Disclaimer

Due to the volume of hate mail received from real estate agents who don't like our real estate products or the fact that we are helping people be smarter and better consumers of real estate (a recent example appears below), Smart Books decided to post this statement and following disclaimer in response. Here's the most recent email we have received:

“Get ready for a battle. I am a Realtor who represents as many Buyers as I do Sellers. Your comments on the web site are inaccurate, misleading, and damaging. I intend to bring this to the attention of my local Association”.

Dan O'Keefe, IL

Our response:

Our products are not a blanket indictment against all real estate agents. We are fairly confident there are good full-time agents working today. In fact, good real estate agents won't have a problem with our product message because they will understand that our information creates more informed consumers who can represent themselves on a more level playing field, become more confident and more able to distinguish between the less ethical, part-time, unprofessional, crooked agents. This, in turn, will weed out the crooks and create more business for the remaining good agents.

It is theoretically impossible for a real estate company or their agents to represent the “best interests” of both buyers and sellers due to the nature of contract law. When a home seller enters into a listing contract with a realty company, the real estate agent and company has a legal or “fidicuary” duty to represent the seller. If the same company also enters into contracts with buyers to represent their “best interest” this automatically creates an inherit conflict of interest. Why? Because it is virtually impossible to represent the “best interests” of both parties under “contract” when considering issues like disclosure of financial and other proprietary and confidential information, and the acts of negotiations involved in the transaction. This, coupled with the fact that the agent and company will get a “commission check” from such a transaction. In any case, the commission check (typically paid by the seller), creates an automatic bias in the agent toward a transaction that will result in a commission check to their benefit. Human nature dictates this bias will tend to impact the representation of the transaction in some capacity resulting in a commission in favor of the agent and their company. This is a conflict of interest.

Jim Hart
CEO