There’s a lot more to real estate agents who are Realtors than the Multiple Listing Service that markets homes and that facilitates viewing properties listed by many different real estate brokerages. There is also the protection for our clients through the errors and omissions insurance that all Realtors carry, and that can compensate buyers or sellers who suffer a loss due to an oversight or misunderstanding in a real estate transaction. Some of us Realtors also carry general business insurance that could compensate a client who twists an ankle, say, while viewing homes.
Yet more fundamental than the convenience of the MLS and insurance protections, all real estate associates have fiduciary duties to serve and protect the interests of their clients, parallel to the responsibilities of lawyers to their clients.
When a condominium buyer or seller hires a real estate agent (the term “associate” is used by the provincial regulatory body), that agent has five specific responsibilities to the client; these are: undivided loyalty to the client’s interests,confidentiality of information about the client and property that is not required by law to be disclosed, full disclosure of information that could or should affect the client’s decisions, obedience to the client’s lawful and reasonable instructions,reasonable care and skill in the performance of duties, and full accounting of money and property controlled by the associate.
Realtors through their province-wide association have created a four-page pamphlet titled Agency Relationships that expands on these duties. There are several on-line sources for the pamphlet, including my own web site (see pdf link below), and we Realtors carry print copies that we hand out freely.
In the most common agency arrangement a home seller or buyer talks with a Realtor who provides and discusses the Agency Relationships pamphlet, after which the client will sign into a “sole agency” relationship. The Realtor will then represent only that person and their interests. If you’re selling a condominium home the next step is a “seller brokerage agreement”, commonly called a “listing”. If you’re looking to buy a condominium home—or any style of home for that matter—the best Realtors will then ask you to sign a “customer service agreement”, as is recommended by the provincial regulatory body, the Real Estate Council of Alberta.
The point is that everyone in real estate should know who representing whom and who is paying the bill. With clarity on those points Realtors and their clients know where everyone stands and Realtors’ training and performance duties (not to mention that insurance) protect their clients even before an offer to purchase is made or received. As a Realtor I think of myself as a contract-law paralegal drafting and negotiating contracts for clients; with transactions commonly involving $1 million in property and cash, we’d better be competent, serve our clients’ interests, and give full accounting of money and property!
In the past it was too easy for a condo-home shopper to walk into an open house and unwittingly become a client of the seller’s Realtor, who already had a primary duty to serve the interests of the seller, namely to obtain the highest-possible price for the property. The Agency Relationships brochure and the representational choices that it explains allows home buyers to understand and decide if that works for them, or if they want to march right back out and retain a separate condominium-specialist Realtor to represent only their interests.
Alberta’s Real Estate Council does not hesitate these days to lift the license of a Realtor who plays fast and loose with his fiduciary duties to his or her clients. Realtors are happy to discuss their agency duties to clients and some of us have information posted on our web sites. Log on, write, or call for more information, and don’t hesitate to ask questions as you go through the home selling or buying process. Like lawyers, Realtors have performance duties to the people who hire them, and that protect them through complex transactions involving property and money.
Calgary Condominium Directory
