A Guide to Agency and Home Sale Services

The following information should help simplify the different forms of Agency. Please contact Mark with any questions or concerns.

Agency Policies
Real Estate One wants yout o understand the rules of agency. These rules govern your sale or purchase of real estate and your relationship with the broker you elect to help you in these activities.

Our company policy to assist home sellers and purchasers in all aspoects of the home buying or selling process. We have a simple focus: to provide the fastest, highest quality of service available in the real estate industry. Real Estate One has provided the finest professional real estate services since 1929.

We offer our clients ans customers agency representation that fits their personal needs. Designated agents are responsible for helping complete the sale and promoting the bet interest of the represented party.

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The Agency Relationship
The agency relationship conists of one person representing the interests of another. The parties to the relationship are the Principas (Seller or Buyer) and the Agent. The Agent is retained by the Principal to work for, act on behalf of, and protect the Principal's interests. The relationship created is called a fiduciary relationship. It is a relationship founded on trust because the agent owes precise duties to the Principal. Among those duties are:

  • Loyalty
  • Confidentiality
  • Disclosure
  • Reasonable Care
  • Diligence
  • Obediance
  • Accounting


In the field of real estate sales, the Agent is required to fairly follow all of the duties owed to the Principal and in addition, be honest with all others involved in any given transaction.

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Designated Seller's Agency
Real Estate One agents, acting under designated agency, represent sellers directly as the listing agent, or under a subagency agreement, through another broker's listing. The duties that designated seller agents and subagents owe to the seller include:

  • Promoting the best ineterst of the seller
  • Disclosing to the seller all facts that might affect or influence the seller's decision to accept an offer to purchase
  • Keeping confidential the seller's motivations for selling
  • Presenting all offers to the seller
  • Disclosing to seller all information known to the seller's agent about the identity of all buyers and the willingmess of those buyers to the sale or to offer a higher price


A designated seller's agent will establish a plan for marketing the home and provide counselling to prepare the property for sale and regularly communicate during the marketing period and through closing. The designated agent's fiduciary duties are owed to the seller. As listing agents, we cooperate with any other type of agency offered by other brokers when they show our listings.

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Designated Buyer's Agency
A designated buyer's agent acts solely on behalf of the buyer. Designated buyer's agents will disclose to the buyer known information about the seller which may be used to benefit the buyer. The duties that a buyer agent owes to the buyer include:

  • Promoting the best interest of the buyer
  • Disclosing to the buyer all facts that might affect or influence the buyer's decision to tender an offer to purchase
  • Keeping confidential the buyer;s motivation for buying
  • Presenting all offers on behalf of the buyer
  • Disclosing to buyer all information known to the buyer's agent about the willingmess of the seller to complete the sale or to accept a lower price


When real Estate One, Inc. acts as the agent for the buyer, that buyer has the freedom to discuss the value of the properties, negotiating strategies, and the personal finances with the sales associate. The buyer can obtain the associate's opinion concerning the condition of the property, the effect of any improvements and a variety of other information which a designated seller's agent cannot provide. The designated buyer's agent will make a commitment to make every reasonable effort to locate a property with certain features as described by the buyer.

It must be remembered, however, that the designated buyer's agent is not an attorney, accountatn, appraiser, property inspector, engineer or surveyor. The buyer will need to seek the advice of those professionals and others for the expertise they can provided.

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When Designated Agents become Dual Agents
Dual agency occurs when a designated agent has both a listing contract with the seller and a buyer agency with the buyer. Under these circumstances, a Real Estate One agent can be the agent of both the seller and the buyer in a single transaction, but only with the knowledge and informed consent, in writing, of both the seller and the buyer.

If both the seller and the buyer agree in writing that the sales associate invloved must not disclose any information that would create a negotiating advantage for either client Ð such as the fact that the seller will accept less than the list price, or that the buyer will pay more than offered Ð or other confidential information about the particular client, the parties may continue with the transaction. In such cases, the real estate One designated agent will notify all parties and ill enter into a specific Dual Agency Agreement with them, which will override all other agreements.

Dual agents are able to facilitate the transaction, but must remain neutral with regard to the negotiations and material facts of the sale.

In the case where two different Real estate One designated agents are involved in representing a buyer and a seller, it is the named supervising broker(s) in your agency contract(s) who also become the dual agents and who must act as a neutral party. Each of the designated agents continues to act on behalf of their agents.

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