Fiduciary Duties of a Realtor towards his Client
There's a reason your real estate agent is called an agent and not the broker. To further explain, a real estate broker is one who has the license to operate his/her own office. Most often, these brokers have agents working in their office. It is the agent; you will most likely be dealing with.
As an agent, your licensed real estate worker is either an agent for the seller or an agent for the buyer, sometimes both.
The agent is bound by a fiduciary obligation to whomever they are the agent. For that reason, if you happen to be in the market for a new home, you do not want the listing agent as your buyer’s agent. The listing agent is first and foremost, the agent for the seller. You want an agent working on your behalf and not that of the seller.
Nothing thrills a real estate agent more, than listing a property and also representing the buyer. The goal is getting that property sold, so you don’t really know if the agent is working in your best interest.
First, make sure your agent is not the listing agent of the home you are considering. Then let the agent know what your top dollar is and that you have to work within that constraint. Your top dollar could be the selling price or your monthly output.
You need to feel comfortable with your agent, knowing the agent is looking out for your best interest and one of the first clues is when your agent wants to sit down and have a discussion. During this discussion, your agent should show interest in what your desires are. They may ask, what seems like, odd questions but these questions will help the agent to weed out properties that will simply waste your time.
Once you get down to making an offer, all dealings will then happen just like it does when you use a lawyer. Your agent will deal with the seller’s agent. In this way, each agent is operating under the fiduciary obligation to their perspective clients.
What is the fiduciary obligation? It is the same as it would be, if it were a lawyer. An agent is your voice, in your place, speaking your words on your behalf. At the same time, it means they owe all loyalty to you and not someone else, as long as they are attending to your transactions. In layman’s terms, it means your agent is lawfully bound to not tell the seller’s agent, what your top dollar might be or how they can get around something you have added to your offer. Your agent will conduct themselves as though you yourself are sitting at that table.
If you ever find that your agent is showing more loyalty to the seller or the seller’s agent, than to you, drop that agent immediately. You are never obligated to stick with the same agent. There is no contract holding you. There is always somebody else, who will stand with you and work on your behalf.
