Buyer agency

Key Takeaways

• A buyer's agent is a broker who has an agency relationship with only the buyer in a real estate transaction (RCW 18.86.010).
• A broker who renders brokerage services for a buyer is that buyer's agent by default, unless the firm appointed the broker to the seller, appointed the broker as a limited dual agent, or the broker is the seller (RCW 18.86.020).
• Buyer's agent duties under RCW 18.86.050 are loyalty, timely disclosure of conflicts, advice to seek expert help, confidentiality that survives termination, and a good faith and continuous effort to find a property.
• Showing a property to other prospective buyers, or representing competing buyers on the same property, is not by itself adverse to the buyer (RCW 18.86.050).

What It Means

Buyer agency is one sided representation of the person doing the buying. The firm and the buyer enter a services agreement, the firm appoints a broker, and from that point the broker works the buyer's interests rather than the transaction's. Washington's statutory label for that broker is buyer's agent, defined as a broker who has an agency relationship with only the buyer.

The word only carries weight. A buyer's agent is not a subagent of the seller and owes the seller no loyalty, although the duties every broker owes every party still apply in full: reasonable skill and care, honest dealing, timely delivery of written offers and notices, disclosure of known material facts, and an accounting for money received. On top of those, the buyer gets a working obligation. The broker must make a good faith and continuous effort to find a property, a duty that pauses while the buyer is already party to a purchase contract. Confidentiality is the piece students underrate: what the buyer says about their real ceiling, their motivation, or their financing cannot be handed across the table, before closing or after the Agency Relationship ends.

Labels vary. Chapter 18.86 RCW uses buyer's agent, seller's agent, and limited dual agent; it never uses Selling Broker, and the Northwest MLS residential purchase and sale agreement labels that side the Buyer Broker.

How It Works in Washington

In Washington, buyer representation starts with paperwork. RCW 18.86.020 requires the firm to enter a Written Services Agreement with the buyer before, or as soon as reasonably practical after, its appointed broker commences rendering real estate brokerage services. For a buyer that agreement carries a default term of 60 days with the option of a longer one, checkbox options for an exclusive or a nonexclusive relationship, the name of the appointed broker, and separately initialed consent to limited dual agency. The single carve out is commercial real estate: no services agreement is required when a broker performs brokerage services as a buyer's agent solely for commercial property.

The duties come from RCW 18.86.050: loyalty by taking no action adverse or detrimental to the buyer's interest, timely disclosure of conflicts of interest, advising the buyer to seek expert advice on matters beyond the broker's expertise, not disclosing confidential information from or about the buyer even after termination, and, unless otherwise agreed in writing, a good faith and continuous effort to find a property, which is not required while the buyer is party to an existing contract to purchase. The same section adds a dose of realism: showing a property the buyer is interested in to other prospective buyers, and representing more than one buyer through different brokers of the same firm in competing transactions on the same property, are not in themselves adverse to the buyer. Compensation terms offered by a party or a firm to the firm representing another party must be disclosed in writing before the parties reach mutual agreement (RCW 18.86.030(1)(g)). Our step by step guide to the first buyer journey covers that first meeting.

Example

Rashad signs a buyer services agreement with a Yakima firm: exclusive, 90 days, limited dual agency consent initialed. The firm appoints Ivy as his broker. He is preapproved to $430,000 but wants to open low on a house listed at $415,000.

Ivy writes the offer at $402,000 and says nothing about the $430,000 preapproval, because that is confidential information under RCW 18.86.050. The seller counters at $409,000 and Rashad accepts, $6,000 under the asking price. The listing offered the buyer's firm 2.5 percent, which is $10,225 on the $409,000 price, and that figure was disclosed in writing before the parties reached mutual agreement. That same week Ivy shows two other buyers houses in the same neighborhood, which RCW 18.86.050 says is not by itself adverse to Rashad. Had this deal fallen apart, her obligation to keep looking for him would have resumed the moment the contract terminated.

Common Mistakes and Exam Traps

• A buyer's agent is not a subagent of the seller, so an answer that runs the buyer's broker's loyalty back to the seller is wrong under RCW 18.86.050.
• Selling broker is not a term in chapter 18.86 RCW; the statutory labels are buyer's agent, seller's agent, and limited dual agent.
• Who pays does not decide who is represented, because RCW 18.86.080 says an agreement to pay or the payment of compensation does not establish an agency relationship.
• Representing several buyers who want the same house is not automatically disloyal, and RCW 18.86.050 says so directly.