Why is your company policy not to do “Dual Agency”? What is it anyway?
Posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 12:48 pm.Virginia, DC & MD state laws surprisingly let Realtors act as "dual agents" when disclosed to all parties (also known as "dual representation").
We feel that dual agency isn't a good idea. In fact, we'd go so far as to say that it's a disservice to our clients, so we don't do it. Here's why:
The first thing is for you to understand the dual agency clause in the buyer representation agreement. Here it is (click on it to enlarge):
Do you see where it says "Dual representation occurs when a buyer and seller in one transaction are represented by the same Broker and the same Sales Associate." Hmmm... seems like a conflict there to us, doesn't it seem that way to you? The only possible way an agent could do this would be if s/he removed himself/herself from the process and just acted as a "referee" in the transaction. But then the original client to the agent loses out because the client doesn't get the agent's full representation. So we think it's a bad idea all around.
Dual agency also gets dangerous when you buy a house without a Realtor, because the listing agent now has to be very careful to be very up-front about who s/he is representing. Often times, the buyer thinks the listing agent is their "friend" and is helping them through the process, but in reality the listing agent's interests lie with the seller. We recommend that there be a separation between buyer & seller and their representatives, so we won't do dual agency. You'll notice that one of the items in our Client Bill of Rights is that we won't do dual agency.
We do feel "designated agency" (also called "designated representation") is OK. In that instance, the buyer and seller have separate agents in the same real estate firm. When this happens, we feel there is enough of a separation between the two parties that each side's interest can be represented fairly & accurately.
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