Understanding Virginia’s Buyer Brokerage Agreement Law

This attorney is not a family law lawyer. However, the intricacies of Virginia’s buyer brokerage agreement law recently caught my attention in a case she worked. Not only did learning the nuances of Virginia’s Law of Buyer Brokerage Agreements help this attorney win a favorable conclusion for her client, but also, it helped this attorney gain respect from those outside of her specialty as an expert capable of addressing all legal matters associated with a case, from beginning to end.

Virginia law can be found codified in Virginia Statutes and the Virginia Administrative Code of Regulations, which the Code Commission compiles. Virginia Statutes are enacted by the Virginia General Assembly and codified into the Code of Virginia. VA compiles the statutes from the Code Commission into the Code of Virginia, which has become an online searchable database for any aspect of Virginia’s statutory law you might need to research.

Because comprehensive Virginia buyer brokerage agreement laws are in the Virginia Code, search for Virginia buyer brokerage agreement law here. The value of searching within the Virginia Code is twofold. First, using the search bar to search for “virginia buyer brokerage agreement law” will lead you to a related law, “§ 54.1-2130, et seq. Real Estate Brokers.” This section has all those statutes that are codified under Virginia’s buyer brokerage law. Second, an advanced search of the administrative code online database will help you search for the “Administrative Code of Virginia.” The advanced search is superior to the basic search because it includes searching for specific words, phrases, or codes associated with administrative statutes. This particular section of Virginia law is found under the title “Business, Occupational, and Professional” and then the chapter “Professional and Occupational Licensing Boards.” Virginia’s buyer brokerage and real estate broker law may change, but access to the primary sources of these laws will help you understand them now and in the future.

Understanding the law of buyer brokerage agreements in Virginia is not critically important, but it is valuable for all lawyers, especially family law lawyers. This is true for several reasons:

• It’s valuable to really know the laws of others specialties because you are preparing your arguments and analyses like a chess match, or at least stay one step ahead of the board. When you have worked with families through the many transitions of life, you learn that those transitions bring about life-altering decisions. How those life-altering decisions affect the family unit as a whole is where the education of multiple specializations comes together to give a more thorough understanding of the processes involved. Those processes include the merits of administrative codes and regulations of real estate brokers operating in Virginia.
• When family law lawyers understand the binding nature of agreements in general, those family law lawyers can help their clients navigate through the difficulties of family transitions. One of those difficult areas is real estate agreement law, meaning knowledge about the drafting and execution of Virginia buyer brokerage agreements and contractual length of engagement. This was particularly valuable to this attorney in a bitterly contended case that involved selling a marital residence through a broker, which was owned by both parties during their marriage.
• Even though this attorney was not hired during the sale of the home, understanding the law of real estate broker buyer agreements led to a monetary savings for her client, which was substantial enough to offset the cost of the attorney fees for several hours of research and analysis. For all of the reasons mentioned above, Virginia buyer agreement law is valuable to know for family law attorneys too.

If you feel frustrated dealing with all the legal minutiae, an attorney like the writer can be of assistance in securing your interests through the courts. was the attorney that graduated Magna Cum Laude from oral arguments in front of national veterans’ benefits experts at the 2016 National VA Conference for the National Veterans Legal Services Program, and she has written an article published by Loft Innovation focusing on Virginia buyer brokerage agreement law as noted above. Through the course of creating this article, you were directed to review facts and decision analysis in court opinions to show the value that this valuably esoteric knowledge gave to this attorney and her client. For every opinion, there exists a unique fact pattern that helps attorneys learn how to guide their client’s through their legal issues. The attorney reviewed the opinions that address this issue extensively and highlight key arguments with this case study.

Vicariously learning about other specializations helps attorneys review law outside their comfort zone, and when the law negatively impacts a case or client’s interest, understanding that particular area of law can be the deciding factor. Knowing the rights of real estate brokers and buyers when dealing with transactions associated with buyers that are real estate brokers is what family law practitioners should be prepared to deal with. Did the selling spouse resign as broker for the real estate company, or fail to ratify that she or he was acting as a broker for her or his own personal benefit. Virginia buyer brokerage agreement law helps navigate through those difficult family transitions, and family law attorneys need not bend their areas of expertise such as family law.