{"id":2755,"date":"2008-03-12T20:24:36","date_gmt":"2008-03-13T03:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2755"},"modified":"2008-03-12T20:20:03","modified_gmt":"2008-03-13T03:20:03","slug":"practical-dual-agency-in-real-life-it-is-possible-to-have-a-fiduciary-duty-to-your-sellers-that-you-cannot-get-away-from-that-feels-like-a-complete-betrayal-of-your-buyers-what-then","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2755\/practical-dual-agency-in-real-life-it-is-possible-to-have-a-fiduciary-duty-to-your-sellers-that-you-cannot-get-away-from-that-feels-like-a-complete-betrayal-of-your-buyers-what-then\/","title":{"rendered":"Practical dual agency in real life: It is possible to have a fiduciary duty to your sellers — that you cannot get away from — that feels like a complete betrayal of your buyers. What then?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a debate on dual agency going on at VARbuzz<\/a>. This is my contribution to the conversation.<\/p>\n

I abhor dual agency — notoriously so<\/a>. I make no distinction between one licensee or two in the same brokerage, and I am more than prepared to be suspicious if there is any relationship that might seem more important to the practitioners than the fiduciary relationship to the client<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even so, Russell Shaw convinced me in person that there could be circumstances in which I might have to do a dual agency, like it or not.<\/p>\n

What circumstances?<\/p>\n

Like this: I’m at open house at my listing, some buyers come in, fall in love with the house and insist they have to put it under contract right away<\/i>. I would prefer they got their own representation, but my fiduciary duty to my sellers is clear: I owe them the best possible chance at these buyers.<\/p>\n

The question is, what duty do I owe to the buyers? The state and federal governments have so gummed up the process of transferring real property that ordinary people cannot competently represent themselves. Moreover, the due diligence process demands expert oversight and advice.<\/p>\n

In short, if both parties are unwilling to countenance the idea of separate representation, I’m stuck. I cannot betray the seller’s interests, and I cannot in good conscience permit the buyers to betray their own<\/i> interests. (And it is plausible to me that I have created an Implied Agency with the buyers in any case.)<\/p>\n

This has nothing to do with compensation, and, if we ever have to do this, we will probably split the buyer’s agent’s commission three ways — a point each to the buyer and the seller, in consideration for suffering with limited representation, and a point to us for the extra work. But even that would be at Close of Escrow. My Buyer-Broker Agreement would specify that the buyers could obtain separate representation at any time, even down to the last minute, and I would joyfully pay the buyer’s agent’s commission.<\/p>\n

But wait. There’s more. We had a multi-party debate about dual agency at BloodhoundBlog<\/a>, and, while I would Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a debate on dual agency going on at VARbuzz. This is my contribution to the conversation. I abhor dual agency — notoriously so. I make no distinction between one licensee or two in the same brokerage, and I am more than prepared to be suspicious if there is any relationship that might seem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,6,5,30],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blogging","7":"category-dual-agency","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","10":"category-supplanting-the-nar","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":665,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/665\/dual-agency-smack-down-collective-truth-fifty-million-frenchmen-can-be-as-wrong-as-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":2755,"position":0},"title":"Dual Agency Smack-Down: Collective truth? Fifty million Frenchmen can be as wrong as one . . .","author":"Cathleen Collins","date":"November 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I doubt that even Jeff realizes this, but I am the provocateur of the Titans' duel over the pros and cons of dual agency. It started when Greg and I met Russell Shaw. The man is a font of knowledge, and he's very very generous with sharing the \"secrets\" to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dual Agency"","block_context":{"text":"Dual Agency","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dual-agency\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/87\/dual-agency-benefits-neither-buyer-nor-seller\/","url_meta":{"origin":2755,"position":1},"title":"Dual agency benefits neither buyer nor seller","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Quote: \"Double-dipping isn't very far from double-dealing, and dual agency has always been the Achilles' heel of the real estate industry.\" That's me in today's Arizona Republic. Here's a more permanent link. And here is the BloodhoundRealty.com policy on dual agency. The topic is important enough to us that I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dual Agency"","block_context":{"text":"Dual Agency","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dual-agency\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/NoDualAgency.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":658,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/658\/dual-agency-smack-down-if-being-a-big-brokerage-is-an-inherent-agency-violation-its-not-the-clients-fault\/","url_meta":{"origin":2755,"position":2},"title":"Dual Agency Smack-Down: If being a big brokerage is an inherent agency violation, it’s not the client’s fault . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Please. Recognize that everything I say or write is true and do not argue with me. Thanks!Hi! Welcome to BloodhoundBlog. My name is Greg Swann. I question everything. ;) From my point of view, we're still not getting any traction.But single agency is not a viable business model.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0 A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dual Agency"","block_context":{"text":"Dual Agency","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dual-agency\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":649,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/649\/dual-agency-smack-down-a-category-11-hurricane-of-arguments-against-disclosed-dual-agency\/","url_meta":{"origin":2755,"position":3},"title":"Dual Agency Smack-Down: A category 11 hurricane of arguments against Disclosed Dual Agency . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm going to stir up a category 11 hurricane by basing my initial entry in the Dual Agency Smack-Down on our past posts on the subject. Cathleen and I have dealt with this topic at great length in the past, so it seems reasonable to reinforce our arguments by revisiting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dual Agency"","block_context":{"text":"Dual Agency","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dual-agency\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1396,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1396\/a-case-by-case-for-and-against-dual-agency\/","url_meta":{"origin":2755,"position":4},"title":"A Case (by Case) For and Against Dual Agency","author":"Kris Berg","date":"May 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Trevor Smith's answer to Dual Agency? Let the buyer represent himself, and give him the commission regularly paid to the Buyer's Agent. (Granted, this would still leave the buyer relatively unprotected, but at least if something goes bad, its his own fault and not the agents). Your obvious question is,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dual Agency"","block_context":{"text":"Dual Agency","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dual-agency\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2202,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2202\/a-consumers-guide-to-the-divorced-real-estate-commission-cataloging-benefits-starting-with-a-complete-catalog-of-available-homes\/","url_meta":{"origin":2755,"position":5},"title":"A consumer’s guide to the divorced real estate commission: Cataloging benefits — starting with a complete catalog of available homes","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Part IV: Divorcing the real estate commissions will result in benefits not just for buyers but also for their agents and for the real estate market as a whole The National Association of Realtors is embroiled right now in a protracted anti-trust suit brought by the United States Department of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}