Hello all.

I’m leading a discussion here on AMT and to be used in our CE course on Agency and the Use of Social Media at the Arizona School of Real Estate & Business.

Please leave your comment(s) below.

One of the questions asked is: What is the greatest agency-specific risk to a real estate professional using social media (i.e. blogs, Q&A forums, Twitter, etc.)?

We are discussing what actions or implications of a real estate professional using social media could lead to implied agency and the resulting consequences.

Food for Thought:

Implied Agency

• An actual agency created by acts of a principal that reasonably imply an intention to create an agency relationship.
• It may be implied by the conduct of the parties and no formal agreement is necessary.
• Created by mutual assent.
• The existence of an agency relationship is the determination of a court makes after considering all of the circumstances.

Hayward v. Graham, 104 Ariz. 103, 449 p. 2d 31 (1968)

An implied agency must be based on facts such as to imply an intention to create the agency, and the implication must arise from a natural and reasonable, and not from a forced, strained, or distorted, construction of them. They must lead to the reasonable conclusion that mutual assent exists, and be such as naturally lead another to believe in and to rely on the agency.

Lastly, consider the following examples.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/real-estate-professionals/531565-buyers-agent-implied-contract-arizona.html

http://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/Implied_Agency_Do_we_have_a_buyer_s_agent_now_-13159

Thanks again for your comments.

Steve Lines

Social Media 101 for Arizona Real Estate Agents

Tonight I led a CE class for real estate agents called “The Latest Sales and Marketing Techniques” at the Arizona School of Real Estate and Business.  It is essentially an introductory level course on social media.

Social Media Analogies

Because social media is such a new topic for many of the class participants, I end up using a lot of analogies to help them comfortably understand many social media concepts.

Here are a few that I used tonight that I can remember:

• LinkedIn is like the suit and tie version of social media (I stole this from Kevin McClure)
• Going on facebook and not engaging others is like going to the dance and standing by yourself in the corner.
• Not using social media because of the potential risk (e.g. identity theft or bad exposure) is like not driving your car because you might crash or the guy next to you might drive reckless. (I’m pretty sure I stole this from Jay Thompson).
• Having a traditional website that does not attract visitors is as useful as having your brochure stuck to your wall with a thumbtack.
• A person who goes on Twitter and follows Ashton Kutcher, sends a few tweets and gives up saying “Twitter is stupid … I don’t get it” is like a person who takes a bow and arrow and haphazardly shoots the arrow into the forest and gives up when they can’t find it saying “archery is stupid … I don’t get it”. Like archery, if you go on Twitter with a predetermined target (market), aim for and hit that target you will like Twitter.
• Twitter is like a social media version of a party line. You can talk with one person while others listen, you can talk to multiple people or you can just eavesdrop. (I’m pretty sure that I stole this one from Kevin McClure too.)
• Status updates in Twitter and facebook are kind of like pickup lines in that your hoping to catch someone’s attention and strike up a conversation.
• If you have a potential referral partner you can use Twitter to observe them and find out what they like and dislike before you introduce yourself to them. Then when you meet them you can mention all the things that you already know they like and act like you have those things in common … kinda like what I did with my wife before I asked her out.