17.1 Confidential Information #
All records of this office, as well as conversations between the Associates, the Company and the Associates, and the Associates and clients, are considered confidential information. No files shall be removed from any office or downloaded from the Company hard drive without the permission of the Company and no other information obtained while working for this Company shall be used to the detriment of the Company, its associates and employees, and its clients and customers.
You must safeguard the privacy and personal information of the Company’s clients in compliance with federal and state laws. Information security is fundamentally a management issue, not a technology issue.
One of the most important duties of an agent is to maintain the confidentiality of the client, whether it is a buyer or seller. Agents should pay particular attention not to make unauthorized or offhand comments about a client’s situation or a client’s property in a way that could be considered a violation of the duty of confidentiality. The following areas are considered of particular importance:
- That a seller client may be willing to agree to a price, terms, or any conditions of sale other than those publicly offered by the seller.
- That a buyer client may be willing to agree to a price, terms, or any conditions of sale other than those publicly offered by the buyer.
- The motivation of a client for engaging in the transaction.
- Any information about a client which the client has identified as confidential unless disclosure of the information is
otherwise required by law.
If dual agency is offered (must be permitted in your State), it is particularly important for each agent to realize that she/he must hold confidential the information of both buyer and seller, regardless of which party the particular agent is working with.
You must be sensitive to confidential information within the office and among the Associates of the Company. The following procedures and policies are intended to protect the confidentiality of the Company’s clients.
- Associates should refrain from discussing confidential information of the client with anyone (including another Associate) absent the client’s consent.
- Comments at sales meetings should not reveal confidential information of the client without the client’s permission.
- Office files of listings and pending sales should be kept confidential and may not be accessed except by authorized staff and the particular agent involved in the listing or transaction.
- Fax transmissions should be kept confidential.
- Contracts, offers, counter-offers or other transactional documents will be delivered to the person addressed in envelopes. Persons other than the addressee are not authorized to open any such envelope.