Client versus customer: the distinction the exam is built on
Start every BRRETA problem with one question: what brokerage relationship does the written engagement and the stated conduct create? Then apply the exact seller, landlord, buyer, tenant, dual-agent, designated-agent, or transaction-broker section.
| Client | Customer | |
|---|---|---|
| Written engagement | Yes | No |
| Duties owed | Statutory role-specific duties plus any additional duties expressly agreed in a signed writing | BRRETA customer or transaction-broker duties, depending on the role |
| Confidentiality | Information protected as the statute and engagement provide | No client confidentiality duty merely from customer status |
| Can the agent advocate for them? | Yes | No. Assistance is not representation |
| Typical exam framing | “Signed a buyer brokerage agreement” | “Attended an open house and asked for help” |
The Rule
Assistance does not create a client by itself. A broker can work with a customer or act as a transaction broker and still owe presentation, accounting, and specified adverse-fact duties. Do not reduce the customer side to honesty alone.
Brokerage engagements
A brokerage engagement is the written agreement through which a broker becomes engaged as agent for a seller, landlord, buyer, or tenant. The broker is the party to the engagement, not merely the affiliated licensee. Compensation alone does not determine the relationship under § 10-6A-11.
Designated agency
Section 10-6A-13 permits a broker, directly or through a company policy, to assign different affiliated licensees as designated agents for different clients in the same transaction. Each designated agent owes the applicable seller, landlord, buyer, or tenant duties.
When the appointment satisfies the statute, neither the broker, affiliated licensees, nor the firm is deemed a dual agent. Knowledge is actual rather than automatically imputed, and the broker must protect confidential negotiating information received from either side.
Dual agency
Dual agency is permitted only with written consent from all clients. Section 10-6A-12 specifies six required disclosures, including the adverse interests, adverse-fact duties, material relationships, the right to refuse, and voluntary understanding. A consent satisfying the section is conclusively deemed informed.
The classic trap presents oral permission or a generic form that omits the required content. Another trap calls designated agency dual agency even though § 10-6A-13 says it is not.
Disclosure timing
BRRETA repeatedly uses the word timely, which GREC defines as a reasonable time under the circumstances. Do not invent one universal disclosure deadline. Use the exact section: offer presentation, relationship changes, adverse material facts, compensation, and agency disclosures have different triggers and wording.
Try 31 BRRETA practice questions
Each question puts one of these rules in a short situation, the way the exam does. Every one has its own page with four answer choices, the answer, a tempting wrong choice to watch for, and the code section that decides it. Start with the full set of BRRETA practice questions, or pick one:
- Is a buyer a client without a signed agreement?
- Can a listing agent tell a buyer "I'll look after you too"?
- Which broker has the client when two claim the same buyer?
- Does a Georgia real estate broker owe fiduciary duties?
- Which of these is not a ministerial act under BRRETA?
- What does a transaction broker owe the parties in Georgia?
- Is one firm on both sides of a sale dual agency?
- Can designated agents in one firm share client information?
- Is verbal consent enough for dual agency in Georgia?
- What if a firm's policy rejects dual agency?
- Must a dual agent disclose a family tie to one client?
- What can a broker do when a client refuses dual agency?
- Must a dual agent disclose a defect the seller mentioned?
- Must a buyer's agent disclose a defect the buyer missed?
- Can a seller tell their agent to keep a defect confidential?
- Does a listing agent have to inspect for hidden defects?
- Must an agent disclose a problem near the property?
- Is an agent liable for repeating a seller's false claim?
- Must a Georgia agent disclose a death in the home?
- How must an agent answer "Did anyone die in this house?"
- Can an agent say a past occupant had HIV?
- Can a listing agent tell a buyer the seller will take less?
- Does confidentiality end when the listing expires?
- Must a buyer's agent keep the buyer's maximum price secret?
- Must a listing agent present an offer once the home is under contract?
- Can a listing agent show a buyer other homes?
- What must a broker disclose when a customer becomes a client?
- What must a Georgia brokerage engagement disclose?
- Must a landlord's agent disclose hidden mold to a tenant?
- Must a tenant's agent disclose that the tenant cannot pay?
- What must a buyer's agent disclose when the seller finances?
How BRRETA appears on the exam
- Direct recall: what duties are owed to a customer, what makes dual agency lawful.
- Scenario application: a fact pattern where the answer depends entirely on whether an engagement exists.
- Disguised as national agency questions: the stem reads like general agency law until the options diverge on the Georgia rule.
- Inside disclosure questions: what may be shared, with whom, and when.
Put these agency rules into practice with the free 52-question Georgia state practice exam. It combines brokerage relationships with license law, finance, and closing. Each answer explains which fact decides the question.
Next: learn the exact distinction between a client and a customer under BRRETA.