AK Real Estate common mistakes
AK Real Estate · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Getting a friendly verbal "sure, that's fine" from both principals and then proceeding to act as a dual agent in the transaction.
Candidates memorize the phrase "dual agency requires consent" but not that the consent must be informed, in writing, and obtained before the dual role arises. A relaxed verbal yes feels sufficient in the moment, especially when both parties are present and eager to move forward.
What to do instead
Before you take confidential information from a buyer on a listing you represent (or vice versa), have both principals sign a consent-to-dual-agency that states what will and will not be disclosed. If you cannot get it, keep the unrepresented side a customer and route communication accordingly, or refer the side out.
Advising a buyer that they can still accept the seller's original offer after the seller has responded with a counteroffer, or treating a counteroffer as a document the seller can pull back after it has been accepted.
Offer and counteroffer are taught as a single rule, so candidates remember "counteroffer" without internalizing that the counteroffer operates as a rejection that terminates the original offer, and that acceptance of a counteroffer closes the contract.
What to do instead
Draw the offer-counteroffer chain on scratch paper every time: offer out, counteroffer = rejection plus new offer, acceptance of counteroffer = binding contract, revocation effective only when communicated before acceptance. Answer only from the drawn chain, not from memory.
Quoting a buyer a monthly payment that is principal and interest only and presenting it as "your payment," without taxes, insurance, mortgage insurance, or HOA dues.
The math is easy to do on a calculator and produces a satisfyingly precise number, so candidates stop there. The lender's pre-approval figure (which includes escrows) is mentally filed as a separate topic rather than the same conversation.
What to do instead
Compute and present PITI plus any mortgage insurance and association dues, label it clearly as an estimate, and state that only the lender can issue a pre-approval or a binding payment figure. Show the tax and insurance assumptions next to the number.
Telling a buyer that a quitclaim deed "guarantees clear title," or that the buyer is protected because the lender required a title insurance policy.
Deed types and title insurance are studied in the same chapter, so the words blur: candidates remember that title insurance protects against defects and attach that protection to whatever deed appears on the document.
What to do instead
Separate the two ideas explicitly. The deed type controls the grantor's warranties: a quitclaim conveys only whatever interest the grantor has, with no warranty; a general warranty deed carries the broadest covenants. Title insurance is a separate product: the lender's policy protects the lender up to the loan balance, and only an owner's policy protects the buyer's equity.
Reassuring a buyer who is purchasing a property with a grandfathered use that they can remodel, add on to the structure, or rebuild after a fire without any further approval.
Candidates correctly learn that a legal nonconforming use may continue, then over-extend the rule to changes that increase or intensify the use. It surfaces as a comforting answer to a buyer's practical question about a property they like.
What to do instead
State the rule as continuation only, not expansion: enlargement, intensification, and post-casualty reconstruction of a nonconforming use are limited or prohibited by the local code, and any change requires confirmation from the zoning or building department. Advise the buyer to verify in writing before removing contingencies.
Building a CMA by averaging the sale prices of three comparables, including one that is materially larger or in different condition, with no adjustments made to any of them.
Averaging produces a single defensible-looking number, and the comparables were "recent sales nearby," which satisfies the checklist. Adjusting each comparable to the subject requires judgment the candidate is not yet comfortable defending.
What to do instead
Adjust each comparable to the subject for size, bedroom count, condition, age, and date of sale, then weight the comparables that required the smallest and fewest adjustments. Present a supported range with the reasoning shown, rather than one averaged point value, and keep price (what a buyer agreed to) separate from value (what the market supports).
Running an ad, flyer, or social media post for a listing that names only the salesperson or team and omits the licensed brokerage's name, or promoting another firm's listing without permission.
Personal branding and team names dominate the licensee's own marketing instincts, and a social post feels informal rather than like regulated advertising. Candidates also assume that any listing is fair game to promote because it is publicly visible.
What to do instead
Include the licensed brokerage's name in every advertisement of a property or of the licensee's services, obtain the seller's written consent to advertise the listing, and get written permission from the other firm before advertising a listing held by another brokerage. Treat every post, story, and flyer as advertising subject to the same rule.
Prorating taxes, rents, and other closing items so the seller is charged through the day of closing, or switching between a 30-day/360-day month and actual calendar days partway through the same problem.
The candidate memorized a rule of thumb from another state or a prep course and applies it without reading the contract's stated proration method; under time pressure the method that comes to mind first wins.
What to do instead
Before calculating, write the exact date span and the contract's stated method on the page: actual calendar days with a 365-day year unless the contract says otherwise, with the seller debited through the day before closing (the buyer owns the day of closing). Do every proration with the same stated method and show the daily rate and number of days.
A salesperson agreeing with a client to accept compensation directly from that client, or depositing a buyer's earnest money check into the salesperson's own account or the brokerage's general operating account.
Candidates who move from another industry treat the salesperson as an independent business owner who bills the client, and they conflate the broker's business account with the account where client funds belong.
What to do instead
All compensation is negotiated by and paid to the employing broker, who then pays the salesperson under their agreement; nothing flows directly from a client to a salesperson. Client funds go into the broker's designated trust account under the Commission's trust-funds rules and are never commingled with operating money. When in doubt, check the current A.R.C. statute and regulations and the broker's written policy before touching the money.
Assuming that whoever records a deed first wins no matter what they knew about a prior unrecorded interest, or that an unrecorded deed is invalid between the parties.
Candidates collapse pure race, notice, and race-notice recording statutes into one vague idea of "first to record wins," and they conflate the recording system with the requirements for a valid transfer.
What to do instead
Apply the two-step test: a deed is valid between grantor and grantee upon delivery, with no recording needed; recording provides constructive notice to the world and establishes priority. Under Alaska's race-notice recording statute, a later purchaser prevails only if it records first and took without notice of the prior interest, so always ask both "who recorded first" and "who knew what."