I represent a buyer who is interested in several properties and wants me to find out what the owners paid to purchase these properties. I represented one of the owners when he bought his property, but the sales price information is in the MLS. Can I tell my new client the price that my former client paid for the property?

Standard of Practice 1-9 requires that REALTORS® preserve confidential information provided by clients in the course of the agency relationship after the termination of the relationship. Sales data provided to the MLS upon the sale of the property would not be considered confidential information protected under this obligation since publication of the sold data in the MLS would remove any possible confidentiality protection that might be given to that information under agency law.

A more difficult issue might be presented if the former sale was conducted outside of an MLS and no sales data was made available to parties outside the transaction. Under those circumstances, an argument could be made that the sales price might be entitled to confidential treatment by the buyer’s agent, and the buyer’s agent should obtain the consent of the former client to release that information to the potential buyer.

Additionally, Section 1101.804 of The Real Estate License Act specifically provides that a license holder shall not be liable to any other person for providing sales prices or terms of sale information for the purpose of facilitating the sale of real property unless the disclosure of that information is otherwise specifically prohibited by statute. Absent some confidentiality agreement between the buyer and seller and their agents in the former transaction, the sales data probably would not be considered to be protected confidential information since it was known to the seller and his agent.