Ethical Obligations to Sellers

I got a call this weekend from an agent representing potential buyers on one of my listings. He gave me some information on what his clients were thinking and then asked that I not share that information with my client.

This is information that is clearly pertinent to the deal at hand. Given that, it's my ethical obligation to disclose that information to my client. I can not know things that are relevant to the sale of her property and not disclose that information to her. I do have a duty of confidentiality, but not to another real estate agent!

The odd thing is that this guy has been in the business a very, very long time. He's enormously successful and well-loved by his clients. And, I'm going to assume knows perfectly well that I can't keep the information he disclosed from my client.

So...maybe he was just hoping I wouldn't realize it?

Hopefully he had the OK from his clients to disclose that information to me!

I've mentioned it here before and I'll say it again. Real estate agents talk too much! It's good to remind myself of this problem from time to time!

If you're a consumer you should know that a real estate agent with whom you have an agency relationship owes you the duty of confidentiality. Given human nature, if you tell them something you want kept in confidence, it doesn't hurt to remind them!

re: Ethical Obligations to Sellers

re: Ethical Obligations to Sellers

Susan,

Agreed! Going back to my earlier post about the lender who's leaving the business, my gut is that some of the wrong people are leaving and some of the wrong people are staying.

I don't think additional training requirements would make a bit of difference to situations like this. I'm not altogether sure how we change this kind of behavior in highly successful, very experienced agents!

Julie