When you work with a real estate agent in buying or selling real estate, the Canadian Real Estate Association requires that you be informed whom the agent is representing in the transaction.

As a prospective buyer or seller, you should know that in Ontario:

*It is generally assumed that, unless one or both of the parties otherwise disclose, the agent and the firm representing the seller is the seller's agent and the agent and the firm representing the buyer is the buyer's agent.

The Agent's Duties And Obligations Include:

LOYALTY: To serve your best interests ahead of anyone else's, including their own and at all times to exercise good faith and to disclose all known facts and information which may influence your decisions.

OBEDIENCE: As long as the request is legal, and within the scope of the exercise of agency, the Agent is obligated to do as the client asks. Something considered unreasonable may be discussed with the client, but may not be arbitrarily refused.

DISCRETION: To keep confidential your private circumstances which you shared with the agent or their firm has learned.

ACCOUNTING: Of all money, deposits or other property entrusted to them.

A Buyer's Agent's role is not as a salesman, but as an agent. If you have any questions regarding the role and responsibilities of real estate agents, please ask.