Minimum Services And Fiduciary Duty
licensed brokers and agents are required by law to put your interests as their client above all others, including the broker’s own interests. This is called acting as a “fiduciary”. It also involves providing the following minimum services:
- Put the interests of the client above all others, including the broker’s own interests;
- Inform our clients of any material information about the property or the transaction received by the broker;
- Answer questions and present any offer to or counter offer to our clients; and
- Treat all parties to a real estate transaction honestly and fairly.
We are required to provide certain consumer notices to you. We are required to provide you with a form called the “Information About Brokerage Services” that can be found on the footer of every page on our website. This form describes the different ways a professional can represent you, the minimum services we must provide to you and key business names, licenses and contact information for our sales agent, broker, and delegated supervisor. Our website also contains a link to a copy of the “Consumer Protection Notice” that contains information about filing a complaint with TREC and recovery funds.
We encourage you to ask for advice. We are obligated to answer your questions. We are not obligated to provide unsolicited advice.
Confidentiality
We have a duty to keep your confidential information confidential. Anything about a seller or buyer that can be used by the other party to improve their negotiating position is confidential.
Confidentiality does not apply to the property. Any material information we receive about a property must be disclosed to the buyer and future buyers. We do not solicit inspection reports from buyers without your consent. Should a buyer send one to us unsolicited, we have a duty to disclose it to all buyers.
Right To Refuse Services
We reserve the right to refuse to accept any client at our sole discretion.
Privacy
We do not share your contract information with parties not related to your transaction without your approval. See our Privacy Statement.
Laws And Regulations
You agree to comply with local, State, and Federal laws including the Federal Fair Housing Act that protects people from discrimination when they are renting, buying, or securing financing for any housing. The prohibitions specifically cover discrimination because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability and the presence of children.
Communications Policy
The success of our service relies on electronic communications. Franklin Finders uses the following methods to communicate with clients: our websites and forms, our help desk, our transaction room, phone, fax, letter, email and email forwarding, text, messaging, social media, and voicemail. Our desire is to make it as convenient and timely as possible to respond to our clients’ needs and concerns. Our success depends on efficient and timely communications.
Unfortunately, because of our workload, we are not always available to respond immediately when clients contact us. We will make an effort to return your inquiry made by 6 PM Central time on the same day. However, there are times, often due to urgent negotiation matters, we are unable to respond that quickly. Please be patient and know that some client matters require timely, uninterrupted, and continuous attention, and we will occasionally be unavailable or delayed while handling such matters. We appreciate your understanding when such times arise.
By engaging Franklin Finders you agree to conduct business electronically and accept responsibility for monitoring and responding to electronic communications initiated by you or us. You agree to use the same responding communication method in communicating with us. In other words, you will respond to email with email, online help desk to online help desk, and text with text unless some other agreement exists. We do not guarantee response to text because of the difficulty in tracking historical text information. We do not send text notifications to tell you to look at email and so forth. It is yours, and ours, responsibility to monitor all communications and respond timely and accordingly.
We encourage you to ask for advice. We are obligated to answer your questions. We are not obligated to provide unsolicited advice.