Agency Representation

Standard Seller Representation

If you are selling property or offering it for lease, and sign a listing agreement with a REALTOR®, then the REALTOR® and his or her brokerage firm become your agent and you are their client. Salespersons for other companies who are cooperating with the listing company and showing it to prospective buyers or tenants may also be your agents. Their goal is to seek a transaction on terms acceptable to you, and they owe you the standard agent duties outlined above.
If you are a prospective buyer or tenant who is dealing with a REALTOR® who represents the seller or landlord, remember that you are a customer of that REALTOR® and not a client.
A seller's representative can still provide valuable services to customers - showing property, preparing and presenting any offers and counteroffers, comparing financing alternatives, and disclosing known adverse material facts about the condition of the property. All agents in a transaction must be truthful with all parties, but the seller representative's highest duty is to the client.

Standard Buyer Representation

Prospective buyers and tenants have realized in recent years that they may want to have a REALTOR® of their own representing them in a transaction. They do this by forming their own brokerage relationship, usually by written agreement, with a REALTOR® who becomes their agent and owes them the duties of a standard agent. A representative for the prospective buyer or tenant can freely advise the buyer-client about all aspects of the property.
A seller dealing with a buyer's agent should remember that in this relationship, the seller is the customer and the REALTOR® is working for the buyer. In many cases, the listing agent will share the commission with the buyer's representative, but that doesn't diminish the buyer representative's obligation to the buyer.

Overlapping Brokerage Relationships

The increasing popularity of buyer representation has increased the number of transactions where a REALTOR® might have overlapping brokerage relationships.
This happens when a buyer or tenant client of a real estate company wants to buy or rent one of the company's listings. Even if different REALTORS® are working with the different clients, their dual loyalties are created through their company, which has legal and contractual obligations to both clients.
In dealing with these situations, there are two ways for the transaction to proceed: