I see it every day in advertising across the country. Agents advertise their expertise as buyer agents. They tell how great their services are. They tell how great the services of their 'team of buyer agents' is.
They work across the country for large franchise companies and small independents.
Much of the time when they advertise their services they are dishonest and are violating the ethical standards of the National Association of Realtors. Specifically, Article 12 of the Standards of Practice, are often violated. Article 12 says: REALTORS® shall be honest and truthful in their real estate communications and shall present a true picture in their advertising, marketing, and other representations.
When agents advertise their services as buyer agents, they violate that provision when they fail to disclose, in the advertising, the potential for dual agency that exists if their firm also represents sellers. That disclosure is a requirement of 'honest and truthful...communications...". It is required in order to present a 'true picture'.
Some Realtors carry the misrepresentation to an extreme by using web domain names with the term buyer agent, buyers1st, etc in the domain name. Most consumers seeing that are going to believe that the agent will definitely work with them as a buyer agent. Often, even when one goes to the website is it not disclosed or not clearly disclosed that the agent also works for sellers and that there is at least the potential for dual agency. This is a clear violation of Standard of Practice 12:10 which states in pertinent part: "REALTORS®’ obligation to present a true picture in their advertising and representations to the public includes the URLs and domain names they use...."
There are more and more real estate companies across the country that avoid the dual agency problem and so can truely and honestly advertise themselves as buyer agents. These companies NEVER represent sellers so the potential for dual agency does not exist.
If you are a consumer, looking for a buyer agent in your area, you may find an EXCLUSIVE BUYER AGENT (EBA) at: naeba.org. Members of NAEBA (the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents) have taken a pledge to exclusively represent buyers - and never sellers - and work for companies that maintain that as the core of their business model.
Paul Howard, Broker
NJHomeBuyer.com Realty (member of NAEBA)
Cherry Hill NJ 08002
856-488-8444
Recently, I had 2 car door magnets (see above) made. Note they don't mention my company - they mention NAEBA. I believe that is more likely to result in a lead than advertising my small local company. I do both, of course, but am never going to be as recognizable as the name "Century 21". (Tip-4)
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