The Unlicensed Assistant and the Sunday Open House
Amy is the designated broker of a small Seattle firm. In June she hires her nephew, Theo, as a "marketing assistant" at $22 an hour. He is not licensed and has not sat for the exam. Over six weeks Theo: (1) posts listing photos and the asking price on the firm's Instagram; (2) hosts Sunday open houses alone, telling visitors the seller "would probably take $30,000 under list" because the sellers are relocating; (3) emails a buyer's agent the Form 17 and, when asked, says "the roof is about five years old and there's never been water in the basement"; (4) drafts an offer for a walk-in buyer on a firm form and texts it to Amy saying "sign here and I'll get it to the seller"; and (5) hands out the agency pamphlet at open houses. Amy reviews his texts only when she needs something.
1. Which of Theo's five activities require a license, and which (if any) are permissible for an unlicensed assistant?
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1. Social media posts. Generally permissible for an unlicensed assistant if the ad identifies the firm and the supervising licensee, and if Theo is not the person a consumer contacts to discuss the property's terms. Advertising content and accuracy rules still apply.
2. Solo open house with price and motivation talk. Unlicensed brokerage. Quoting what the seller "would take," describing seller motivation, and discussing terms is negotiation. This is the most serious item-it also leaks a client's motivation to strangers.
3. Sending the Form 17 and answering condition questions. Relaying a seller's written disclosure verbatim, with attribution, may be permissible. Making his own statements about the roof and the basement is not. If the seller never said those things, Theo created a misrepresentation the firm now owns.
4. Drafting an offer and asking Amy to sign it. Soliciting and drafting an offer is the practice of real estate brokerage. Unlicensed.
5. Handing out the pamphlet. The physical handout is not the violation-but the agency disclosure duty belongs to the licensee, who must provide and explain it. Distribution alone does not discharge it.
2. What is Amy's exposure as designated broker?
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The designated broker owns supervision, and "he's family and he's just marketing" is not a defense. The test is what a person does, not the title on the payroll.
Amy is exposed for:
- Permitting unlicensed brokerage activity by an employee, which is a violation independent of any harm to a consumer.
- Failing to supervise and review communications-her practice of reading texts only when convenient means the firm cannot show what was said, which is itself a recordkeeping failure.
- Agency disclosure and advertising compliance failures.
- Misrepresentation risk from Theo's statements about the roof and the basement, which the firm may have to defend.
Aggravating factor: the conduct ran for six weeks without interruption. That is not a single mistake; it is a missing control.
3. What supervisory structure fixes this, and what must happen with the buyer whose offer Theo drafted?
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Structure, in writing: an unlicensed-assistant agreement listing permitted tasks (advertising placed under a licensee's name, scheduling, delivering documents, answering factual questions by reading from preprinted materials with attribution, clerical work) and prohibited tasks (quoting or negotiating price or terms, discussing seller motivation, hosting open houses alone, drafting or presenting offers, advising on value). Add hard rules: no open house without a licensee present; all client communication through firm accounts and subject to review; weekly review of outbound messages; and a licensing deadline for Theo with logged experience hours.
The drafted offer: a licensee must review it immediately, contact the buyer, disclose that Theo is unlicensed and cannot act on the buyer's behalf, and re-paper the offer through a licensed broker-or let it go if the buyer prefers. Do it before the offer reaches the seller, not after.
Preserve everything now. Every text, email, and sign-in sheet. If any of Theo's statements induced a buyer to act, the firm should assume it will be alleged in a complaint, and its own records are the only defense. Amy's review habit means some of those records may already be gone; find out today how much is missing.