{"id":2905,"date":"2008-04-05T14:57:57","date_gmt":"2008-04-05T21:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2905"},"modified":"2008-04-05T12:17:05","modified_gmt":"2008-04-05T19:17:05","slug":"ask-the-broker-what-relationships-must-be-disclosed-in-a-real-estate-transaction-and-what-are-the-consequences-if-they-arent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2905\/ask-the-broker-what-relationships-must-be-disclosed-in-a-real-estate-transaction-and-what-are-the-consequences-if-they-arent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask the Broker: What relationships must be disclosed in a real estate transaction, and what are the consequences if they aren&#8217;t?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We haven&#8217;t done one of these in a while. We get a lot of really good questions, but, for most of them, the answer is the same: &#8220;You need to talk to a really good real estate attorney in your jurisdiction.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This one is different, with a couple of interesting problems:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I signed a contract on a home in Virginia. We just found out 3 weeks later after the home inspection the sellers agent is the brother in law to the seller. He never told us. My agent took a cut in his commission to make the sale go though and he was not told. Can this break a contract?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>These are the two issues I&#8217;m seeing &#8212; your mileage may vary:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;the sellers agent is the brother in law to the seller&#8221; &#8212; and this was not disclosed<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Can this break a contract?&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There may be a specific answer to the first issue in Virginia statute law. In Arizona, my advice to agents would be to disclose only first degree relationships &#8212; blood, adoptive or legal: Mother, father, brother, sister, spouse, son or daughter.<\/p>\n<p>Arguably, an agent could disclose any prior knowledge of the principal, guarding that person&#8217;s confidentiality, but I don&#8217;t see failing to disclose a brother-in-law as being a grievous injury. Am I wrong?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m thinking maybe the second issue &#8212; &#8220;Can this break a contract?&#8221; &#8212; is the real objection.<\/p>\n<p>My answer: Almost certainly not. I can&#8217;t say for sure without reading the contract language, but I would be amazed if it included a contingency for undisclosed second-degree relationships.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, if the failure to disclose the brother-in-law really is an actionable issue in Virginia, the action would be taken against the agent at the state licensing authority or the local board of Realtors.<\/p>\n<p>Unless the agent is a party to the purchase contract, I can&#8217;t see how <i>any<\/i> misfeasance on his part could be considered a breach of that contract &#8212; which governs the performance of only the principal parties.<\/p>\n<p>Others reading here may differ, which disagreement is invited.<\/p>\n<p>And if you want to explore your full recourse under the law: &#8220;You need to talk to a really <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2905\/ask-the-broker-what-relationships-must-be-disclosed-in-a-real-estate-transaction-and-what-are-the-consequences-if-they-arent\/#more-2905\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We haven&#8217;t done one of these in a while. We get a lot of really good questions, but, for most of them, the answer is the same: &#8220;You need to talk to a really good real estate attorney in your jurisdiction.&#8221; This one is different, with a couple of interesting problems: I signed a contract [&hellip;]<\/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":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-real-estate","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1045,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1045\/dual-agency-smack-down-buyers-and-sellers-informed-consent-to-limited-dual-representation\/","url_meta":{"origin":2905,"position":0},"title":"Dual Agency Smack-Down: Buyer&#8217;s and Seller&#8217;s Informed Consent to Limited Dual Representation","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I really don't like Dual Agency. I think that's pretty well established. Even so, Russell Shaw convinced me -- in person, not on BloodhoundBlog -- that BloodhoundRealty.com would have to offer Dual Agency if it is to list effectively in the historic districts of Downtown Phoenix. Right about the same\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Dual Agency&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Dual Agency","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dual-agency\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2181,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2181\/a-consumers-guide-to-the-divorced-real-estate-commission-will-the-negotiating-their-buyers-agents-compensation-make-buyers-more-practical\/","url_meta":{"origin":2905,"position":1},"title":"A consumer&#8217;s guide to the divorced real estate commission: Will the necessity of negotiating their buyer&#8217;s agent&#8217;s compensation make buyers more practical?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Part II: How buyers can finally take a seat at the grown-up's table When a potential home-seller calls me to set up a listing appointment, very often the first question I will hear is, \"How much do you charge?\" A motivated seller is done with the house, and now all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Marketing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":666,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/666\/dual-agency-smack-down-a-chicken-in-every-pot-and-a-sword-for-every-gordian-knot\/","url_meta":{"origin":2905,"position":2},"title":"Dual Agency Smack-Down: A chicken in every pot and a sword for every Gordian Knot . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I solved this problem today. It wasn't even that tough, once I started looking at it the right way. As I pointed out earlier today, the issue is this language in the AAR Consent to Limited Dual Representation form:neither Broker nor Broker's Licensee(s) can represent the interests of one party\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Dual Agency&quot;","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":2905,"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 &quot;Dual Agency&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Dual Agency","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dual-agency\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2755,"url":"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\/","url_meta":{"origin":2905,"position":4},"title":"Practical dual agency in real life: It is possible to have a fiduciary duty to your sellers &#8212; that you cannot get away from &#8212; that feels like a complete betrayal of your buyers. What then?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blogging&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":655,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/655\/dual-agency-smack-down-dueling-angels-are-not-persuasive\/","url_meta":{"origin":2905,"position":5},"title":"Dual Agency Smack-Down: Dueling angels are not persuasive . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not really a Jesuit, I just play one in the blogsward. My mother had had enough of the Church before she went to high school, and, in consequence, I was sent to public schools. Those were actually quite a bit better then than they are now, but, even so,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Dual Agency&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Dual Agency","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dual-agency\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905","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=2905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}