Are You A Servant To Your Master?
I was going through one of my online courses today for my continuing education and this particular class deals with laws that govern agency. This was one area it addressed:
Common Law:
In England’s common law, the principal-agent relationship was a master-servant relationship, in that the servant owed absolute loyalty to his or her master, and it required that this loyalty replace any of the servant’s personal interests as well as any loyalty the servant owed to any other.
Hence the traces of common law can be identified in modern-day agency. In today’s agency, the agent owes the principal [your client] similar loyalty as in common law. Just as masters used the services of servants to accomplish what they could not (or did not want to) do for themselves, principals use the services of agents. In this way, the agent is regarded as an expert on whom the principal can rely for specialized professional advice.
With the exception of Louisiana (which uses a French based regulatory system), all U.S. states use common law as the foundation of their agency governance. The legal responsibilities of a broker are framed in the common-law form of agency.
Sometimes, it DOES feel like a servant-master relationship, doesn’t it? We strive to please, bend over backwards, act with humility, swallow our pride, take abuse, and let things roll off of our backs (sometimes literally!) in order to serve our clients. And for no money at ALL at times!
The ordinary Joe thinks that real estate is sooooooooo easy and that we make soooooooooooo much money. Ha! Walk a mile in my servant’s shoes, will ya? Because, dear master, I certainly walk in yours when trying to sell your home or find you the perfect one. And many times it is years of work for FREE.
Gayle Rich-Boxman, your humble servant....
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