If we were to be so fortunate as to find a place that fills our needs, a place that we love...........fire the agent and lower your price by the fee..
The buyers should then spring for this as a bear does for fish and honey....no more looking...
IMO, agents have no idea was is meant by "working a tail off".

"If we were to be so fortunate as to find a place that fills our needs, a place that we love...........fire the agent and lower your price by the fee.. "

Most listing agreements say you would still owe the agent their fee.

not only is it unethical to do, it is written in the agreement. essentially the agent bringing a buyer,then work to do a transaction around them.

to the OP, allowed is realative, The agent should know the boundries and realistically has every incentive to killing 2 birds with one stone. the real question in my mind would always be who is she negotiating for? technically it is you, but you definately have to be more careful in duel representations.

So other than showing your home, and stressing its assets and attributes, how is your agent supposed to "sell" it? A buyer is either going to like your home or not. Maybe they need to see a few more homes to realize that yours is "the one". All that she is allowed to do to "sell" it is to be truthful about your home. The rest is up to how well you are presenting the house.

Earthworm,
We agents do not sell homes... we market them to ready, willing and able buyers. To this day, I have been unable to sell someone's house. The buyers do that. We can guide them in their research as to the facts of the home and area.
Earthworm, when is the last time you worked 60 hours in a week, not knowing if you were getting paid?
Ever since you crawled onto this forum, almost every post is full of deragatory comments concerning the Real Estate Profession. Since you seem to have so many insights into how our profession could be made better, and you seem to believe that there are better ways, why not post a new thread concerning htis topic. You can then post your generalizations and steroetypes all in a nice, organized thread.

What would you have her do?
represent that they can't get financing for any house but yours?
badmouth other properties?
bluff the buyer into buying your house?

Not only are we not allowed to push ("sell") or coerce or bluff anyone into buying anything, it wouldn't work if we tried-

the buyer will just go find another agent.

The listing agreement does protect the broker from a seller terminating the listing & selling to someone to whom the agent has shown the house or to someone with whom the agent has discussed the house.

If I terminate any listing, I spell it out again, listing the buyers' names so that the seller cannot possibly misunderstand;
if the seller sells the house to anyone on that list, the seller pays my fee.

thanks to those that provided helpful comments. yes words like marketing the home, stressing assets and attributes, guiding buyers' research was what I really meant. I don't think that our REA is doing any of that...

[of course I don't expect her to hold a gun to their heads]

The #1 thing your agent should be doing is making sure your house is priced appropriately. If it has been on the market for 8 months, they should be pulling new comps to see what is actually selling.

The #2 thing your agent should be doing is making sure your home shows well in person, but especially online. The vast majority of buyers are doing their whittling down process online now. You have to get over that first hurdle to get them in the door. If not, they just click on to the next house.

As for marketing the home - I'm not sure what you are hoping for there. A sign, fliers? Word of mouth?

As for "stressing assets and attributes and guiding buyers research" - the vast majority of potential buyers have their own agent. Your agent will have minimal to no chance to do any of those things in an effective way. I'm sure if your agent has potential buyers who want a house like yours, she will send them the listing. That is really all she can do though.

"As for "stressing assets and attributes and guiding buyers research" - the vast majority of potential buyers have their own agent. Your agent will have minimal to no chance to do any of those things in an effective way. I'm sure if your agent has potential buyers who want a house like yours, she will send them the listing. That is really all she can do though."

If your home has some unique, or hidden features, do this... Have your agent display "Informational Placards" throughout the home. I set mine off by placing them in acrylic holders. They are used to bring the Buyer's attention to the things that matter to you, and them, most. No more hoping that the Buyer's agent will notice all of a homes neat, useable features.