I attended a seminar today, it is a seminar our market center holds yearly. It is required by our market center to be in compliance, I am assuming with our E & O insurance policy. I must say that every year it is quite entertaining. Our attorney comes in and gives a presentation on issues that come up in our industry. Today I took several things to mind. He mentioned that in the state of Texas, there are now more lawyers sueing real estate agents, but then stated that there were not more lawyers now than there were five years ago? You ask...ok, how is it that there are more lawyers now than then? Well he explained that because of all the reforms on medical malpractice lawsuits, many lawyers lost their bread and butter, so they have to make money some how right? Well guess where they directed their efforts now? Bingo! Realtors. He referred in no unspoken terms that the real estate industry was working with the state to try and reform real estate limits of liability as well, we will see.
Some other interesting information passed along to us:
He said that he recommends that all agents offer a "General Information and Notice to a Buyer" form. Have them read and sign it for your file.
Be a proactive phone caller, making sure to call your clients frequently..even if you have nothing to report to them. Being pro-active as opposed to re-active in this regard, always seems to prevent problems down the road.
If you know you have a client that is going to be a problem right up front, he said get rid of them then, do not wait until it bites you in the form of a lawsuit.
He noted that many of his clients that he represents, have not kept clean files on transactions, he also noted that you should keep everything regarding your client in that file, emails, faxes, etc... One of the issues he said he has had a problem with in the past is and agent sends and email, and requests a read reciept, well in court that does not hold up as notification to your client, how do you prove that your client was the person who opened and read that email? He said you need to try and get a reply email stating that they got it, and ask them how they feel about what you sent? Same goes with faxes.
And one last thing I might note, I never thought about this myself, but he has had many cases where a seller has not updated a sellers disclosure while the home has had repairs done to it while on the market. He said as a buyers agent you should always ask the selling agent for an updated sellers disclosure form. This protects your buyers from any misleading information about the property they intend to purchase.
Comments(5)