How should a dual agent handle a buyer’s request to keep certain information confidential?

QUESTION: One agent in my firm is acting as a dual agent in a transaction where the buyer obtained an appraisal. Although the appraised value exceeds the contract’s purchase price, the buyer is requesting a price reduction. While knowing the appraised value would be helpful to our seller-client, the buyer has told my agent that he considers the appraisal to be confidential pursuant to the Exclusive Buyer Agency Agreement (Form 201). He has instructed my agent not to share the appraisal with the seller. Is our firm prohibited from disclosing the appraiser’s findings to our seller-client?

ANSWER: Yes. Form 201 includes the following provision: “Unless required by law, Firm will not disclose to a seller… any other information that Buyer has told Firm is confidential.” This language means that unless it is required by law, your firm and its agents may not disclose to a seller any information that the buyer has identified as confidential. Similar language appears in the Exclusive Right to Sell Listing Agreement (Form 101).

The phrase “unless required by law” most commonly refers to material facts. Buyers and sellers cannot prohibit a licensee from disclosing material facts about a property merely by claiming that those facts are confidential.

Section (n) of Rule A.0104 of the License Law applies to your scenario since you are not practicing designated dual agency. It states that when an individual broker represents both the buyer and the seller in the same real estate transaction pursuant to a written agreement authorizing dual agency, the parties may provide in that agreement that the broker shall not disclose to the other party information identified by the client as confidential. Absent such a provision, the common law of agency would require the agent to disclose everything he or she knows about either principal to the other. However, since Form 201 does have this language, then you must follow it.

It is worth noting that sections (k) and (l) of Rule A.0104 also address this issue in the context of designated dual agency. These sections state that, “unless disclosure is required by statute or rule,” designated dual agents must not disclose to one principal information that the other principal has identified as confidential.

Agents and firms engaging dual agency and utilizing NC REALTORS’® standard forms should discuss confidentiality with their buyer and seller clients. In non-designated dual agency situations, agents should inform those clients that their ability to advocate and advise will be limited, and that they cannot share information identified as confidential by the other side, even though that information might be extremely useful.

Release Date: 4/2/2026

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