A Humble Servant: A Brief History of the Realtor

The client agent relationship that binds a Realtor to a client traces its origins back to the master/servant relationship of feudal England. The Realtor fills the roll of the servant and owing certain duties to the master in the relationship who is the client. Think of other agent relationships and it is much the same. If a football players wants to play on the west coast even though an east coast team is offering more money then the final decision is that of the client's.

When a Realtor signs a contract to work with a buyer or a seller they are signing on to be that person's servant. They then owe them the duties of care, obedience, loyalty, disclosure, accounting, and confidentiality. If a Realtor is working with a buyer and has signed nothing then not only do they not owe the buyer these duties they in fact owe them to the seller. This alone should make buyers want to have a signed agreement with a Realtor that makes it clear who the agent works for.


It is interesting to see people's reaction when you ask them to sign the buyer's agency agreement. They are under the impression that it obligates them to work with you where in reality it obligates the Realtor to work for them. The Realtor is the servant in this relationship, remember, and they are the ones that owe duties to the client.

What a Realtor is and who they work for has been changed by both common and statutory law over the years. It is just this year that the state of Virginia is requiring the buyer's agency agreement to be signed. Before that when a Realtor was showing property and nothing was signed then the law was a bit fuzzy on who they worked for and before that the law was clear that all Realtors worked for the sellers. It is the sellers after all who pay the real estate compensation.

It is important for people to know their rights and know who is being served in the type of relationship that is made when they sign a Realtor to serve them. If the public thought of it in that way then perhaps they wouldn't be so distrustful when asked to sign an agreement. It is after all an agreement in which they are the master and the Realtor is the servant.