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It's important to understand what legal responsibilities your real estate
salesperson has to you and to other parties in the transactions. Ask your
salesperson to explain what type of agency relationship you have with him or
her and with the brokerage company.

• Seller's representative (also known as a listing agent or seller's
  agent). A seller's agent is hired by and represents the seller. All
  fiduciary duties are owed to the seller. The agency relationship usually is
  created by a listing contract.
• Subagent. A subagent owes the same fiduciary duties to the agent's
  principal as the agent does. Subagency usually arises when a cooperating
  sales associate from another brokerage, who is not representing the buyer as
  a buyer's representative or operating in a nonagency relationship, shows
  property to a buyer. In such a case, the subagent works with the buyer as a
  customer but owes fiduciary duties to the listing broker and the seller.
  Although a subagent cannot assist the buyer in any way that would be
  detrimental to the seller, a buyer-customer can expect to be treated
  honestly by the subagent. It is important that subagents fully explain their
  duties to buyers.
• Buyer's representative (also known as a buyer's agent). A real estate
  licensee who is hired by prospective buyers to represent them in a real
  estate transaction. The buyer's rep works in the buyer's best interest
  throughout the transaction and owes fiduciary duties to the buyer. The buyer
  can pay the licensee directly through a negotiated fee, or the buyer's rep
  may be paid by the seller or by a commission split with the listing broker.
• Disclosed dual agent. Dual agency is a relationship in which the
  brokerage firm represents both the buyer and the seller in the same real
  estate transaction. Dual agency relationships do not carry with them all of
  the traditional fiduciary duties to the clients. Instead, dual agents owe
  limited fiduciary duties. Because of the potential for conflicts of interest
  in a dual-agency relationship, it's vital that all parties give their
  informed consent. In many states, this consent must be in writing. Disclosed
  dual agency, in which both the buyer and the seller are told that the agent
  is representing both of them is legal in most states.
• Designated agent (also called, among other things, appointed agency).
  This is a brokerage practice that allows the managing broker to designate
  which licensees in the brokerage will act as an agent of the seller and
  which will act as an agent of the buyer. Designated agency avoids the
  problem of creating a dual-agency relationship for licensees at the
  brokerage. The designated agents give their clients full representation,
  with all of the attendant fiduciary duties. The broker still has the
  responsibility of supervising both groups of licensees.
• Nonagency relationship (called, among other things, a transaction broker
  or facilitator). Some states permit a real estate licensee to have a type of
  nonagency relationship with a consumer. These relationships vary
  considerably from state to state, both as to the duties owed to the consumer
  and the name used to describe them. Very generally, the duties owed to the
  consumer in a nonagency relationship are less than the complete, traditional
  fiduciary duties of an agency relationship.

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