duncbdunc,
All the things you are talking about could come into play,and MORE likely with “Top Performers” as representatives, very insightful you are.It does stink that you might have to work around approved and customary documents to be certain to be a recipient of fair treatment. I’d like to believe many agents would not play their clients buying power against each other. Then again, many people find “dog eat dog” quite acceptable and those who don’t practice it naive or worse.
I think the realtor should defer to the first client and protect any legitimate advantage he or she brought into the negotiations on the property. However, just curious, if you were the second client and were told that the agent wouldn’t work with you on this property unless the first’s interest had waned, what would you do? Would you get a new “stronger” agent or respect that your agent practiced the “golden rule”? That is what the agent would be doing by defending the first buyers position IMO.