When you and a buyer have already found each other, you don't need someone to find you a buyer. You need someone to handle the transaction. That's what a transactional real estate agent does — a licensed California broker handling the paperwork, disclosures, escrow, and closing on a flat $6,000 fee, not a percentage of your sale price.
A licensed broker who handles the transaction when a buyer and seller have already found each other. Contract, disclosures, escrow, closing — for a flat fee, not a percentage-based commission.
A traditional agent's core job is finding a buyer. A transactional agent doesn't find buyers, doesn't market the property, and doesn't negotiate — because you've already done those steps. Only the transaction remains.
Any time the buyer and seller already know each other or have agreed on terms. Family sales, tenant sales, friend or neighbor sales, off-market discoveries, and FSBO deals where a buyer has been found.
No — and it's worth being straight about that. Some states (Colorado and Florida, for example) have codified "transaction broker" as a distinct non-fiduciary role. California hasn't. In California, a broker involved in a sale is a seller's agent, a buyer's agent, or a dual agent representing both. What we call transactional agency is a service model that fits cleanly inside California's dual-agency framework, with a written, limited scope of service that spells out what the broker will and won't do. More on how that works below.
The typical home sale in California involves four elements: the required disclosures, a valid purchase agreement, coordinated escrow, and clean closing. A transactional real estate agent handles all four (no more, no less) for a flat fee.
Bennett Mason is a licensed California real estate broker (DRE #01874337) with over 16 years of experience. Working with FSBOTransact means working with a licensed broker, not a document-preparation service. That distinction matters when the transaction hits an unexpected question.
Setting expectations clearly is part of the service. A transactional agent is the right professional when the sale is already agreed to, and the wrong one when it isn't. Here's the clean split:
If you're at an earlier stage — you want to sell but haven't identified a buyer — you need a different resource. We cover that below.
The service fits any situation where a buyer and seller have already found each other. The specific relationship varies; the transaction pattern is the same.
Parent to child, sibling buyout, grandparent to grandchild, trust to beneficiary. See our family sale service page for specifics.
The tenant renting from you wants to buy the property. See our tenant sale service page for rent-control and financing considerations.
A friend, neighbor, or long-time contact has offered to buy. The deal is agreed; the transaction needs to close cleanly.
You listed the property discreetly (or not at all) and a buyer surfaced through your own network. The negotiation happened; the paperwork remains.
Selling to a business partner, LLC member, or long-term investor you already know. The transaction may involve entity-to-entity considerations that a transactional agent can coordinate.
You started as a for-sale-by-owner, a buyer emerged, and now you need a licensed professional to run the transaction rather than fumbling the paperwork.
The flat fee is the entire structure. On a typical $1.5 million California home sale, here's how the numbers compare:
Includes listing, marketing, showings, and buyer search — none of which apply when the buyer is already identified.
Contract, disclosures, escrow coordination, and closing. Both parties guided through the transaction.
$350–$500/hr with no cap. Custom contracts can slow escrow and confuse lenders unfamiliar with non-standard language.
Even a more conservative comparison holds up. If you paid only the listing side of a traditional commission split (the buyer's agent takes the other half), 2.5% on a $1.5 million home is $37,500. Against $6,000 flat, that's still $31,500 in savings for the same set of tasks. The percentage-based commission structure was built for transactions where the agent's job is finding a buyer. When the buyer is already there, most of that fee pays for services already rendered by the parties themselves.
Most transactional-agent sales in California run 45 to 60 days from purchase agreement to recorded deed:
A 20-minute call to understand the situation: the parties, the property, whether financing is involved, and confirm transactional agency is the right fit.
The buyer and seller reach mutual agreement on the sale price. In transactional-agency situations this is usually already settled. A genuine meeting of the minds is the foundation of the transaction, which we then document in writing.
We prepare the purchase agreement on standard forms along with all required local and state disclosures. Both parties review, sign, and open escrow.
We coordinate with title, escrow, and any lender through inspections, appraisal, contingency removal, and clear-to-close. Both parties stay informed at every step.
Final document review, signing, funding, and deed recording, on the same standard forms every California title company already uses.
A free 20-minute call is the fastest way to know whether transactional agency is the right fit.
Book Your Free Consultation →"Transactional agency" is a useful shorthand for what we do, but it isn't a formal legal category in California. California recognizes three agency roles in a residential sale: the seller's agent, the buyer's agent, and the dual agent representing both. Everything a licensed California broker does in a transaction happens inside one of those three roles.
What we do is structured as a dual agency with a written, limited scope of service. Both parties sign the standard Agency Disclosure and Consent to Dual Agency at the outset. Both parties also sign a short scope-of-service addendum that spells out what the agent will not do (negotiations, strategic advice, property valuations).
The negotiation is already complete before we're engaged. What's left is the paperwork, the coordination, and the close — and that's what the flat fee pays for.
The fiduciary duties don't go away. Under dual agency the agent still owes both parties care, honesty, and disclosure of any material fact the agent knows about the property — whether or not it made it into the seller's written disclosures. Neutrality means neutrality on advocacy and negotiation, not on the truth. If an agent learns something material about the property during the transaction, it has to be shared with both sides.
This is why the model fits the situations we serve. In a normal listing, a dual agent's ban on advocacy would leave both sides under-served — the whole point of hiring an agent is to have someone in your corner during price negotiation. In a family sale, tenant purchase, or private off-market deal where price and terms are already agreed, there's nothing left to negotiate. Both parties want the same thing: a clean, correctly-papered close. That's exactly what the model delivers.
Transactional agency covers the transaction itself. Some sales carry structural or tax complexity that benefits from additional professionals working alongside:
A transactional agent only works when both sides have already found each other. If you're at the earlier stage — knowing you want to sell but haven't identified a buyer — you need a different approach.
Our sister platform OpenKnocks matches San Francisco homeowners with buyers privately and off-market. It's built for exactly this stage of the journey. Once you have a buyer, come back here and we'll run the transaction.
A free 20-minute call is the best way to find out whether transactional agency is the right fit. No obligation, no sales pitch — just an honest read of your situation.
Book Your Free Consultation →Prefer email? bennett@fsbotransact.com