sell the home. An agent from another brokerage who accepts that role becomes a subagent of the seller.
The buyer they’re working with? Not their client. The buyer is a customer. The subagent has to be honest with the buyer, but their loyalty runs to the seller.
An Example With Numbers
Picture this… A buyer finds a home listed at $415,000. They call an agent from another brokerage, who’s working as the seller’s subagent, and tell her: “We’d go up to $425,000, but let’s start at $400,000.”
Sounds harmless. But that subagent owes fiduciary duties to the seller. The North Carolina Real Estate Commission puts it bluntly: a seller’s subagent has to pass a buyer’s confidential information, like how high they’ll go, to the seller. That $25,000 of wiggle room just became the seller’s negotiating advantage.
A buyer’s agent would’ve kept it quiet.
Subagent vs. Buyer’s Agent vs. Dual Agent
Role | Who they represent | What the buyer gets |
|---|---|---|
Subagent | The seller, through the listing broker | Honest dealing, but no loyalty or confidentiality |
Buyer’s agent | The buyer | Full representation under a written agreement |
Both buyer and seller, with both sides’ consent | Limited duties to both sides |
Why Subagency Faded
For decades, subagency was the default. Listing brokers offered it through the MLS, and the agent driving buyers around was usually working for the seller.
Buyers didn’t know that. A 1983 Federal Trade Commission staff report found that nearly three quarters of buyers and sellers in co-brokered deals believed the cooperating broker was, in some sense, representing the buyer. That gap is a big reason buyer agency took over.
Sellers had their own reason to dislike it: vicarious liability. Under traditional subagency, a seller could be held liable for what a subagent said or did. Most sellers don’t want that risk for an agent they never met.
Today, NAR’s MLS policy lets a cooperating broker be the seller’s subagent, the buyer’s agent, or another recognized role, as long as the relationship is fully disclosed. Subagency still exists. It’s just rare.
What the 2024 NAR Settlement Changed
Since August 17, 2024, offers of compensation aren’t allowed on MLS platforms, and agents working with buyers need a written agreement before touring a home. NAR’s settlement FAQ adds a twist: an agent working only as the seller’s agent or subagent isn’t “working with the buyer,” so that written buyer agreement isn’t required. That makes it more important than ever to ask who your agent works for.
How Idaho Handles It
Here’s how it looks in Idaho, where Bellhaven is based. Idaho’s brokerage law never uses the word “subagent.” Instead, Idaho Code § 54-2084(1) says a buyer or seller isn’t represented by a brokerage unless they agree to it in a separate written document, and no agency “may be assumed… or created orally or by implication.”
So in Idaho, an agent helping a buyer without a written agreement is a “nonagent” and the buyer is a “customer” (Idaho Code § 54-2083). And § 54-2093 abolished vicarious liability: a client isn’t liable for their broker’s misrepresentation unless the client knew or reasonably should have known about it.
Questions to Ask Before You Share Anything
DO THIS NOW: Before you tell an agent your budget, ask them two things:
“Who do you represent in this deal, me or the seller?”
“Do we have a signed agreement that says so?”
If the answer is “the seller,” keep your top number to yourself.
Subagent FAQs
Who does a subagent represent?
The seller. A subagent works for the listing broker’s client, even when they’re the one showing homes to the buyer.
Is a subagent the same as a buyer’s agent?
No. A buyer’s agent represents the buyer under a written agreement. A subagent represents the seller and treats the buyer as a customer.
What is the difference between subagency and dual agency?
A subagent represents only the seller. A dual agent represents both the buyer and the seller in the same deal, with limited duties to each and the consent of both, usually in writing.
Is subagency still used today?
Rarely. MLS rules still allow it, but most cooperating agents work as buyer’s agents instead.
Can a seller be liable for what a subagent says?
Under traditional subagency rules, yes, which is one reason sellers avoid it. Some states, including Idaho, have limited that liability by statute.
Want an agent who works for you, in writing? Buy with Bellhaven. We’ll tell you exactly who represents who before you share a single number.
