Dual Agency = Red Flag? 🚩

I had the honor to share an opinion with the San Francisco Chronicle this past Sunday. The topic was "Should a Realtor ever represent both buyer and seller?"

My response:

"As licensed agents, we are obliged to provide our clients with fiduciary duty. In short, we must act in the best interests of our clients and not our interests, financial or otherwise. There's a scene in the television show Scandal where Kerry Washington's character, Olivia Pope, finds herself in a sticky situation and Guillermo Diaz's character, Huck, who works for Olivia compares their loyalty and duty to her to that of a gladiator. Gladiators can only serve one person, Huck proclaims, "We are (Olivia's) gladiators."

When working with our clients, we assume the role of gladiator. We give it our all for our client's best interests. While it may be possible to successfully represent both the buyer and seller in the same transaction, it's not just frowned upon but should anything go sideways the agent is usually the first to be scrutinized. This brings me to my next point, if you don't take my word for it, our insurance provider absolutely will not tolerate any of our agents representing both sides of a transaction.  

To sum things up, an agent can represent both sides of a transaction but more can go wrong than right."

One of the primary reasons I decided to enter into the world of real estate and open a brokerage is the amount of unscrupulous and backroom practices within the industry. I wanted to uplift the standard of what the public can expect out of a real estate firm especially today as the entire industry is facing a barrage of consumer lawsuits, we want to ensure that we keep our clients, your, interests as the guiding light to every action and decision we make. 

Thank you for choosing METIS, your support and referrals mean the world to us.