{"id":18028,"date":"2024-04-15T07:35:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T12:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/?p=18028"},"modified":"2024-04-15T11:17:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T16:17:02","slug":"should-agents-disclose-relation-to-clients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/real-estate-brokers\/should-agents-disclose-relation-to-clients\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you have to disclose if your clients are friends or family?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re a real estate professional looking to take a familial client under your wing, you may be wondering if you\u2019re legally obligated to disclose your relation, and to who.<\/p>\n<p>In general, it\u2019s encouraged that if there is a personal relationship, it is disclosed, however, it is only required if you are a Realtor. The National Association of Realtors states in Article 4 of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nar.realtor\/about-nar\/governing-documents\/code-of-ethics\/2021-code-of-ethics-standards-of-practice\">NAR Code of Ethics<\/a> that,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cREALTORS\u00ae shall not acquire an interest in or buy or present offers from themselves, any member of their immediate families, their firms or any member thereof, or any entities in which they have any ownership interest, any real property without making their true position known to the owner or the owner\u2019s agent or broker. In selling property they own, or in which they have any interest, REALTORS\u00ae shall reveal their ownership or interest in writing to the purchaser or the purchaser\u2019s representative.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When reading between the lines of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realtor.com\/advice\/buy\/what-do-the-status-remarks-mean-active-contingent-etc\/\">industry jargon<\/a>, we see that this clearly states a Realtor must disclose the relationship as it could be a conflict of interest on either side of the parties\u2019 transaction.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What types of relations must be disclosed? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18031\" src=\"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Family-1.jpg\" alt=\"Family photo on a bridge\" width=\"445\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Family-1.jpg 445w, https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Family-1-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 445px) 100vw, 445px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The NAR\u2019s Code of Ethics says the disclosure relates to <em>immediate<\/em> family members, but who all is included in this statement may differ depending on state law. The agent can ask the broker for clarification, though it typically includes those related by blood or marriage such as the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Spouses<\/li>\n<li>Children<\/li>\n<li>Parents (including in-laws)<\/li>\n<li>Siblings (including those with adoptive, foster, step-, or half-relationships)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Yet, in some instances, the definition of immediate family can be expanded to the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Grandparents<\/li>\n<li>Grandchildren<\/li>\n<li>Aunts and uncles<\/li>\n<li>First cousins<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To cover all bases, it\u2019s best to disclose the relationship early and <a href=\"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/big-data\/nar-report-relationship-between-real-estate-pros-and-home-buyers\/\">in writing<\/a>. Nicholas B. Creel, an assistant professor of accounting and business law at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville says,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cListing agents should even consider disclosing this information up front in the MLS.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In addition, many states include a required written form regarding the disclosure of the relationship to the client, and as Brittney Dale for DH Realty Partners in San Antonio, TX says,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cDisclosure is always the best policy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re a real estate professional looking to take a familial client under your wing, are you legally obligated to disclose your relation?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337918,"featured_media":20542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[332,2243,1234],"class_list":["post-18028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-brokers","tag-mls","tag-nar-code-of-ethics","tag-real-estate-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/FamilyWorkingTogether.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337918"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18028"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19219,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18028\/revisions\/19219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}