When the Seller's Broker Wants You to Pay

April 14, 2025
by a searcher from INSEAD in San Francisco, CA, USA
Ran into an interesting NDA today where the seller’s broker (Exio) requires the buyer to pay a 1.5% “access fee” if the deal closes. Not a success fee for bringing me the deal. Not a buy-side advisory agreement. Just straight up: “If you buy this business, we get paid.”
Sounds like double-dipping to me as they are already representing the seller.
In some micro-deals a buyer-paid fee can make sense — especially if the broker brings proprietary deal flow or acts more like a dual-rep advisor. But in this case, it was just a standard listing.
Curious about other's experiences. Is this becoming more common, or is this just a bad habit some intermediaries are trying to normalize?
from INSEAD in İstanbul, Türkiye
from The University of Chicago in Los Angeles, CA, USA