Is a real estate agent obligated to exercise reasonable care in order to protect a buyer from unethical broker and seller?

**425 The latter viewpoint misses the big picture. While a buyer may be harmed by acquiring title to a property with undisclosed defects, such as hazardous waste or soils subsidence problems, a buyer may also be harmed by entering into an escrow to purchase property when it is highly likely that, unbeknownst to the buyer, the escrow will never close. We must bear in mind that the main purposes of the rule expressed in Lingsch v. Savage, supra, 213 Cal.App.2d 729, 29 Cal.Rptr. 201, "are to protect the buyer from the unethical broker and seller and to insure that the buyer is provided sufficient accurate information to make an informed decision whether to purchase." ( Easton v. Strassburger (1984) 152 Cal.App.3d 90, 99, 199 Cal.Rptr. 383.) "Despite the absence of privity of contract, a real estate agent is clearly under a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect those persons whom the agent is attempting to induce into entering a real estate transaction for the purpose of earning a commission. [Citations.]" ( Id. at p. 98, fn. 2, 199 Cal.Rptr. 383.)