Agency is all about interests, -- your interests as a consumer, often competing with the interests of other consumers, and sometimes in conflict with the undisclosed interests of people you trust! Can you trust your so-called "agent"? ...your inspector? ...your state licensing regulator? ...your legislator? Are they really "yours"? No agent is "yours" whose firm accepts (perhaps solicits) interests from the other side of the market (buying or selling). No inspector is "yours" who fears listing-office boycott for uncovering deal-killing weaknesses. No legislator is "yours" who votes to undermine your protections under the Common Law of Agency. No state Board of Regulators is "yours" which is stacked with a majority of members from the very profession it is supposed to regulate.

Who can you trust? You can trust yourself to make the right decisions about trustworthy and untrustworthy professionals -- once you have the information about where their interests lie and where the conflicts are. CognaBooks provides information. So do the people selling real estate services; and so do people seeking the business or political support of real estate people. Such people, by definition, have other interests which might cause them to put a spin on their version of the truth. Not all of them spin the truth. Some simply don't have to because their interests will in fact be one with yours. But how do you know that?