Business Commons^™

This paper investigates price distortions in dual agent real estate transactions. Consistent with the literature, we find that dual agent has a null effect on sale price. However, dual agent distortions on sale price emerge after controlling for the ownership of the property. We find that dual agent is associated with a 7.19 percent price premium on agent owned properties, but a 13.06 percent price discount on government owned properties and a 7.04 percent discount on bank owned properties. In addition, market conditions also play an important role in such price distortions.