("He" is meant to represent "he or she" in this report.)

IN THE BEGINNING all real estate people were considered to be working for the seller. But a real estate agent was not required to tell the buyer that since all agents in the transaction were working for the seller, the buyer was not only receiving no representation and that no one was looking out for his interests, but that everything the agent knew about the buyer would be passed on to the seller! That information almost always included what the buyer would and could pay for the property, how much money he had, and any other "secrets" that might have been beneficial for the seller to know.

With the consumer awareness prevalent in the '80s, buyers began questioning this one-sided process and the lack of representation, and then demanding that real estate agents work for them, too. Since the entire commission structure had been based on everyone working for the same master, the seller, this representation the buyer wanted presented all sorts of problems for real estate people. The buyer had always been a customer, not a client, since agents didn't work for the buyer. Every agent within a company was considered an agent of that seller whose property was listed for sale. Agents from other companies who showed that seller's property were known as "subagents", and were also working for that seller (if they wanted to get paid), thereby causing the seller to be responsible for their actions and sometimes their misstatements, too. Public awareness of this "vicarious liability" that resulted caused most states, Colorado included, to require that real estate people disclose to prospective clients and customers what was really going on.

These disclosures and the resulting public awareness made working for the buyer and the seller in the same transaction more difficult for real estate agents, especially if the buyer demanded equal representation. So in order to make consumers happy and still find a cure for diminishing income, real estate people needed to devise ways that an agent could work for the seller and still appear to be working for the buyer. That's when the industry sanctioned Dual Agency (attempting to work for the buyer and seller both as clients at the same time) as an accepted practice. Up to this point, dual agency had been avoided except in extreme circumstances (it's so complex and fraught with problems that even attorneys don't do it). Dual agency was prohibited in Colorado January 1, 2003. At the same time it became legal for a Real Estate Company to represent both the Buyer and the Seller as their agent, as long as it was different agents in that company who represented each side.

For real estate people/companies who were afraid of the liabilities created by trying to represent the buyer and seller at the same time, the real estate industry created "Transaction Broker", a new breed of real estate person who would represent neither the buyer nor the seller, sort of a taxi driver/paper filler-outer/non-agent who wouldn't advise, but could still collect the full commission at closing. The real beauty of Transaction Brokerage for the industry was that a (presumably) no liability way had finally been created for one company to work with the buyer and seller both in the same transaction, and keep the full commission from both sides of the transaction.

Almost any real estate person will tell you he can "act" as your buyer agent, but we're not acting. Buyer agency is our only business, because we believe that you deserve representation from an agent who is fully committed to promoting your interests 100% of the time (not just half the time or not at all). If ever there is even the semblance of a conflict, such as if you should decide you want to buy a house owned by another of our buyer clients, we will refer you to a buyer agent (acceptable to you) outside our company to ensure that your interests will not be compromised in any way.

We believe that your choice of what type of agent working under what type of agency (or none, as in the case of a Transaction Broker), is the single most important choice you'll make in the entire process. That choice will affect every aspect of your purchase transaction. It would be impossible for a real estate person be a Transaction Broker during negotiations for his own home, since he couldn't help but have his own interests at heart. So don't be fooled into thinking that he, as a Transaction Broker, could possibly have your interests at heart. Only an agent committed to working for buyers, an Exclusive Buyer's Agent, will treat your home purchase with as much care as he would his own, without compromise. Who wouldn't want that?