Selling broker

Key Takeaways

• In Washington the selling broker is the broker who represents the buyer, despite a name that sounds like the seller's side.
• The listing broker represents the seller, so the listing broker and the selling broker sit on opposite sides of the same transaction.
• Washington's agency statute never uses the phrase selling broker. RCW 18.86.010 calls the same role a buyer's agent, meaning a broker who has an agency relationship with only the buyer.
• Who pays the compensation does not decide who is represented. A selling broker paid out of the listing side still owes the buyer the duties in RCW 18.86.050.

What It Means

In Washington a selling broker is the broker who represents the buyer. The name is the most dependable trick question in the agency chapter, because the word selling points at the seller and the role does not. The broker who represents the seller is the Listing Broker. The broker who brings the buyer, writes the offer, and pushes for the buyer's price and terms is the selling broker.

The label comes from cooperative marketing rather than from statute. Under Multiple Listing Service rules the listing firm publishes the property and offers to compensate the firm that produces a buyer, and that second firm has long been called the selling firm because it found the person who bought. Payment moving between the listing brokerage and the selling broker is what makes cooperation between competing firms work at all. Washington's agency statute skips the phrase entirely and calls that same person a buyer's agent. Expect both terms in circulation, sometimes in one file: a purchase and sale agreement may name the selling broker while the agency disclosure describes buyer representation under a written services agreement. They point at one person and one set of duties.

How It Works in Washington

RCW 18.86.010 supplies the statutory vocabulary: a buyer's agent means a broker who has an agency relationship with only the buyer in a real estate transaction, and a seller's agent means a broker who has an agency relationship with only the seller. That definition, not the MLS habit of saying selling broker, is what a Washington disciplinary case turns on. RCW 18.86.020(1) sets the default: a broker who performs real estate brokerage services for a buyer is a buyer's agent unless one of the statute's exceptions applies, such as an appointment to represent the seller. The role attaches to conduct, so a broker who starts showing homes has taken a side whether or not anyone said so out loud.

Paperwork follows. Under RCW 18.86.020(2)(a) a firm must enter into a services agreement with the principal before, or as soon as reasonably practical after, its appointed broker commences rendering real estate brokerage services, and RCW 18.86.020(3) exempts a broker acting as buyer's agent solely for commercial real estate. The duties are in RCW 18.86.050: be loyal to the buyer by taking no action adverse or detrimental to the buyer's interest, timely disclose conflicts of interest, advise the buyer to seek expert advice beyond the agent's expertise, keep the buyer's confidential information confidential even after the relationship ends, and make a good faith and continuous effort to find property for the buyer. If the same broker ends up representing both sides, the arrangement becomes Limited Dual Agency and a different duty set applies.

Example

Tasha Bell, a broker with a Tacoma firm, meets Owen Pratt at an open house. Before she shows him anything, her firm signs Owen to a buyer services agreement, which is what RCW 18.86.020(2)(a) expects. Tasha writes Owen's $565,000 offer on a Puyallup listing held by Dale Ruiz at a different firm. Dale is the listing broker and Tasha is the selling broker, which means Dale represents the seller and Tasha represents Owen. The offer is accepted, and at closing the listing firm pays Tasha's firm the agreed 2.5 percent, or $14,125. That payment does not move Tasha to the seller's side. She still owes Owen the RCW 18.86.050 duties, including keeping confidential that Owen was prepared to go to $580,000, a fact she may not disclose to Dale even after the deal closes.

Common Mistakes and Exam Traps

• Selling broker means the buyer's broker. Choosing the seller's side because of the word selling is the single most common miss in the agency chapter.
• Source of compensation does not determine representation. A selling broker paid from the listing side still represents the buyer under RCW 18.86.050.
• Selling broker and seller's agent are not the same role. RCW 18.86.010 defines a seller's agent as a broker with an agency relationship with only the seller, which is the listing broker.
• One broker representing both buyer and seller is not a selling broker wearing two hats. That is limited dual agency, which carries its own consent requirement and its own duties.