[MRM]

You'll do better going through him than you would if you were dealing directly with the seller's agent and the commission will be the same either way. If you represented yourself the listing agent would get the whole commission. With a buyer's agent they just split it. But the dynamics of simply having someone else present your offer makes a huge difference in your favor. I can't explain it, but it is true, at least in my experience.

Anyway, no, I don't think it was unethical or even unusual for an agent to advertise like that. I would not have expected the agent in the advertisement on Zillow to be the listing agent. The listing agent is always identified as such. If you see an agent and it doesn't specifically say "listing agent" you're not dealing with the listing agent.