Vocabulary Flashcards
Agency Relationship:
A fiduciary relationship between an agent and a principal where respective rights and duties are prescribed by laws of agency and by the agency agreement executed by the two parties.
Law of Agency:
A body of law defining roles, duties and responsibilities of an agent and a principal. Laws also set forth standards of conduct agent and principal owe to a customer.
Principal:
The employer in an agency relationship, to whom the agent owes fiduciary duties. (Client)
Agent:
The party in an agency relationship who is hired by the principal to perform certain duties. In so doing, the agent must also uphold fiduciary duties owed the principal.
Customer:
In agency law, a party outside of the fiduciary relationship of client and agent. If an agent treats a customer as a client, an implied agency may result.
Universal Agency:
A fiduciary relationship which empowers an agent to perform any and all actions for a principal that may be legally delegated.
General Agency:
A fiduciary relationship which authorizes the agent to conduct a broad range of activities for the principal in a particular business enterprise. May or may not include authority to enter into contracts.
Special Agency:
An agency relationship which restricts the agent’s authorizations to a specific set of duties. The relationship usually terminates on performance of these duties, as in a real estate broker’s listing agreement. (Limited Agency)
Implied Agency:
An agency relationship that arises by implication from the actions and representations of either agent or principal.
Fiduciary Duties:
Duties of an agent to the principal in an agency relationship, including skill, care, diligence, loyalty, obedience, confidentiality, disclosure, and accounting.
Single Agency:
The agent represents one party in a transaction. The client may be either seller or buyer.
Subagency:
An agency relationship between the client of a listing broker and other brokers and salespeople who have agreed to assist the broker in procuring a customer for the client. The assisting brokers are agents of the listing broker and subagents of the listing broker’s client.
Dual Agency:
Representing both principal parties to a transaction.
Facilitator:
A transaction broker who assists principal parties in completing a transaction without acting as a fiduciary agent of either party.
Disclosure:
Client disclosure. An agent who intends to represent a seller or owner must disclose the import of the proposed agency relationship in writing before the listing agreement is executed. The agent must inform the seller or landlord in writing that the agent will be representing the client’s interests as a fiduciary, and will not be representing the interests of any potential buyer.
Customer disclosure. A listing agent must disclose in writing to a buyer or tenant that the agent represents the owner in the transaction. This disclosure must occur before or at the first “substantive contact” with the customer prospect.
Contract:
A potentially enforceable agreement between two or more parties who agree to perform or not perform some act. If valid, the contract is enforceable, with limited exceptions.
Valid:
Legal status of a contract that meets requirements of: competence of parties, mutual consent, valuable consideration, legal purpose, and voluntary good faith. A prerequisite for enforceability.
Unenforceable:
State laws declare that some contracts are enforceable only if they are in writing. Thus, while an oral contract may meet the tests for validity, if it falls under the laws requiring a written contract, the parties will not have legal recourse to enforce performance. An oral long-term lease and an oral real estate sales contract are examples of contracts that may be valid but not enforceable.
Void:
An agreement that is null and cannot be enforced.
Voidable:
An agreement that is subject to being nullified because a party to the agreement acted under some legal disability. Only the disadvantaged party can take action to void the contract.
Consideration:
An item of tangible or intangible value, or one’s promise to do or not do some act which is used as an inducement to another party to enter into a contract.
Statute of Frauds:
A law requiring certain contracts to be in writing in order to be enforceable. Examples are real property conveyances, listing agreements, and longterm leases.
Offer and Acceptance:
A process that creates a contract. Acceptance is the offeree’s unequivocal, manifest agreement to the terms of an offer. The offer becomes a contract when the acceptance has been communicated to the offeror.
Counteroffer:
Any new offer or amended offer made in response to an offer.
Express:
An express contract is one in which all the terms and covenants of the agreement have been manifestly stated and agreed to by all parties, whether verbally or in writing.
Implied:
An unstated or unintentional agreement that may be deemed to exist by implication because of acts or statements by any of the parties to the agreement.
Unilaterial:
An agreement in which only one party promises to perform, contingent on the other party’s performance of an optional action.
Bilateral:
A contract where both parties promise to perform in exchange for performance by the other party.
Executory:
A completed agreement which enjoins one or both principal parties to perform certain actions in order for the contract to become fully executed.
Rescission:
Rescission is the act of nullifying a contract.
Listing Agreement:
The document that puts an agent or broker in business. A legally enforceable real estate agency agreement between a real estate broker and a client, authorizing the broker to perform a stated service for compensation. The unique characteristic of a listing agreement is that it is governed both by agency law and by contract law.
Exclusive Right:
A listing agreement which pays the listing broker a commission if anyone at all procures a customer.
Exclusive Agency:
A listing agreement which pays the listing broker a commission if anyone other than the property owner procures a customer.
Open Listing:
A non-exclusive listing which pays an agent a commission only if the agent is procuring cause of a ready, willing, and able customer.
Net Listing:
A listing which states a minimum sale or lease price the owner will accept, with any excess going to the broker as a commission. Professionally discouraged, if not illegal.
Buyer and Tenant Representation:
A broker’s listing with a buyer to locate a suitable property for purchase or lease.
Multiple Listing:
Multiple listing is a significant feature of brokerage practice. Multiple listing is an authorization to enter a listing in a multiple listing service.
Due Diligence:
Due diligence in the listing context refers to verifying the accuracy of the statements in the listing regarding the property, the owner, and the owner’s representations. Especially important facts for a broker or agent to verify are:
the property condition
ownership status
the client’s authority to act
Procuring Cause:
A party who was first to obtain a ready, willing, and able customer, or a party who expended the effort to induce the customer to complete the transaction.
Contract for Sale:
A real estate sale contract is a binding and enforceable agreement wherein a buyer agrees to buy an identified parcel of real estate, and a seller agrees to sell it under certain terms and conditions. It is the document that is at the center of the transaction.
Other names for the sale contract are agreement of sale, contract for purchase, contract of purchase and sale, and earnest money contract.
Vendor:
A seller in a real estate contract.
Vendee:
A buyer in a real estate contract.
Escrow:
An impound account used for the safekeeping of a buyer’s earnest money deposit; accompanied by specific instructions to the escrow agent for holding and disbursing the funds.
Contingencies:
A condition that must be satisfied for a contract to be binding and enforceable.
Default:
Failure to perform.
Buyer default: If a buyer fails to perform under the terms of a sale contract, the breach entitles the seller to legal recourse for damages.
Seller default: If a seller defaults, the buyer may sue for specific performance, damages, or cancellation
Option-to-Buy Contract:
An option-to-buy is an enforceable contract in which a potential seller, the optionor, grants a potential buyer, the optionee, the right to purchase a property before a stated time for a stated price and terms. In exchange for the right of option, the optionee pays the optionor valuable consideration.
Equitable Interest:
The optionee enjoys an equitable interest in the property because the option creates the right to obtain legal title. However, the option does not in itself convey an interest in real property, only a right to do something governed by contract law.
Contract for Deed:
A financial contract where a seller retains legal title to a property and gives the buyer equitable title and possession over a period of time. During the contract period, the seller finances all or part of the purchase price. If the buyer makes timely payments and abides by all contract provisions, the seller conveys legal title at the end of the contract period.
Fair Housing Laws:
Anti-discrimination legislation designed to ensure equal opportunity in housing to all home buyers.
Discrimination:
A failure to provide equal opportunity for persons to acquire or finance housing based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, handicapped status, marital status, or family status.
Misrepresentation:
A statement or act, or failure to make a statement or act, that misleads a party in a transaction. May be intentional or unintentional. May warrant legal recourse or license revocation.
Unequal Services:
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Services that differ in nature or quality from those normally rendered, with the alteration based on race, color, sex, national origin, or religion
Steering:
The prohibited practice of channeling prospective buyers and tenants toward or away from a particular area.
Blockbusting:
Inducing property owners to sell or rent their holdings due to an impending downturn in their property values, often owing to a change in the area’s ethnic or social composition.
Redlining:
The illegal lending practice of restricting loans by geographical area.
Jones v. Mayer:
In 1968, the Supreme Court ruled in Jones v. Mayer that all discrimination in selling or renting residential property based on race is prohibited under the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
Fair Financing Laws:
Anti-discrimination legislation designed to ensure that all parties have equal access to mortgage financing.
Disclosure:
In compliance with applicable laws and to promote respect for the real estate profession, licensees should be careful to disclose
that the agent is going to receive compensation from more than one party in a transaction
property defects if they are reasonably apparent; however there is no duty to disclose a defect which it would require technical expertise to discover
any interest the agent has in a listed property if the agent is representing a party concerning the property
any profits made on a client’s money
the agent’s identity in advertisements
Transferability:
How readily or easily title or rights to real estate can be transferred.
Anticipation:
The benefits a buyer expects to derive from a property over a holding period.