Limited Dual Agency, and Why I Usually Avoid It
One broker, both sides of the same sale. Washington allows it, your paperwork asks whether you consent to it, and the biggest difference comes down to one phrase the law leaves out.
In How Real Estate Compensation Works I mentioned limited dual agency twice and promised to come back to it.
This is that article.
Limited dual agency is what happens when the same broker represents both the buyer and seller in the same transaction. It is legal in Washington, it has to be disclosed, and both parties have to consent to it in writing.
What follows is what actually changes when you do.
One phrase disappears from the law
Washington sets out what a broker owes you in RCW 18.86.
Put the three roles side by side and the story is in the first duty of each.
Under RCW 18.86.040, a seller's agent must be loyal to the seller by taking no action adverse or detrimental to the seller's interest.
Under RCW 18.86.050, a buyer's agent must be loyal to the buyer by taking no action adverse or detrimental to the buyer's interest.
Under RCW 18.86.060, a limited dual agent must take no action adverse or detrimental to either party's interest.
Read those again.
The phrase "be loyal to" is gone from the third one.
What replaces it is a duty not to take action adverse or detrimental to either party.
That is not nothing.
It is also not the same role as a broker who represents only you.
The sentence the law makes you initial
Washington does not bury this.
Under RCW 18.86.020, your services agreement has to say whether you consent to your broker acting as a limited dual agent, and that consent has to be separately initialed.
The same section requires an acknowledgment that a limited dual agent may not advocate terms favourable to one principal to the detriment of the other.
That is about as plain as statutes get.
What you keep
Quite a lot.
Every broker owes certain duties to their principal and to all parties under RCW 18.86.030, whether that broker is acting for a buyer, seller or as a limited dual agent:
- Reasonable skill and care
- Honesty and good faith
- Timely presentation of written offers, notices and communications
- Disclosure of known material facts that are not apparent or readily ascertainable
- Proper accounting for money and property received
- The required Washington real-estate-agency pamphlet
- The written agency disclosures required by law
The statute also says a broker does not automatically have a duty to independently inspect the property, investigate another party's financial condition or independently verify every statement from a source the broker reasonably believes to be reliable unless additional duties were agreed to.
A limited dual agent also has to disclose conflicts of interest as they arise and advise the parties to seek expert help on matters beyond the broker's expertise.
Honesty, disclosure and care all survive.
What changes is advocacy.
“Limited dual agency is legal in Washington, disclosed in writing and subject to the consent rules in RCW 18.”
Confidentiality cuts both ways
A limited dual agent may not disclose confidential information from or about either party except under subpoena or court order, and that obligation continues after the agency relationship ends.
That protects you.
It also protects the person across the table.
The lowest number the seller would accept and the highest the buyer might pay can both be known to the same broker, and neither side gets the other side's confidential information.
The version most people never notice
You do not need one broker representing both parties for limited dual agency to appear somewhere in the transaction.
When two different brokers from the same firm represent the buyer and seller, Washington law says each appointed broker solely represents their own client.
The firm's designated broker, and any managing broker responsible for supervising both brokers, becomes a limited dual agent.
That is why Washington services agreements contain a separate consent addressing same-firm representation.
Your own appointed broker can still advocate for you. The limitation applies to the designated broker and any managing broker supervising both sides.
That distinction matters.
An unrepresented buyer is not dual agency
These get confused constantly, so it is worth being precise.
If a buyer turns up with no broker at all, the listing broker still represents the seller.
There is no dual agency because the buyer is not a second client.
The broker still owes the unrepresented buyer the duties Washington law imposes toward all parties, including reasonable skill and care, honesty, disclosure of known material facts and the required agency information.
What the listing broker does not owe that buyer are the additional buyer-agent duties in RCW 18.86.050, including loyalty and advocacy for the buyer.
I have been on the listing side of exactly that and wrote about how it actually runs in Working With an Unrepresented Buyer.
The workload changes enormously.
The agency relationship does not.
What it looks like at the kitchen table
Here is the situation, and I will keep it hypothetical rather than pin it on anyone real.
Say I list five acres off Highway 9 for a seller who needs to be out by spring.
Say I have also been driving a buyer around for four months, and that buyer walks the property and wants it.
Everyone is pleased. Everyone assumes this is the easy version.
Then the inspection turns up a septic system near the end of its useful life.
The buyer asks how big a credit they should ask for.
The seller asks whether they should hold firm because the next buyer might not care.
As a limited dual agent, I cannot give either side the same client-specific negotiating advice I could give if I represented only that person.
I can explain the report. I can explain the contract and available options within my role. I can make sure deadlines are met. I can communicate proposals between the parties.
What I cannot do is tell the buyer how aggressively to push at the seller's expense or tell the seller how to defeat the buyer's position.
That is the limitation everybody should understand before signing.
Where it shows up in your paperwork
As a buyer, your Buyer Broker Services Agreement addresses limited dual agency and compensation.
As a seller, your Listing Agreement addresses the same issue from the other side.
The current NWMLS forms also include conspicuous language stating that broker compensation is fully negotiable and is not set by law.
The specific form version and section numbers can change when NWMLS updates its forms, so read the version you are actually signing rather than relying on an article, including this one, for the current numbering.
I walked through the compensation structure in How Real Estate Compensation Works.
So why I usually avoid it
Not because limited dual agency is shady.
Because the moment a transaction becomes difficult is usually the exact moment a client wants direct negotiating advice.
My preference is normally to have one side represented by another broker who can advocate solely for that client.
If that other broker is with the same firm, Washington law still makes the designated broker and any managing broker supervising both sides limited dual agents, but each appointed broker solely represents their own client.
If the other broker is with a different firm, that same-firm limited-dual issue does not arise.
Either way, I would rather be able to answer the septic question for the person I represent.
“Because the moment a transaction becomes difficult is usually the exact moment a client wants direct negotiating advice.”
The bottom line
Limited dual agency is legal in Washington, disclosed in writing and subject to the consent rules in RCW 18.86.
When the same broker represents both buyer and seller, that broker cannot advocate terms favourable to one side to the detriment of the other.
That is the important sentence.
Before you initial that consent, ask what the arrangement means when price, inspection, appraisal or another negotiation gets difficult.
You should know exactly who is allowed to advocate for you before you need them to do it.
General information about Washington real estate practice, not legal advice. The controlling statutes are RCW 18.86.020, RCW 18.86.030, RCW 18.86.040, RCW 18.86.050 and RCW 18.86.060. For advice about your own transaction, talk to your broker, managing broker or attorney.
Have a question about this? Call or text me at 425-346-7143, or send a message. I answer my own phone.
