Thursday, February 7, 2013

Inside Real Estate: Brokerage Relationships


There are three main types of relationship someone (who could be an individual, more than one person, a partnership, and a company) can have with a Colorado real estate broker.

In plain words, these are the three basic ways I as a broker can have a working relationship with you, and the obligations I have to you based on that relationship.

The first type of relationship is when you are a customer. If I meet you and I don't know your name, or I meet you when I am working as an agent for someone else, you are a customer to me. We do not have any written agreement.

The second type of relationship is when I am an agent. I may be a seller's agent or a buyer's agent, but we have a written contract and I have obligated myself to "represent you" or work FOR you. You are my client (or principal, or other similar term), and I may not necessarily get paid by you, but I will work on your behalf.

The third type of relationship is when I am a transaction broker. There may or may not be a written contract and the relationship is in-between a customer and a client. If there is no written contract and I am working with you in some way, Colorado considers the transaction-broker relationship as the default way that we are working together.

You don't get any special designation if you are in a transaction brokerage relationship with me or any Colorado real estate broker, although maybe the law will eventually come up with a name besides "party." However, I have more obligations to you when you are a party than when you are a customer.

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