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FAQ on Issues for Small Brokerages
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Go to FAQ on Issues for Small Brokerages
- I work at a small office with one managing broker and one representative. Can my office, through designated agency, act for a buyer and seller in a single transaction?
- I am licensed as a representative and work in a small office. There is a managing broker and one other representative working in my office who is my husband. Can my husband and I, through designated agency, act for a buyer and seller in a transaction?
- I am the managing broker of a small brokerage. Can I act as a designated agent for a client while also acting as my real estate professional’s managing broker in the same transaction?
FAQ on Issues for Small Brokerages
No. Not unless the exemption on dual agency applies.
A brokerage must, at a minimum, have a managing broker and at least two other real estate professional’s in order to represent both a buyer and seller in a transaction through designated agency.
Any brokerage practicing designated agency, regardless of its size, must also have policies and processes to ensure that client information is appropriately isolated and protected.
It depends. It may be acceptable if you have the informed consent of both clients, and as long as you ensure that: the confidential information of each client is protected; and you and your husband each exercise independent professional judgment, and act in the best interests of your clients.
If you are the designated agent for the seller, and a close relative of yours is the designated agent for the buyer, you and the other designated agent are both in a conflict of interest. Each of you must disclose this conflict to your respective clients so they can decide whether they wish to seek different representation.
Even if your respective clients consent to you and your husband acting as their designated agents in the transaction, doing so will expose you, your husband, and your brokerage to significant risk. You and your husband should carefully document all aspects of the transaction and be prepared to have your conduct in the transaction scrutinized at a later date.
No. You cannot act as a designated agent for the buyer while also acting as your real estate professional’s managing broker for the transaction.
It would not be appropriate for you to act as designated agent for the buyer while also supervising your real estate professional (the designated agent for the seller.) To do so would create a conflict between your duty as managing broker to treat the interests of all clients of the brokerage in an impartial and even-handed manner, and your duty as a designated agent to put your client’s interests ahead of all others.
Instead, you can either: With the buyer’s consent, designate another real estate professional of the brokerage to represent the buyer; or act as designated agent for the buyer, but delegate your duties as managing broker in respect of the transaction to another real estate professional of the brokerage.