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BRRETA practice question 1 of 31 · Clients, customers, and transaction brokers

Is a buyer a client without a signed agreement?

A buyer has toured homes with an agent for three weeks. They text daily, and the agent has filled in two offer forms for them. Nobody has signed a buyer brokerage agreement.

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

Under BRRETA, what is the buyer's status with the agent's broker?

  1. AClient, because the agent has already written offers for them
  2. BClient, because the relationship is implied by the agent's conduct
  3. CCustomer, because there is no written brokerage engagement
  4. DDual-agency client, because the agent also talks to listing agents

Pick an answer before you read on.

Answer: C

Customer, because there is no written brokerage engagement. BRRETA defines a brokerage engagement as a written contract, and a client as someone represented under one. Without that writing the buyer is a customer, however much work the agent has done. Customer status still carries duties. The broker can perform ministerial acts such as filling in forms as a scribe, and may not knowingly give the buyer false information.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  1. A. Client, because the agent has already written offers for them

    Filling in an offer form does not itself create a brokerage engagement. Recording terms the buyer supplies can be a ministerial act.

  2. B. Client, because the relationship is implied by the agent's conduct

    Three weeks of tours and daily texts show assistance, but BRRETA requires a written contract for the client relationship.

  3. C. Customer, because there is no written brokerage engagementCorrect answer

    The missing written engagement decides the answer. The buyer is a customer and still receives the statutory protections owed to customers.

  4. D. Dual-agency client, because the agent also talks to listing agents

    Speaking with listing agents does not make this dual agency. Dual agency involves representing clients on both sides of the same transaction.

The trap

Conduct-based agency is common in other states. Georgia ties client status to the written engagement, so effort and familiarity are not enough.

The Rule

The written brokerage engagement creates the client relationship. Time and effort do not.

What would change the answer

  • If the buyer signs a buyer brokerage engagement with the agent's broker, the buyer becomes a client from that point and is owed the buyer's broker duties in § 10-6A-7.
  • If the broker performs only ministerial acts and is paid under a verbal or written agreement, it is acting as a transaction broker, which still has to present offers, account for money, and disclose specified adverse facts.

Where the rule comes from

  • O.C.G.A. § 10-6A-3, BRRETA definitions. Defines client, customer, brokerage engagement and ministerial acts. A customer is someone the broker is not representing in an agency capacity but may perform ministerial acts for.
  • O.C.G.A. § 10-6A-14, Ministerial acts and transaction brokers. A transaction broker may perform ministerial acts without a client relationship and must timely account for money and property, disclose specified actually known adverse material facts, and avoid knowingly giving false information.

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.

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