Limited service agent
A limited service agent is a Virginia real estate licensee who represents a client in a residential transaction under a written brokerage agreement that leaves out one or more of the promote-the-interests duties the Code gives a standard agent, and that says so conspicuously.
Printed in bold or capitals, then underlined or boxed
The first thing that marks a limited service arrangement is how one part of the agreement looks on the page. Virginia requires the disclosure to stand out: bold lettering or all capitals, and either an underline or a separate box around it.
Such disclosure shall be conspicuous and printed either in bold lettering or all capitals, and shall be underlined or in a separate box.
Va. Code 54.1-2138.1
The same section says a licensee may act as a limited service agent in a residential transaction only under a written brokerage agreement, and that the agreement has to do three things in that disclosure:
- State that the licensee is acting as a limited service agent.
- List the specific services the licensee will provide to the client.
- List the specific standard-agent duties, from the subdivisions the Code names, that the licensee will not provide.
That is on top of the terms every agreement carries, whatever kind of representation it sets up. Those general requirements, from the termination date to the fee, are laid out in what a Virginia brokerage agreement has to include.
Residential agency comes in two forms: standard or limited service
Virginia gives a licensee who represents a client in an agency relationship in a residential transaction two forms. The Code says that licensee shall represent the client either as a standard agent or as a limited service agent.
What separates them is a defined set of duties. The definition of a limited service agent points to four subdivisions by number. Two of them are the seller-side and buyer-side duties: 54.1-2131 A 2 for a licensee engaged by a seller, which includes conducting marketing activities in accordance with the brokerage agreement, and 54.1-2132 A 3 for a licensee engaged by a buyer, which begins with seeking a property of a type, price and terms acceptable to the buyer.
A limited service agreement is one that leaves out one or more of those named duties. Which ones it leaves out is written in that agreement and nowhere else. On the seller's side that can reach the marketing itself, so a question such as how a listing is taken to buyers, or how land is marketed to builders, is answered by the services the agreement lists.
Buyer-side representation in general is described under buyer agency.
The disclosures a limited service agent must still hand over
Leaving duties out does not leave the client without paperwork. A limited service agent has the obligations the brokerage agreement sets, with exceptions the Code writes in. At the time the agreement is entered, the agent must give the client "copies of any and all disclosures required by federal or state law", along with local disclosures that state law expressly authorizes.
The agent must also disclose certain items to the client in writing, and the first one the Code lists is the client's rights and obligations under the Virginia Residential Property Disclosure Act. A client taking on some of the work is told, on paper, what that act asks of them.
Everything else is a term of the agreement, the same as in any brokerage agreement: the fee and how and when it is paid, the services, and whatever else the client and licensee agreed. An arrangement an owner wants settled in advance, such as whether they can list and still sell to a neighbor they already know, belongs in that writing too.
Work the other side has no duty to pick up
The statutory disclosure ends with an acknowledgment from the client about the duties the limited service agent will not perform. Nobody across the table is obliged to fill them in:
neither the other party to the transaction nor any real estate licensee representing the other party is under any legal obligation to assist the undersigned with the performance of any duties and responsibilities of the undersigned not performed by the limited service agent.
Va. Code 54.1-2138.1
On a purchase, the list of services is worth reading against the concrete steps of the deal, from who arranges permission to walk land before making an offer to who prepares and presents the offer itself. A step the list leaves out stays with the client.
A buyer who has signed no brokerage agreement at all is in a different position from a limited service client, and that case is covered in who represents a land buyer without a buyer's agent.
Which services would a listing agreement on your property cover?
The services a listing includes are written into the agreement before anything goes on the market. Describe the property and the parts of the sale you want handled. No cost, no obligation.
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Questions about this term
Is a limited service agent the same as a discount agent?
The Virginia definition says nothing about price. It turns only on duties: a limited service agent works under a brokerage agreement that leaves out one or more of the named promote-the-interests duties. Whatever the fee is, the brokerage agreement must state its amount and how and when it is paid, the same as any other brokerage agreement.
Does limited service apply to a commercial property sale?
The definition and the disclosure rule both speak of a residential real estate transaction, which the same article ties to real property with one to four residential dwelling units and the sale of lots containing them. Whether a given property falls on the residential or commercial side of those definitions is a question for the supervising broker or an attorney.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 54.1-2130: definitions, including limited service agent and standard agent Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 54.1-2131: licensees engaged by sellers Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 54.1-2132: licensees engaged by buyers Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 54.1-2137: commencement and termination of brokerage relationships Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 54.1-2138.1: limited service agents Code of Virginia