ROP

Who’s repping you in your transaction? Part 2

Philip A Raices

I have discussed the various ways an agent can represent a seller.
Broker agency (and I quote from the New York State disclosure law) is when an agent cooperates or is engaged by a listing agent or a buyer’s agent (but does not work for the same firm as the listing agent or buyer’s agent) to assist the listing agent or buyer’s agent in locating a property to sell or buy, respectively, for the listing agent’s seller or the buyer agent’s buyer.

The broker’s agent does not have a direct relationship with the buyer or seller and the buyer or seller can not provide instructions or direction directly to the broker’s agent.

The buyer and the seller, therefore, do not have vicarious liability for the acts of the broker’s agent.

The listing agent or buyer’s agent does provide direction and instruction to the broker’s agent and therefore the listing agent or buyer’s agent will have liability for the acts of the broker’s agent.
Whoever you are representing and is providing undivided loyalty to, then full disclosure is required. You must make your client, (who you represent), fully aware of all the facts of the property that you are aware of.

However, there are exceptions, with respect to a buyer, who is just a customer and you do not represent them, but you are representing only the seller; if the customer does not ask if someone has passed away, murdered, and other situations.

Also, be aware that there are protected classes, as follows:
• Race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, and familial status and lastly those with arrest records.
• Buyer agency is when an agent who is engaged by a buyer to represent only the buyer’s interests. The buyer’s agent does this by negotiating the purchase of a home at a price and on terms acceptable to the buyer.

A buyer’s agent has, without limitation, the following fiduciary duties to the buyers: reasonable care, confidentiality, undivided loyalty, obedience, duty to account and disclosure (to remember. we call it CCLOAD).

A buyer’s agent does not represent the interests of the seller.

The obligations of a buyer’s agent are also subject to any specific provisions set forth in an agreement between the agent and the buyer.

In dealings with the seller, a buyer’s agent should (a) exercise reasonable skill and care in performance of the agent’s duties; (b) deal honestly, fairly and in good faith: and (c) disclose all facts known to the agent, materially affecting the buyer’s ability and/or willingness to perform a contract to acquire seller’s property that are not inconsistent with the agent’s fiduciary duties to the buyer.
What you do disclose has all to do with whom you are fully and totally representing and who you are bound to without limitation the following: confidentiality, reasonable care, undivided loyalty, obedience, duty to account, and full disclosure (again, I learned it as: CCLOAD).
This may seem very confusing and complicated to most sellers, landlords, investors, purchasers, renters, because it can be, if your agent doesn’t know how to explain it! However, it can be simplified and understood, if your agent spends the time and explains it to you properly and in the correct fashion; if you want to know and learn how you are being represented. Then at the point of the listing agreement or representation, your agent must perform their duties to you!

I am quite sure the majority of Brokers and salespersons have only good intentions, but many times they get sidetracked when they get too close to either the purchasers or the sellers and then a conflict comes about.

It can happen very easily if one is not constantly cognizant of who they are truly representing in the transaction. Then again, in my 35 years in real estate, I have seen it all in the way some devious and unscrupulous agents try to “pull the wool” over sellers, landlords, investors, buyers and renters eyes!

Remember, just because a person passes their class and then their NYS exam, leading to their salesperson’s license, doesn’t make them professional.

Right from the start and throughout their career (assuming they last, where 65 percent do not as per National Association Realtors) they will have to brand themselves and learn how to become an expert, and earn their creditability, honesty and integrity amongst their clientele.

I remember, way back when, that there was an 80/20 rule, where 80 percent of the money was earned by 20 percent of the agents; but that it was heading in the direction of a 95/5 situation and I believe that has come to fruition today.

Agents will come and go as they always have, not understanding that this is a business and not a job (40-plus percent of agents in the U.S. have jobs; and I ask, if you have a business and run it like one, do you really need a job?

Assuredly not!

Learning the ropes and understanding the intricacies of the laws of agency, technology, marketing and advertising, branding ones-self, and handling objections and truly learning how to consult the consumer, as opposed to selling them.

One must perform in a straight forward professional, honest and credible fashion as well as dealing with all the issues that come about in the transaction process, is where an agent needs to be, to learn, earn and become a “Top Producer” in real estate .

Phil Raices is the owner/broker of Turn Key Real Estate at 7 Bond St. in Great Neck. He has earned the designations as a graduate of the Realtor Institute and is a certified international property specialist. He can be reached by email:Phil@TurnKeyRealEstate.Com or by cell (516) 647-4289 to answer any of your questions or article suggestions or provide you a free comparative market analysis on your property

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