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.
10 exam-style scenarios
Each of these mirrors how BRRETA actually appears on the exam: a situation, a question, and the rule that decides it. Read the situation and answer before looking.
Scenario 01A buyer has been touring homes with an agent for three weeks. They text constantly and the agent has written two offers for them. Nothing has been signed.
What duties does the agent owe this buyer?
Show the answer →
Honesty and disclosure of material facts only.
Time, effort, and familiarity do not create a brokerage relationship. Without a written engagement the buyer is a customer, however involved the agent has been.
The Rule
The written engagement creates the client relationship. Nothing else does.
Scenario 02A seller's agent is asked by an unrepresented buyer at an open house whether the sellers would accept less than asking price. The agent knows they would.
May the agent answer?
Show the answer →
No. That is confidential client information.
The buyer is a customer owed honesty and material-fact disclosure. The seller's negotiating position is neither. It is confidential information belonging to the client.
The Rule
Honesty to a customer never requires disclosing a client's confidences.
Scenario 03A broker assigns one agent to represent the buyer and a different agent in the same firm to represent the seller on the same property.
Is this permitted in Georgia, and what is it called?
Show the answer →
Yes. This is designated agency.
Georgia permits a broker to designate different agents to represent opposing clients. Each designated agent advocates for their own client.
The Rule
Designated agency lets one firm represent both sides through separate agents.
Scenario 04The same broker's two designated agents discuss the transaction over lunch. One mentions their client's maximum budget.
Is that a problem?
Show the answer →
Yes. Confidential information does not travel between designated agents.
Designated agency only works because each client's confidences stay with their own agent. Sharing them defeats the arrangement.
The Rule
Sharing a firm does not mean sharing confidences.
Scenario 05A broker personally represents both the buyer and the seller in one transaction. Both parties said over the phone that they were fine with it.
Is this lawful dual agency?
Show the answer →
No. Consent must be written and informed.
Georgia permits dual agency, but oral agreement does not satisfy the requirement. The consent must be in writing and the parties must understand what they are consenting to.
The Rule
Dual agency requires written informed consent from all clients.
Scenario 06A buyer's agent learns the property has a chronic drainage problem that floods the garage. Their client, the buyer, is unaware.
Must the agent disclose it?
Show the answer →
Yes. It is a material fact about the property.
Material facts about the property are disclosed regardless of who the agent represents. This is not confidential information. It goes to the condition of the property itself.
The Rule
Material facts about the property are disclosed to clients and customers alike.
Scenario 07A seller instructs their agent not to present any offer below a certain figure. An offer arrives $2,000 under it.
What should the agent do?
Show the answer →
Follow the client's lawful instruction, as agreed in the engagement.
Obedience to lawful instruction is a duty owed to a client. The instruction is lawful, and the agent's own view of whether it is wise does not override it.
The Rule
Clients are owed obedience to lawful instructions, not the agent's preferences.
Scenario 08An agent's brokerage engagement with a seller expires. A week later the agent is asked by a third party about the seller's financial situation, which they learned during the engagement.
May the agent share it?
Show the answer →
No. Confidentiality survives the engagement.
The duty of confidentiality does not end when the engagement does. Information learned in the relationship stays protected.
The Rule
Confidentiality outlives the brokerage engagement.
Scenario 09A licensee tells an unrepresented buyer, 'Do not worry, I will look after your interests too,' while representing the seller.
What is the problem?
Show the answer →
The statement misrepresents the relationship.
Assisting a customer is not representing them. Suggesting otherwise misleads the customer about whose interests the agent is advancing, which is exactly what the honesty duty forbids.
The Rule
Assistance is not representation, and an agent may not blur the two.
Scenario 10Two agents from different firms both claim a brokerage relationship with the same buyer. One has a signed engagement; the other has been showing homes for a month.
Which firm has the client relationship?
Show the answer →
The firm holding the signed engagement.
The engagement is with the broker, and it is the written agreement that establishes the relationship. Effort without documentation does not create one.
The Rule
The engagement runs to the broker, and only writing creates it.
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.
Next: learn the exact distinction between a client and a customer under BRRETA.