Two agents, one house, and a seller's bottom line
You are the broker/owner of a nine-agent brokerage in a Columbus suburb. Alex, your listing agent, holds a signed exclusive-right-to-sell listing on a $540,000 house. The sellers are relocating out of state and must close within 45 days. They told Alex confidentially that they would accept $515,000 if the buyer can close on time, and that a foundation repair was done two years ago without a permit. Priya, another agent in your office, represents buyers who have toured the home twice and whose maximum is $520,000. At the water cooler Priya asks Alex, 'Do they have any wiggle room, and is there anything wrong with the house?' Your office policy prohibits dual agency but permits designated agency. Neither the sellers nor Priya's buyers have signed any consent to dual or designated representation.
1. Can your brokerage represent both sides in this transaction? Describe the written disclosures and consents required and who must sign them.
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Not as things stand. Ohio permits a brokerage to represent both sides only through informed written consent - either dual agency, where the broker represents both parties, or designated agency, where the broker assigns different licensees to each side and those licensees advocate for their own client. Designated agency is the cleaner fit here: Alex keeps the sellers, Priya keeps the buyers, and neither shares the other client's confidences.
Before anything else, both the sellers and the buyers must receive the agency disclosure materials and sign a written consent that identifies the type of dual/designated representation, explains that the broker and the firm will not advocate exclusively for either side at the firm level, and states plainly what information will and will not be shared. The consent should be signed by the sellers and by the buyers (not merely by Priya), and it should be obtained before confidential information is exchanged.
If either side declines, the brokerage cannot represent both. One side is referred to another brokerage, in writing, and the remaining representation continues.
2. What may Alex tell Priya, and what must stay confidential? Address both the sellers' price floor and the unpermitted foundation repair.
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The price floor is confidential. The sellers' willingness to take $515,000 is information that, if disclosed, would harm their negotiating position. Alex may not tell Priya, hint at it, or confirm a guess. Even after a transaction ends, confidences survive.
The foundation repair is different. A known material defect in the property is not a confidence the broker may help bury. The sellers must disclose it on Ohio's Residential Property Disclosure Form. Alex's job is to advise the sellers in writing to amend the form and authorize disclosure, and to explain the consequences of concealment: the buyer's remedies for misrepresentation, potential rescission, and license discipline for any licensee who participates.
If the sellers refuse to correct the disclosure, Alex should escalate to you. The brokerage's options include declining to continue the listing; it may not simply stay silent and let the deal close on an inaccurate form. In a designated agency, Alex still owes the sellers advocacy, but advocacy never extends to assisting a misrepresentation.
3. The sellers consent to designated agency but Priya's buyers refuse. What happens next, and what do you do with the information Priya already has?
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With only one side consenting, there is no dual or designated agency. Your brokerage continues to represent the sellers through Alex. Priya's buyers must be told in writing that the firm cannot represent them in this purchase, that they should obtain representation elsewhere, and that any buyer agency agreement with your firm is terminated for this transaction. Practically, they need to move quickly because the sellers' 45-day clock is running.
Priya's knowledge creates a genuine risk. She toured the home twice and may have learned something about her buyers' finances or motivation. She may not use that information to the sellers' advantage, and she may not pass it to Alex. The safe practice is to wall her off from the transaction entirely: no updates, no file access, no hallway discussion. Document the termination and the wall-off in writing.
If Priya's buyers ask her to keep showing them other homes, that is a new agency decision made outside this transaction, with fresh disclosures and a signed agreement.