Today, in my final chapter of Who's Your Agent? we will forge ahead to Dual Agency. Dual occurs when the real estate agent represents both the buyer and the seller. This is different than a seller's agent selling the house to someone she does not represent. That scenario is like my example in Buyer's Agent: Don't Buy a Home Without One.
In Dual Agency, both the seller and buyer agree to be represented by the same agent, and the agent's job changes. She is supposed to become an unbiased facilitator. She is not supposed to advocate for one side over the other. She does not negotiate but instead basically only communicates the parties' demands without offering an opinion on them. This is why I am not a fan of dual agency. I believe the reason you have a real estate agent is so you have your own personal advocate in the process.
Most sellers agree to dual agency in their listing contract because it increases the chance of the house's being sold. Remember that every agent in the listing agency represents the seller, not just the listing agent, so for example, if any agent employed by Fonville Morisey were to sell my listing, they would be a dual agent in the deal. Since we have over 700 agents, the seller would greatly decrease the chance of selling the property if he does not agree to to dual agency.
In order to help solve this problem, there is one more type of agency called Designated Agency. Designated Agency is actually a form of dual agency in which agents from the same agency are assigned to solely represent the buyer or the seller in a particular deal. For example, if I have a buyer who wants to make an offer on a house listed by another Fonville Morisey agent, I can represent him as his designated agent. In this scenario I will represent him just like I would Buyer Client.
I believe this is a fair way to deal with the problem of dual agency. Designated agency is taken very seriously. The designated agent should have no prior confidential knowledge about the property. At our agency we talk about square footage and updates; we do not talk about seller's motivation, in case we get into a designated agency situation.
In North Carolin,a dual agency must be disclosed to all parties involved. It is mentioned in the Working with Real Estate Agents Brochure, and your agent should discuss it with you.
I hope this series has made agency a little less confusing. Below is a video published buy The North Carolina Real Estate Commission that explains the brochure.
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