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A Secret Service agent who moonlighted as a real estate agent represented at least three of his subordinates in real estate transactions in Maryland between 2019 and 2022.
Was it a violation of the Realtor Code of Ethics?
After Alfonso M. Dyson was promoted in 2022 to chief of the uniformed division, whose officers guard the White House, two of Dyson’s former real-estate clients and subordinate agents in the Secret Service were also given promotions. That promotion process is based on merit, but it also involves input from the chief — the position to which Dyson had just been promoted.
The findings come after a New York Times report discovered that a huge swath of Secret Service agents had left the organization in recent years in response to overwork and a lack of adequate resources. During the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years, at least 1,400 of the Service’s 7,800 employees left, which had been the largest exodus from the agency in the last 20 years, according to federal data.
Troubles within the Secret Service were exposed this past summer when two assassination attempts were made against former President Donald J. Trump. Due to failures in both technology and command, a sniper was able to use a drone for surveillance at a Trump campaign rally in July, climb to a nearby, unprotected rooftop, and shoot a bullet that grazed the former president.
When asked if Dyson’s actions were a violation of the Realtor Code of Ethics, representatives for the National Association of Realtors (NAR) declined to comment. Dyson did not respond to Inman’s request for comment.
Alfonso Dyson served in the Secret Service for about 33 years. During that period, he also worked for the Office of the Chief, the Foreign Missions Branch and Office of Government and Public Affairs. At one point, he was also branch commander for the Vice President’s Residence, according to a press release announcing his promotion in 2022. He retired from the Secret Service in 2023.
According to Dyson’s Homes.com profile, he has 10 years of real estate experience and, in the last five years, has represented sellers in 11 transactions adding up to about $4.13 million. His latest home sale appears to be from May 6, 2022. The average home sale price of properties he has represented is $375,445. His license is currently active with Taylor Properties and expires in March 2026, according to the Maryland Department of Labor.
The 2024 Realtor Code of Ethics does not contain an article that specifically addresses this scenario, but there are some related articles that could be helpful in interpreting this ethically dubious case.
Article 4 of the Code of Ethics states that Realtors must not “acquire an interest in or buy or present offers” from themselves, members of their immediate family, their firms or members of their firms, or any other entities in which they have an ownership interest “without making their true position known to the owner or the owner’s agent or broker.”
Dyson was not related to the subordinates he assisted in real estate transactions, so it appears that their relationships as colleagues outside of the real estate industry, in itself, is not in conflict with the Realtor Code of Ethics.
Article 12 of the code deals with transparency in a Realtor’s marketing, representation and communications. The code’s Standard of Practice 12-3 states that Realtors may offer prizes, premiums or “other inducements” for buyers, sellers or renters to work with them on their home transaction.
If they do so, however, Realtors must be sure to “exercise care and candor in any such advertising or other public or private representations so that any party interested in receiving or otherwise benefiting from the Realtor’s offer will have clear, thorough, advance understanding of all the terms and conditions of the offer.”
In this case, the question becomes whether or not there was some kind of pre-arranged agreement among Dyson and his cohort at the Secret Service that his subordinates who gave him real estate business would also one day receive promotions at work. If there was, it would need to be clearly marketed, either publicly or privately, in advance of entering into an agreement for buyer or seller agent representation.
On the Secret Service side of Dyson’s professional life, such arrangements are likely much more ethically problematic. Because of his relationship as a higher-ranked official to those whom he assisted in residential transactions, their subsequent promotions come off as quid pro quo; it is unknown whether or not Dyson at all coerced his subordinates into hiring him as their agent in order to obtain promotions.
Although he did not respond to Inman’s request for comment, Dyson told The New York Times, “I have no comment other than to wish those who are dedicated to the mission the best.”
According to The Times, Secret Service officers joked that they — like those who were promoted — should have sped up their homebuying process in order to work with Dyson while he was still working for the government.
