A Realtor is a licensed real estate agent who belongs to the National Association of Realtors and, by that membership, agrees to a Code of Ethics on top of state licensing rules.1National Association of REALTORS®. The Code of Ethics What a Realtor is supposed to do, in plain terms, is represent you in a real estate transaction: price or evaluate the property, market it or search for one, draft and negotiate the offer, and shepherd the contract through inspections, financing, and closing. Behind each of those tasks sits a set of legal duties the Realtor owes you personally, and understanding those duties is the difference between hiring an agent and hiring an advocate.
The Duties a Realtor Owes You
When you sign a representation agreement, the relationship is fiduciary. The Realtor is legally required to put your financial interests ahead of their own. Most states recognize six core duties.
Your Realtor must follow your lawful instructions, even when they disagree with the strategy. They must work solely for your benefit and not secretly assist the other side. They must disclose every material fact that could affect the property’s value or your decision, including defects, liens, and competing offers. They must keep your sensitive information confidential, including your bottom-line price, your financial situation, and your motivation for buying or selling, and that duty continues after the relationship ends. They must account for every dollar entrusted to them, especially your earnest money, and never commingle your funds with their own. And they must apply professional skill and reasonable care so that careless mistakes don’t cost you money.
These duties come from common-law agency principles and are reinforced by state licensing statutes. A Realtor acting as your single agent owes you all of them. A transaction broker, a role recognized in some states, facilitates the paperwork without advocating for either side and does not owe the full fiduciary package. Know which one you’re hiring before you sign anything.
Pricing, Searching, and Market Analysis
One of the most useful things a Realtor does is translate raw market data into a defensible number. For sellers, that comes as a Comparative Market Analysis: recent sales of similar properties, typically those that closed within the past three to six months inside a tight geographic radius, compared on square footage, bedrooms and bathrooms, lot size, condition, and upgrades. A good CMA keeps sellers from leaving money on the table and keeps buyers from overpaying.
The Multiple Listing Service is the primary database powering that analysis. Cooperating brokers share listing information through the MLS, and the data there is generally more reliable than consumer-facing websites, which can lag on price changes or misstate a property’s status. On the buyer side, your Realtor uses the MLS to filter listings against your budget, location, and must-haves, then interprets local signals like days on market and list-to-sale price ratios to tell you whether a property is priced fairly. They also vet listings before you tour them, which saves you from driving to homes with deal-breaking problems that didn’t show up in photos.
Marketing a Property
Setting the right price only works if the right buyers see the listing. A listing agent coordinates professional photography, writes descriptions that highlight the home’s strongest features, places yard signage, and syndicates the listing across digital platforms. Staging advice, from rearranging furniture to painting a front door, is part of the job. The goal is to generate enough interest in the first few weeks on market, when buyer attention is highest, to create competitive pressure.
Offer, Contract, and Negotiation
A Realtor drafts your purchase agreement with contingencies that protect your deposit and give you exit ramps if something goes wrong. The common ones are a financing contingency allowing time to secure a mortgage, an inspection contingency for a professional evaluation of the property’s condition, and an appraisal contingency ensuring the home appraises at or above the purchase price. If a contingency isn’t satisfied in the time specified, you can cancel without penalty as long as both parties acted in good faith.2National Association of REALTORS®. Consumer Guide: Real Estate Sales Contract Contingencies
In competitive markets, buyers sometimes include an escalation clause that automatically raises their offer by a set increment above the highest competing bid, up to a stated cap. These have real downsides. Without a maximum, you could pay far more than intended; with one, the seller immediately knows your ceiling. A Realtor’s job is to tell you whether the tactic actually helps in your situation rather than defaulting to it.
Negotiation runs well past price. Repair credits, closing cost contributions, and possession dates all come into play. When a seller has multiple offers, the Realtor helps analyze net proceeds and the reliability of each buyer’s financing rather than simply picking the highest number. The agent acts as a buffer so emotional reactions don’t blow up a deal that otherwise makes financial sense.
From Contract to Closing
Once you’re under contract, a Realtor manages the cascade of deadlines that move the deal toward closing. They coordinate with the home inspector, follow up with the mortgage lender so documentation flows on schedule, and track the escrow timeline so missed dates don’t put you in breach. They oversee delivery of mandatory property disclosures, the documents where a seller reveals known defects, past repairs, and environmental hazards like lead paint.
Before the deed is recorded, you’ll do a final walk-through to confirm the property is in the condition you agreed to, that negotiated repairs were completed, and that nothing was removed that should have stayed. At the closing table, the Realtor reviews the settlement statement line by line and verifies the credits and debits before you sign.
Your Realtor should also warn you about wire fraud at the start of the process and tell you never to trust wiring instructions received by email alone.3National Association of REALTORS®. Consumer Guide: How to Protect Against Real Estate Wire Fraud Always confirm wire details by calling a verified phone number for your title company or closing attorney. If your Realtor hasn’t raised this, raise it yourself.
Your Written Agreement and How You Pay
If you’re buying, expect to sign a written buyer representation agreement before your Realtor shows you a single property. The requirement stems from a 2024 NAR settlement that reshaped industry practice.4National Association of REALTORS®. Summary of 2024 MLS Changes The agreement must state exactly what you’ll pay your agent as a flat fee, a percentage, or an hourly rate. It cannot be left open-ended or expressed as a vague range.5National Association of REALTORS®. Consumer Guide to Written Buyer Agreements
The agreement must also carry a conspicuous statement that broker fees and commissions are not set by law and are fully negotiable.6National Association of REALTORS®. Understanding and Navigating Upcoming Practice Changes Your agent cannot receive compensation from any source in excess of what you agreed to in writing. The MLS no longer carries cooperative compensation offers from listing brokers to buyer brokers, a practice that used to effectively set what a buyer’s agent would earn.7National Association of REALTORS®. No Compensation Offers in MLS – Policy Statement 8.11
Sellers still negotiate commission with their listing broker, and that commission stays confidential; the MLS cannot publish it. No board or MLS may suggest or fix commission rates.8National Association of REALTORS®. Policies: MLS Antitrust Compliance Policy Some brokerages also charge a flat administrative or transaction fee on top of the percentage, often a few hundred to nearly two thousand dollars, and that fee is negotiable too.
Dual Agency and the Limits of Representation
Dual agency is when the same agent or brokerage represents both buyer and seller in one transaction. The conflict is built in: the same person cannot fully advocate for your lowest possible price while fighting for the seller’s highest. About eight states ban the practice outright. In the rest it’s legal but requires written consent from both parties after full disclosure.9National Association of REALTORS®. Agency
Some states offer designated agency, where the brokerage assigns separate agents inside the same firm to each side. Others use a transaction broker model, where the broker facilitates the deal without owing fiduciary duties to either party. The practical difference matters. A single agent representing only you must advocate for your interests; a transaction broker just makes sure paperwork gets done correctly. Ask what type of agency relationship you’re entering, and what it means for confidentiality, before you sign.
Fair Housing
Federal law prohibits housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, and national origin.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 3604 – Discrimination in the Sale or Rental of Housing State and local laws often add protections for sexual orientation, gender identity, age, or source of income. A Realtor is bound by these laws and by the NAR Code of Ethics, which prohibits denying equal professional services based on protected characteristics.
One subtle violation is steering, where an agent nudges you toward or away from certain neighborhoods based on demographics rather than your stated preferences. Suggesting you’d love an area because of its proximity to a particular house of worship, or discouraging a family with children from a building with older residents, crosses the line even when the intent sounds helpful. If an agent’s filtering seems tied to demographics rather than your budget or wish list, that’s worth raising.
If Your Realtor Doesn’t Do the Job
A Realtor who violates the NAR Code of Ethics faces an internal discipline process that can include fines, mandatory ethics education, suspension, or termination of membership.11National Association of REALTORS®. Part 4, Appendix VII – Sanctioning Guidelines Losing NAR membership means losing the right to use the Realtor title and, in many markets, access to the MLS.
State licensing boards operate independently of NAR and can suspend or revoke a license and impose fines of their own. Beyond regulatory action, a client harmed by a breach of fiduciary duty can file a civil lawsuit for damages. Complaints go to your local association of Realtors or your state’s real estate commission. The combination of professional discipline, licensing consequences, and civil liability is what gives those fiduciary duties their force.
Ending the Relationship
Listing agreements and buyer representation agreements are contracts with defined terms. If you want out before the term expires, start with the cancellation clause. Many contracts allow cancellation with written notice, sometimes 30 days or more. If there’s no explicit provision, request a mutual release from the agent or their managing broker. Most will agree, because an unwilling client rarely produces a successful transaction.
Watch for the protection period, sometimes called a tail period: a negotiated window after your agreement ends during which the agent can still claim a commission if you buy or sell a property they introduced to you. The agent is typically required to give you a written list of the specific properties or prospects it covers. If you’re switching agents, make sure you know which properties could trigger a commission obligation so you don’t end up owing two fees on the same deal.