Wife and I are starting to look for a bigger house, saw one we wanted to see, so because we don't have a buyer's agent, I called the seller's broker directly and set up the appointment.

Then as we are walking up to see the house, the agent (broker just sent one of her lackeys) hands me some papers and says: "I need you to sign this buyer's agent agreement with me before I can show you the house. It's to protect both of us."

So I replied, "Wait, so unless I sign this so that you get the buyer's commission, you won't even show it to us? What exactly is this protecting us from?"

Anyway, I didn't sign, but he showed us the house anyway. I texted the broker and she's giving me some nonsense about how it is "'implied agency' when we cross the threshhold of the door with you. (Procuring clause). It's just company policy that we make sure our licenses are not at risk."

Everything I can find on the web about implied agency is just realtors justifying it by saying that they don't get paid by the hour, so the poor agent who spent 20 minutes showing you the house deserves to be compensated for his time (funny, I thought that's what the seller's commission was for?).

Anyway, apparently the way that Realtors are fighting back against people representing themselves or using a service like Homie (which we are not doing, at least not yet) is to ambush you on the porch and refuse to even show you a home unless you sign a document giving them 3% of the purchase price.