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Sacramento Realtors Owe a Fiduciary Relationship to Clients
Protecting a client’s privacy and maintaining a fiduciary relationship are things some Sacramento Realtors most likely never think about but are necessary to do. As a Sacramento REALTOR we have to be continually “on guard” about questions we receive and how we respond to demands made by other people. Just because somebody asks a question does not mean we are required to answer it. I imagine the shared comradery and cooperation among real estate agents blurs certain lines that others may unknowingly cross, but I certainly try not to do it.
Every so often, though, we run across an agent with an agenda to supposedly protect her buyer that can be way out of line, and those agents can make demands that are unreasonable. For example, last year I sold a townhome for a seller near American River and helped her to buy a new home in Elk Grove. She is a professional who travels all over the world, and a very sweet, honest individual.
The buyer’s agent demanded a receipt for repairs that her buyer had requested, and the seller, out of the goodness of her heart, had agreed to undertake. My advice had been to reject the request for repairs, but the seller wanted to do it. We gave the buyer’s agent a copy of the receipt. The agent said she could not read it, even though the rest of us could. The buyer’s agent raised a tremendous ruckus over it and threatened to cancel the escrow while the seller was in Hong Kong and completely unavailable.
Honestly, part of me wanted to say go ahead and let your buyer cancel, you jerk, but, no, I owed a fiduciary to the seller to close. I take very seriously my fiduciary relationship with my sellers. Eventually, we were able to produce the original document for the buyer’s agent who, much to our dismay, was still unhappy with the receipt and continued to yelp she could not read it. At that point, the only thing we could advise the agent to do was to buy a pair of reading glasses.
The transaction closed.
In the spirit of cooperation, I often go out of my way to accommodate a buyer’s agent’s request; however, if that request is not in the contract and not in the seller’s best interest, the agent ain’t gonna get it. The agent can stomp his feet and parade up and down in front of my house carrying picket signs for all I care. Sometimes the answer is no, you are not entitled to know the answer. Giving parties to a real estate transaction answers to questions they are not entitled to know can lead to a potential lawsuit, especially if there is an adverse reaction. A Sacramento REALTOR should think before she speaks.
Practicing risk adversity is a good thing. It might not win popularity contests, but it elicits respect. And my clients love me for it.
Pleasing All of the People as a Sacramento Real Estate Agent
To paraphrase John Lydgate, a 14th-century English monk and poet, a real estate agent can’t please all of the people all of the time. In today’s Sacramento real estate market, an agent might wonder if she pleases all of the people some of the time but there’s no need to focus energy on that question since she pleases some of the people practically all of the time — those people being her clients.
It’s nice if everything balances in a real estate transaction, but it’s not always possible. Sometimes, an agent has to pick which side she wants to please, and most agents will always choose her client. Well, the ones with any brains.
The REALTOR Code of Ethics says an agent must treat all parties honestly and fairly, but it doesn’t stipulate making the other side — the side we do not represent — happy. Sure, we hope they’re happy and speaking strictly for myself I’d never want to purposely upset somebody else, but we can’t control what other people think, say or do. We can only control our own behavior.
This is why I get to be the rational and calm person. The agent who sticks to the purchase contract by managing performance and ensuring the transaction closes. I get to deal with all kinds of personalities in this business. I get the screaming hysteria, the weeping and sobbing poor me’s, the F-150s in a China shop, the indignant hyenas, the bipolar-sans-meds, the threatening gorillas, the barking dogs, the guys with explosives strapped to their backs, and that’s just the agents.
It’s a balancing act, sometimes, to try to keep that noise away from my clients but still deliver important information to my sellers.
I went to lunch last week with a Sacramento agent I met years ago on an agent website. She lives in Rancho Cordova and still sells real estate into her senior years, a ways past retirement, and I love her to pieces. She lamented that agents have become more mean lately. I wonder if it’s the transition into a normal real estate market that sets so many of them afire?
It’s tempting at times to return fire, that’s only normal, but it’s better for all concerned to keep my eyes on the horizon. That’s why so many sellers hire Elizabeth as their Sacramento real estate agent. Pleasing all of the people all of the time is unreasonable.
Honesty Should Not Be Tough For Real Estate Agents
Agents need to be truthful when asked if they have shown a property to their buyers if, for no other reasons, than the California Bureau of Real Estate makes honesty a requirement for a license and the REALTOR Code of Ethics demands it. You would think being honesty for real estate agents is a no brainer but some apparently disagree. The dishonest sort tend to twist honesty into a pretzel and a format they recognize, something they can rationalize, but there really is no rationalizing the truth. You are or you aren’t. You did or you didn’t. You did not have sexual relations with that woman. You are not a crook. You’re just some whack job driving a white Bronco very slowly.
We all get it. We all wish it would stop.
Except, sometimes, the people who perpetrate and give life, meaning and clarity to the unfortunately descriptive word: asshole. This sort doesn’t give a crap.
The California Bureau of Real Estate created bare-bone requirements to become a Sacramento real estate agent. You must be 18 (you do not have to be a high school graduate), you must complete 3 real estate courses, and an applicant for a real estate license must be TRUTHFUL and HONEST. Right there, that requirement probably knocks out at least 1 person out of every 5, yet they still get a real estate license because if they are untruthful, do you think they will admit it? Ack.
In the REALTOR Code of Ethics, the very first article a REALTOR pledges is to treat all parties HONESTLY. Yes, honesty for real estate agents is a prerequisite.
Yet, when a listing agent asks a buyer’s agent who submitted an offer the sellers want to accept if the agent showed the property to the buyers and the agent responds, “Yes, she loved it,” when the agent did NOT show the property, well, what do you make of that? When presented with the facts such as maybe the sellers were home all day and did not possess a business card from that agent, only then might the buyer’s agent admit that the buyer did not actually view the inside. Inferring, btw, that the buyer was outside of the property with the agent, which probably did not happen, either.
It’s the writer’s instinct in me, I ask questions and probe.
Agents, you might be tempted to “fudge” the facts even if you don’t see it as outright lying, but please don’t. Dishonesty is against the law, it’s against the Code of Ethics, and sellers might ignore your buyer’s offer when they find out what you did. I will tell them. It’s in my fiduciary to disclose what I know to my sellers. Just be honest. Why is honesty for real estate agents so tough?
Treating Sacramento Real Estate Agents Honestly in Multiple Offers
Much ado about multiple offers lately. So much of the stuff contained in the REALTOR Code of Ethics is simply good common sense for a Sacramento real estate agent to adhere to in her real estate practice, and it’s not “just words” to many agents. Not to mention, an agent can be reported to the Board of REALTORS and / or fined for violating the Code. It says things like a member needs to treat other members and clients honestly.
On the other hand, treating agents fairly means without prejudice, without discrimination, giving equal weight to all parties by being equitable, playing no favoritism, partaking in impartial dealings, being honorable. One of my goals when I am the listing agent and representing the seller in a transaction is to give buyer’s agents an opportunity to view the home and present an offer on a level-playing field. This means I am not sharing information about the content of offers with other agents unless authorized by the seller.
The Elizabeth Weintraub Team encourages buyer’s agents involved in multiple offers to submit their best offer upfront. Not every seller wants go through the counter offer stage in a multiple-offer situation. I have worked with sellers who enjoy that process, but many of them do not. Many sellers just want the best offer possible and do not want to dicker back and forth. So, agents who submit an offer and say “please counter us,” are a) doing their buyer a disservice by implying the buyer will offer more, which could possibly be breaking their fiduciary, and b) their words are falling on deaf ears if the sellers don’t want to counter.
During multiple offers for a home in Roseville yesterday, an agent pleaded and asked how high her buyer had to go to buy the home. I explained in that instance I can’t play favorites, and she needs to do the best that she can. My sellers did not authorize me to disclose offers.
I try to help my sellers weigh offers by looking at all aspects of the offer and not just the sales price. We discuss contingencies, debt ratios, FICO scores (if we get them), preapproval letters, and any special considerations an agent might include in the buyer’s offer. No financing rejections based on type of loan — cash is not king — closing escrow is king.
Ultimately, it’s always the sellers’ decision which offer to choose. Funny thing is yesterday, the sellers chose the offer from the agent who did the best that she and her buyer could do, and that agent did not receive any preemptive suggestions from me. This is the way the seller wanted it. Not to mention, what goes around in this world tends to come around. I hope when my Team sits on the other side of the table presenting an offer for a buyer, we will be treated honestly as well.
