A buyer asks you to send the wiring instructions for closing. The closing attorney emails them to you, so you forward the message to your client. You may even add a friendly note: “Here you go! Let me know when it’s done.” Helpful, right? Unfortunately, that simple forwarded email could place your client’s entire closing fund at risk—and place you directly in the middle of a fraud investigation. For North Carolina real estate brokers, the safest answer is clear: do not serve as the middleman...

A client texts an inactive broker with a simple question: “Do you think we should accept the seller’s counteroffer?” The broker is not meeting anyone at a property. No documents are being signed. It would take only a few seconds to respond. Can the broker answer? No—not in their capacity as the client’s broker. In North Carolina, an inactive real estate license is not permission to practice brokerage on a limited, occasional, unpaid, or “just helping an existing client” basis. Once a license...

In an earlier Skyline School article, we examined a proposed North Carolina Real Estate Commission rule that could significantly change how dual agency is practiced in North Carolina. The most consequential provision is straightforward: “An individual broker shall not represent both the buyer and seller in the same real estate sales transaction.” The proposed rule would not eliminate every transaction in which the same real estate firm represents both sides. Instead, when a firm represents...