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Working With Real Estate Agents in NC
Consumer protection information required by The NC Real
Estate Commission.
I
n every real estate sales transaction, a real
estate agent shall, at first substantial contact directly with a
prospective buyer or seller,
provide the prospective buyer or seller
with the following
information. (PDF File.)
Brief High Points For Review
First substantial contact between you and a
real estate agent is defined as the disclosure by you of
confidential information.
In NC, every licensed agent, as a default
position, is deemed to be working for the seller. The agent
you are speaking with, or emailed, and so forth, is obligated to
disclose all information, even confidential information you may have
mentioned to any seller.
This means that you should not reveal any
information that may give a seller an advantage. Examples
might be, an urgent need to relocate, sensitive financial considerations, etc.
Buyers have two choices given these parameters:
1) You may choose to work with the agent in this
manner, where he or she is called a (sub) agent of the seller.
It is our feeling that the vast majority of buyers in NC operate
this way. The agent can work with you to find suitable
properties and is obligated to provide you with material facts about
properties.
The advantage here for you, is that you can work
simultaneously with any number of agents. Throughout the
process however, guard your confidential information if any, and the
agent should remind you of this as time goes on.
2) Or, you may choose to work with the licensee as your
buyer's agent. In this case, the agent would no longer owe complete
information to the seller, but rather to you. There are two
ways to designate a buyer's agent:
A buyer's agency agreement can be in writing, in
which case it
is exclusive. Such an agreement can also be oral. In
that case it is NOT exclusive, it can be terminated at any time, and you may continue to work with other agents in
other areas.
At the time an offer is made however, if the agent
with the property you want is to represent you in the transaction,
then the buyer's agency agreement must be in writing, and therefore becomes
exclusive.
Summary Comment: We will work with buyers
under any arrangement where you feel most comfortable. We will
however, for a more complete understanding, need to go over these NC RE Commission Guidelines in detail
with you,
as opposed to simply reading this page.
Thank You.
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