Having been married in a previous life, there had been occasions when signatures and/or initials had been required by both spouses. I was married for 11 years and I remember times that when I was at work, my ex would sign or initial items for both of us. Yes, I had consented. Looking back, i'm not proud of that fact.
After reading Mike Coopers post: When a dishonest broker is promoted, he becomes . . .
I got to thinking...
When getting a Listing Contract or presenting an offer on a piece of property, how often does this actually happen? Especially when the Client is in another location?
I have seen other Agents' clients sign/initial for their better half. (At a previous Brokerage, Long Story).
I wouldn't be comfortable with this in this line of work, or any other for that matter...
I have had this happen, a couple of years ago, in front of me, once. ONCE! I told my client, that I could not ethically or morally stand by and watch them endorse their counterpart's supposed signatures/initials.
I destroyed that document and told them, I would need both parties signatures and initials. After reprinting the original document, the first spouse signed and initialed where required. The other spouse was at work and the document was taken away for the endorsements. When the first spouse returned, the document(s) were compliant.
Or were they?
Having seen the first spouse initial a page in place of their better half, I noticed that all of the pages had very similar initials.
Was it that this spouse in front of me was REALLY good at signing their partners name and initials? Or was it truly the other's signatures and initials. Being that this document was out of my eyesight, I could only speculate.
Does this happen in long distance negotiations? I wouldn't doubt it. Probably more often than I expect it to.
With the age of electronic signatures, this has the propensity to increase. But, that is only my guess.
Where would you draw the line?
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