When you sign an agency agreement, you become a client to your agent and this gets you a lot of perks. Not only is your agent now going to be taking care of everything behind the scenes from A - Z so all you have to worry about is what you're walking away with after settlement, but you can have all the confidence because we are bound to you by fiduciary duties.
So lets talk about some of the duties we have as REALTORS® both to our clients and consumers- but first lets make sure were all on the same page:
A REALTOR® is a licensed real estate agent backed by the National Association of Realtors.
A client AKA the fiduciary- is a person who has signed a contract with an agent. The seller is the listing agents client and the buyer is the buyer agents client.
A customer is a person who is working with an agent, but they don't have a signed contract with them. Like a buyer speaking to a listing agent.
A consumer is the general public or the public at large. This group includes everyone. Whether you happen to walk into an open house but don't put in an offer, you are the neighbor of someone selling their house, or you have never and never plan on buying or selling anything, you are a consumer.
Ok so let's talk about consumer's and customers first. Agents owe everyone a certain level of customer care because we are trained an educated to know everything about this field and to help everyone have the opportunity to purchase a home:
Honesty- We aren't going to lie to you.
Accountability- we are never going to steal money given to us meant to be held for the purchase of a property
Reasonable skill and care- we will always do what we can within our scope of real estate
Disclosure- anything we know about a property you will know.
Now that level is customer care is needed especially as a customer so that you aren't being sold a home under false pretenses, and so your deposit doesn't fund the agents next vacation, but as a client your going to get even more.
As a REALTOR® my fiduciary duties to my clients are:
Obedience- what you ask, we will do (within the law obviously) if you say you want list your home for a certain price, we will list it like you want, if you want to put in an offer we don't like, we will put that offer in. This doesn't mean we won't let you know what we think you're making a mistake, because I know I will absolutely let you know if I don't think its the right move, but ultimately we recognize that this is your transaction and your decision and we will always follow what you want.
Loyalty- We work for you and only you. When you and your agent sign your agency contract you are bound to one another and your agent is going to be the number one person fighting for you. Even if what you want does not benefit us, we are still going to fight for what you want.
Disclosure- What we know, you know. If someone puts in an offer for you house but we think it isn't good enough for you, we still tell you about it. If you are loving a property but we know it's being rezoned we tell you. We know what to look for when it comes to material defects in a home and when we see something that shouldn't be, we share that with you ALWAYS.
Confidentiality- When you work with a REALTOR® you have to answer a lot of personal questions like what's your income, your debt, your SS# you give your REALTOR® a lot of information about yourself. Your agent is bound by this duty though to NEVER reveal anything you tell them EVER. Even once your contract terminates and you've both moved on, your agent is never ever aloud to say anything to anyone about what the 2 of you talked about.
Accountability- This refers to handling of money. You will most likely give your agent money at some point to put a deposit on a house or to settle the costs associated outside of closing. This duty holds your Realtor accountable to make sure that any money you give them to put towards the purchase of property will not go to the agent. The agent will actually give it to their broker who puts it into an escrow account to be held until settlement.
Reasonable Skill and Care- I feel like this is pretty self explanatory, basically if we know how to do it and we can legally and ethically do it, then we do it.