Broker Protection when presenting off-market opportunities
Hey everyone, question for you CRE sharks. I have been selling for 3-4 years now and finally starting to have consistent conversations with owners of large NNN properties. As you know, nobody wants to sign an exclusive and they say shop it around with your buyers. 

What kind of agreement should I have the buyer sign to protect me from the seller or another broker from screwing me out of the commission? Basically, if a seller or another broker has a CVS for $10M then what does the buyer need to sign without giving away the other brokers name or CVS location that will protect? I'm sure these large CRE firms aren't sending off market deals around to buyers without an agreement in place with them. Also, let's pretend the seller signing an open listing agreement isn’t an option either.
[{"id": "ijpy7w1", "text": "If I were in your shoes, I would explain to them on why exclusively listing is leaps and bounds  better than off-market. If that still doesn't work then I would move on to other opportunities, off-market listings are not worth the risk and time to me", "replies": [{"id": "ijpyvo4", "text": "Basically I am a smaller boutique office and the sellers have plans to eventually list with a big CRE firm like C&amp;W or M&amp;M and at the end of the day no matter what I say it isn\u2019t going to win them over for an exclusive. Most of the time they won't sign an exclusive with anyone, but then they take an offer off market from another broker that had a buyer. I'm sure these larger firms that are competing amongst themselves aren't going to send a $10M NNN deal around unless they are having the buyer sign some sort of NDA or something???", "replies": [{"id": "ijpzzo6", "text": "99% of the time, an off-market offer is usually lower than the price you can achieve with an exclusive listing with the right firm. Big firms aren't going to waste their time marketing a property that is not exclusive", "replies": [{"id": "ijq0d7t", "text": "Definitely agree with the first part, but a lot of the time I am seeing these sellers accept offers off-market from a big firm they didn\u2019t give the exclusive to. I feel like if someone is willing to sell at a solid cap rate off market that these bigger firms wouldn't say no?", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ijq1vxk", "text": "No such thing as off market if you\u2019re going wide. Get it in writing", "replies": [{"id": "ijq2d88", "text": "Basically one of the situations I'm in is a broker that I know that has an off market NNN deal that a buyer of mine would love. The buyer I have has spoken to this broker in the past 6 months about something else, however, the NNN property I'm referring to was never brought to his attention. I'm fearful of bringing this up to the buyer and then the broker going around my back since I have nothing in writing with anyone, yet if I don\u2019t bring it up to the buyer in mind I highly doubt it will ever be put across his desk.", "replies": [{"id": "ijq2pmu", "text": "Get the buyer to protect you", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "ijqukkc", "text": "Good buyers respect whoever showed the deal to them first especially if you have an existing relationship. If your concerned get a non-circumvent or NDA signed by buyer protecting your position. Show the deal and if they like it write the LOI and get them to sign with language that you are procuring cause and rep them as the buyer. No need to mention the other broker until the buyer is ready to submit an offer.", "replies": [{"id": "ijqvtol", "text": "Yeah, this is what I'm thinking. Appreciate the advice.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "ijt5y6a", "text": "You have to work with buyers you know and trust or get a non-exclusive fee agreement from seller. Basically, I tell my buyer about the opportunity first, I don\u2019t let them know if I have an agreement or not, then I hold the offer over sellers head to get them to sign a fee agreement. That or you will need a \u201call opportunities presented to buyer\u201d fee agreement, which some buyers may not agree to because they have no assurances they\u2019ve haven\u2019t already seen it. Basically it requires some level of trust to shop off markets in my experience.\n\nOff-markets are popular for buyers because they get to see more opportunities (where the broker shopping the deal doesn\u2019t have exclusive), the flip side of that is they should be offering to protect you and pay commission. This benefits the seller because they don\u2019t have to pay a commission.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ijso653", "text": "If the main reason why a seller doesn\u2019t want to give you an exclusive is commission get and exclusive and they market it as a buyer pays commission deal.  It\u2019s idiotic because it still gets priced in and since it\u2019s not in the purchase price it goes to closing cost which aren\u2019t typically levered and have an outsized effect on your returns.  \n\nOtherwise if you want to run with a deal you don\u2019t have control of you can get a non-circumvent/NDA/Fee agreement from your buyer.  That said if you think a buyer is going to go around you then it\u2019s not worth the time from the beginning.  This world is small and very relationship based and while it\u2019s not easy it pays off to pick your partners well.", "replies": [{"id": "ijssb6z", "text": "One guy doesn\u2019t want to be tied to any broker yet, but his accountant is recommending he eventually go national. The other is another broker that is selling it for a family member and getting no commission basically and it\u2019s a solid value add so my buyer shouldn\u2019t mind paying a buyer broker fee.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ijt7tqq", "text": "I work in Industrial Investment sale brokerage in a major market and everything is pretty much off market. After we get the open listing securing our commission on sell side we identify likely buyers and send out the main points w/o revealing address. The buyers interested reach out and they sign a standard confidentiality agreement to get address and to move forward.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]