Glossary

Double-Ended Transaction

Also known as: dual commission deal, double-siding

A transaction in which the same brokerage, and often the same individual agent, represents both the buyer and the seller, or both the landlord and the tenant, and thereby earns the full commission rather than splitting it with a cooperating broker.

Double-ending is economically attractive to the brokerage — it captures the full commission pool instead of the roughly half typical of a co-brokered deal — but it is functionally a form of dual agency, or requires a designated-agency structure, and carries the same conflict-of-interest and disclosure obligations. Clients on either side of a double-ended deal are often unaware, absent clear disclosure, that their broker's economic incentive shifted the moment the same firm brought in the other party, which is why many institutional owners and buyers include contract language addressing brokerage relationships and require disclosure of double-ending before accepting an offer sourced by the listing broker's own firm. Some states restrict or heavily regulate double-ending precisely because of this incentive misalignment; brokers operating across jurisdictions need to track varying disclosure and consent requirements.