A GUIDE TO TENNESSEE S AGENCY AW - TN …（田纳西州S机构AW - TN指南u2026）.pdfVIP

A GUIDE TO TENNESSEE’S AGENCY LAW FOR REAL ESTATE LICENSEES, BROKERS, AND INSTRUCTORS Published by ® the Tennessee Association of REALTORS in cooperation with the Tennessee Real Estate Educational Foundation INTRODUCTION Why does someone obtain a real estate license? The answer really has nothing to do with the right to buy or sell real estate. Anyone with enough money or financing can do that! A real estate license is all about representation. The license permits someone to represent another party in the purchase or sale of real estate, to safeguard their interests, to treat them honestly, to serve them with professionalism. This relationship – between a real estate client and the licensed professional representing the client – is what agency is all about. To become someone’s agent imposes several duties on the real estate professional, above and beyond expectations of fairness and basic competence. A consumer can and should have higher expectations of a licensed professional when that professional becomes the consumer’s agent. Among other things, the consumer may give instructions to his or her agent, expecting them (as long as those instructions are legal) to be carried out faithfully. Bill Tune – a former REALTOR, instructor, and respected Chairman of the Tennessee Real Estate Commission – used to begin discussions of agency by noting that, in Western law, the legal concept of agency has its origins in the King-messenger relationship from medieval times. The client is King, and the agent is the King’s messenger; the messenger is to act at the direction of (and in the best interests of) the client. The legal and fiduciary nature of this relationship is too often forgotten. Some real estate licensees see themselves as