BRRETA practice question 24 of 31 · Confidential information

Must a buyer's agent keep the buyer's maximum price secret?

A buyer client tells their agent, "We can go to $480,000, but don't tell anyone." The listing agent later asks the buyer's agent how high the buyer can go.

Facts checked against the current PSI Candidate Information Bulletin and GREC sources.

What does BRRETA require of the buyer's agent?

AAnswer, because the listing agent is a fellow licensee
BKeep it confidential, because the buyer expressly asked
CAnswer only if the listing agent promises not to tell the seller
DAnswer, because a buyer's price limit is a material fact

Pick an answer before you read on.

Answer: B

Keep it confidential, because the buyer expressly asked. Section 10-6A-7 requires a buyer's broker to keep confidential all information made confidential by an express request or instruction from the buyer, unless the buyer later permits disclosure by word or conduct or the law requires it. Sharing it with the broker's own affiliated licensees who are helping represent the buyer is not a breach.

Why each choice is right or wrong

A. Answer, because the listing agent is a fellow licensee
A fellow licensee on the seller's side is not an affiliated licensee helping represent this buyer. The broker-sharing exception does not authorize this disclosure.
B. Keep it confidential, because the buyer expressly askedCorrect answer
The buyer expressly instructed the agent to keep the $480,000 ceiling private. Section 10-6A-7 protects it unless the buyer permits disclosure or law requires it.
C. Answer only if the listing agent promises not to tell the seller
The listing agent's promise is not the buyer's consent. Sharing the ceiling with the seller's representative would still reveal the protected information.
D. Answer, because a buyer's price limit is a material fact
A negotiating ceiling is not a fact this broker must disclose to the seller in an ordinary sale. Do not confuse it with required financial-ability disclosures in seller financing.

The trap

Licensees talk to each other constantly. Professional courtesy is not an exception to the statute.

The Rule

A buyer's express request to keep information private binds the buyer's broker.

What would change the answer

If the buyer tells the agent to let the seller know they have room to go higher, the buyer has permitted disclosure.
If the deal involves seller financing, the buyer's broker must disclose actually known adverse facts about the buyer's financial ability, even if the buyer would prefer otherwise.

Where the rule comes from

O.C.G.A. § 10-6A-7, Duties of broker engaged by buyer. A buyer's broker must perform the engagement, promote the buyer's interests (seeking a property at acceptable price and terms, timely presenting all offers to and from the buyer even when the buyer is under contract, disclosing actually known adverse material facts concerning the transaction, advising expert help, and accounting for money), use ordinary skill and care, obey the law, and keep confidences the buyer expressly requests; in a seller-financed sale or loan assumption it must also disclose to the seller actually known adverse material facts about the buyer's financial ability and, in a residential sale, whether the buyer intends to occupy the property as a principal residence.

This is an original teaching question written from the statute. It is not a PSI exam item, and it is not copied or reconstructed from one. On the exam, BRRETA sits inside the Georgia agency and listing content. The BRRETA guide covers the client and customer table and the dual and designated agency rules in one place.