Real Estate Fiduciary Duties Explained
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5 FIDUCIARY OF A REALTOR
[00:00:00] Today we're gonna talk about the fiduciary responsibilities of real estate agents. And I know a lot of you probably go, I didn't know that realtors had fiduciary responsibilities. Well, yes we do. And they're actually very important and I'm gonna explain what they are and why they're important for you to know about.
Hi, I'm Judith Barnett with Judith Barnett Sells Homes and My Home Group Realty. And as I said today, I wanna help you understand that fiduciary responsibilities are an important part of your realtor's role in working with you. Other businesses or professions, I should say. Then have fiduciary responsibilities would be attorneys, fiduciaries.
They manage people's estates and type things when they're unable to or don't want to. I [00:01:00] suppose if you're that wealthy, that'd be great. Also, trustees, a lot of times people that pass away, there's a trustee that's the executor of their estate, and so they have certain fiduciary responsibilities as well as financial advisors and investors we're all held to a very high standard, and the reason that is, is because.
It involves a lot of trust with usually investments and money, and so that's why I want to educate you in regards to what a realtor's fiduciary responsibilities are so that you know that you are working with a trusted professional when you are out there interviewing realtors for either buying a house or to help you sell your home.
The five fiduciary responsibilities that a realtor has are accounting, loyalty, obedience, [00:02:00] confidentiality, and disclosure. And I'll go into each one of those in detail here, but again, I always tell people at this point when I'm talking confidentiality, I said, I'm a former psychologist. I grew up in hipaa.
So I understand confidentiality. That means that for myself as a realtor, I don't share your information, conversations, things like that with the agent on the other side, with friends, family, other people. I can share what you tell me to share or allow me to share, but I don't share your personal information, your situation, any of that, unless it's been given permission to do so, because that's private between you and myself.
The other issue is, or fiduciary responsibility is disclosure, and I always say that this is really important and it's a part of the process. As all [00:03:00] of it is through the whole thing, but disclosure is something that happens before you list the house or before you decide to put an offer in, during the whole transaction process and even after.
And basically, disclosure has to do with anything that I might know about the property, the listing agent, the community, the area, anything I know about comps, anything that's gonna affect your decision to either list a house. Or to put an offer in on a house and or to move forward once you are under contract.
So disclosure also involves that disclosure period, that due diligence when the buyer is researching a home, doing home inspections. All of that is part of the disclosure and due diligence, you know, type thing. The next one is accounting, and I always kind of laugh because back in the day, agents used to get money, like the earnest money.
They'd get [00:04:00] handed a check and they're like. Okay, I'm gonna take this to the scroll office and give it to them. And I honestly, I tell my clients, I really don't have anything to do with your actual money. I don't touch your money, but it's important that I make sure that they're getting all of this signed documents, that they're getting copies of all the fully executed documents.
That they're making sure that the numbers on the offer are correct, that as we're negotiating maybe credits and things like that, that I'm getting the numbers correct and I'm just accountable. I mean, to me that's what accounting is as well, is that I'm accountable for my behavior, my actions, my work to my clients, and as I tell my clients, I work for you.
You hired me to help you buy a house. Sell a house. So I work for you. And that comes to loyalty and obedience. And obedience is kind of an interesting, I call it interesting. Loyalty and obedience. Always make people think of [00:05:00] like animals, pets, especially dogs. 'cause they're very loyal, they're very obedient usually.
And obedience comes into play. That again, I work for you. My job is to advise you on what you can and cannot do, whether you're buying or selling, and my job is to tell you, we have to hit this mark. We can do this, but we can't do that. However, when there's choices, my job is to give you all your choices.
Just kind of like when you go to the doctor and you're getting treatment recommendations. I'm here to give you your choices. I will give you my best recommendation. However, your decision may not match what I think is the best recommendation back to, I work for you, so I will do what you ask me to do. I will be obedient to do what you ask me to do, as long as it's not illegal or unethical.
Okay? So that's what obedience is, is I work for you. And then loyalty really is, I've got your back. I work with a lot of veterans, so that really makes a [00:06:00] big impact. But I've got your back. I'm gonna stick up for you. I'm gonna defend you. I'm going to go to back for you. I'm gonna stick by you until we get.
The objective that you wanted either to buy or sell a home, that I'm gonna stay there. I'm going to support you. I'm going to educate you. I am there. I am your best, best buddy for as long as it takes. And so it's that thing. It's like I'm by your side kinda like a loyal dog. I'm, I'm not a dog, but I'm just saying they stick by you.
They don't go running off. They stand by you. They stick by you, and they listen. They advise and sometimes it can get pretty rough when you're going through a transaction, whether you're buying or selling, and it gets a little stressful. Selling a house can be extremely stressful, and so I always like to stay in close contact.
I'm loyal, I stay connected. I don't just list your house and disappear. So those are the five [00:07:00] fiduciary responsibilities of real estate agents, loyalty, obedience. Disclosure accounting and confidentiality, and we'll have those listed on the side here for you to look at in more detail. Thank you for listening and I appreciate you and I appreciate you.
Please like and subscribe to my YouTube channel below so that you can get any future videos, updates and notifications. I aim to post a video at least once a week, so please stay tuned for more information regarding real estate. From your real estate buddy.
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