The Kansas Real Estate Commission prepared this email to provide an overview of common violations. This is an example only, as different facts in a case may result in a different outcome.
Question
Ms. Lewis is ready to sell her home and signs a seller agency agreement with ABC brokerage. Salesperson Ryan and “The Ryan Team” are named as the designated seller’s agents in the agency agreement. Salesperson Ryan signs the agreement on behalf of the brokerage and starts marketing the property.
A few days later, Salesperson Ryan is called out of town to attend to a sick relative. In route, Salesperson Ryan is contacted by his licensed assistant, Salesperson Sandy, regarding an offer received by a licensee from a different brokerage. Salesperson Ryan calls Ms. Lewis and Ms. Lewis is not comfortable reviewing the offer without her agent present. Ms. Lewis agrees to meet with Salesperson Sandy to go over the offer.
Salesperson Sandy meets with Ms. Lewis and presents the offer. Salesperson Sandy explains that she is part of the Ryan Team and therefore is a designated seller’s agent along with Salesperson Ryan. Salesperson Sandy assists Ms. Lewis in negotiating the contract and functions as a designated seller’s agent.
Did Salesperson Sandy comply with Kansas law?
Answer
No. Kansas law requires the designated agent(s) to be specifically named in the agency agreement. Salesperson Sandy was not specifically named as a designated agent in the seller agency agreement.
In the scenario above, the names of the individual licensees who were to function as designated agents for Ms. Lewis should have been specifically named in the agency agreement. Salesperson Sandy violated K.S.A. 58-30,109(b)(1).
K.S.A. 58-30,109(b)(1). A broker may personally, or through the broker’s duly authorized licensed representative, specifically designate, in a written agency agreement obtained pursuant to K.S.A. 58-30,103, and amendments thereto, one or more affiliated licensees who will be acting as legal agent of the buyer client or seller client to the exclusion of all other affiliated licensees.
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