Dual agency definition: Occurs when the same brokerage represents both the buyer and the seller under written agreement. This means that if a buyer has a buyers agreement with a real estate agent and the buyer has interest in a home that is listed under the same broker that the buyer’s agent works for, another agent or the same agent within the same office can represent the seller of the home of interest.

Just because there is a written agreement doesn’t mean it is safe to work under.

There isn’t even any fine print to warn the buyer. Dual agency can be detrimental to a buyer in certain situations. A company who advocates dual agency may say they work as a dual agency but actually perform similarly to a single agency. In small spaces, phone calls can be made with the buyer talking about pricing and terms and can be overheard. Faxes can accidentally be seen. Unintentionally an agent may be talking about a buyer by the coffee pot and be overheard by the sellers agent. If the sellers agent has information that may benefit the seller they must reveal the information to them because their fiduciary responsibility is to the seller.