"Does it seem that the buyers may be interested or is she covering her bases (we have put a fsbo sign up - dh thinks the re agent is afraid her buyers will go behind her back maybe)?"

That's a good possibility if she does not have a signed buyer agency agreement.
If the paper is specifically mentioning this buyer and only applies to this buyer and no other, I would say the agent is cya.
For me, signing it would not be a problem under this scenarion.

If you are concerned, take all docs to a RE lawyer and sign nothing. If she insist everything be returned to her, photocopy all, and then return, noting, that nothing is legally signed and you are not accepting the sale at this time without further investigation.

I agree with mariend.

I think she's just using those 'buyers' to get you to sign on with her (and maybe even has "exclusive" hidden in the fine print). I wouldn't do it unless I was sure I otherwise wanted her to be my listing agent. Personally, I'd just choose someone else. I doubt if those buyers were for real anyway.

I doubt if those buyers were for real anyway.

Yeah, Im sure thats it. All realtors hire people to act as buyers to try to get listings.

I suspect it's what your husband said. With nothing on paper, if these buyers come back and haggle, there's no contract between you and her agency.

If it were me, I'd just tell her that if they do decide on submitting a contract, to give a jingle and until then tell her not to waste her time or yours. She may be playing games with "them". Maybe they felt pressured. I have never had a party submit a contract and ask for it back immediately. That's strange. Who knows?

Linda, I never said she was paying them - they could have been friends, or some misled real hunters who never had any intention of wanting your place.

Lucy, do you really believe that a realtor is going to waste their time bringing friends to a home pretending to be buyers in an attempt to get a listing? Listings are a dime a dozen right now. And as far as the "misled real hunters", again, what is the purpose of bringing a buyer to a house that the agent doesnt think they will buy? Realtors are in the business to make money, not waste their time on games.

Same thing happened to me several months ago...we had taken house off market. This realtor calls and says I know your house is off the market, but I think I have a buyer for you. She comes by, I let her walk through house. She said her clients would absolutely love it...sign this agreement. I said no, you bring me a signed agreement and then I will sign so you get commission. Never saw her again.

We went thru something like this when we were trying to sell in CA. After the listing, RE kept telling us she had a real good propect. She came over and after we refused to sign up again, (long story), found out it was a relative and had not real interest in buying our house.
Just be careful and sign nothing and yes there are a few realtors that will play these kind of games. I can think of 2 right off the bat.

At first, I also thought it might be a ploy to get listings (at least when the agent sent out the letters to our neighborhood), but the buyers seemed to be on the up and up ~ who knows?

In any event, thank you for the responses.

I had this happen to me. A realtor contacted me after finding out I was fixing to put my house for sale. She brought her buyers by. They bought it. I didn't have to sign anything with her until she brought the offer though. I just used an attorney to look over the paper work before signing and then only paid her the buyers agent commission.