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Georgia curriculum lesson · Real Estate Practice in Georgia

Georgia Brokerage Engagement Requirements and Prohibited Terms

A Georgia brokerage engagement is the written contract through which a broker becomes engaged as agent for a seller, landlord, buyer, or tenant. It should identify services, duration, compensation, parties, property or search scope, and consent or conflict provisions. BRRETA bars certain terms, such as a residential engagement that binds future owners or creates a recordable lien, lets the parties change the statutory duties only in a signed writing, governs prospective-client conduct, and makes clear that compensation alone does not create the relationship.

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

What is the exam-ready answer?

A Georgia brokerage engagement is the written contract through which a broker becomes engaged as agent for a seller, landlord, buyer, or tenant. It should identify services, duration, compensation, parties, property or search scope, and consent or conflict provisions. BRRETA bars certain terms, such as a residential engagement that binds future owners or creates a recordable lien, lets the parties change the statutory duties only in a signed writing, governs prospective-client conduct, and makes clear that compensation alone does not create the relationship.
Official syllabus mapping for Georgia Brokerage Engagement Requirements and Prohibited Terms
Official syllabus topicReal Estate Practice in Georgia: Listings and Agency
Official PSI groupReal Estate Practice in Georgia
Published group count21 of the 52 Georgia questions
Exam portionGeorgia salesperson supplement
Source editionPSI Georgia Candidate Information Bulletin dated July 1, 2026

The Rule

PSI publishes 16, 21, and 15 items for the three Georgia groups. It does not publish a guaranteed subtopic count. The statute, current GREC rule, contract, or other cited primary authority controls each lesson.

The lesson

Georgia questions reward the Georgia rule. A national rule that sounds right can still be the wrong answer when the question names a Georgia statute, document, role or procedure.

Broker is the contracting party

The engagement is with the broker or licensed firm, even when an affiliated licensee performs most services.

Defined scope

Services, property or search scope, duration, compensation, exclusivity, and termination should be clear enough to apply without inventing authority.

Statutory floor

The parties may change or add duties only in a signed writing, and the engagement cannot waive license-law requirements, duties owed to other parties, or BRRETA's limits on engagement terms.

Compensation is separate

Section 10-6A-11 says payment or a promise of compensation does not by itself determine whether a brokerage relationship exists.

Decision rule

Read the engagement before assuming authority, and separate contract compensation from statutory relationship status.

Georgia rule and national contrast

BRRETA controls Georgia brokerage engagements. National contract labels do not decide client status or allow prohibited terms in Georgia.

Worked Georgia example

Scenario. A buyer pays a broker a showing fee but signs no buyer brokerage engagement.

Reason it through. Compensation alone does not determine the brokerage relationship under Section 10-6A-11. The broker must look to the actual written engagement and disclosed role.

Answer. The fee by itself does not make the buyer a client.

Common exam traps

  • Using payment as the relationship test
  • Treating the salesperson as the only contracting party
  • Ignoring expiration
  • Assuming every clause can waive statutory duties

Original practice questions with detailed explanations

These are original instructional questions mapped to the July 1, 2026 PSI outline. They are not copied from PSI or a live examination. Choose an answer before opening the explanation.

Question 1

A buyer pays a Georgia broker a $150 fee to be shown several homes but never signs a buyer brokerage engagement. What is the buyer's status with that broker?

  1. A. Client, because paying the broker creates the relationship.
  2. B. Customer, because payment alone does not create a client.
  3. C. Client, but only for the homes the buyer paid to see.
  4. D. Customer, unless the broker shows the buyer a second home.
Show answer and explanation →

Answer: B. Customer, because payment alone does not create a client.

BRRETA says paying or promising compensation does not by itself decide whether a brokerage relationship exists. With no brokerage engagement, the buyer is a customer. The plausible mistake is treating the fee as proof of representation.

Question 2

A salesperson at Oak Realty gets a seller to sign a listing engagement and then moves to Pine Realty a month later. With whom is the listing engagement?

  1. A. The salesperson personally, who negotiated and signed it.
  2. B. Pine Realty, because a listing follows the licensee.
  3. C. The salesperson and the broker together, as co-agents.
  4. D. Oak Realty, because engagements are made with the broker.
Show answer and explanation →

Answer: D. Oak Realty, because engagements are made with the broker.

A brokerage engagement is a contract with the broker or licensed firm, even when an affiliated licensee does most of the work. The listing stays with Oak Realty when the salesperson leaves. Believing the listing belongs to the salesperson is the most common trap here.

Question 3

A listing engagement states that the broker will not present any offer received after the seller accepts a contract. How should a candidate treat that clause?

  1. A. It cannot override the rule that offers be presented, so they still are.
  2. B. It controls, because the seller agreed to it in a signed writing.
  3. C. It controls only if the seller initialed the clause separately.
  4. D. It turns the listing into a transaction brokerage arrangement.
Show answer and explanation →

Answer: A. It cannot override the rule that offers be presented, so they still are.

BRRETA requires a seller's broker to timely present all offers, even while the property is under contract, and GREC Rule 520-1-.10 separately requires a licensee to promptly tender every signed offer to the client. A listing clause cannot waive a Commission rule. The signed-writing answer is plausible because BRRETA lets the parties change their duties in a signed writing, but that does not override license-law requirements.

Ready to move on?

You are ready for the next lesson when all of these are true.

  • Explain Georgia Brokerage Engagement Requirements and Prohibited Terms in one clear answer without notes.
  • Separate Broker is the contracting party from Defined scope using a fresh example.
  • Apply the decision rule to a new fact pattern and name the fact that controls the result.
  • State the Georgia-specific point or explain why the national rule applies unchanged.
  • Answer every practice question and explain the rule each rejected option misapplies.
  • Revisit this topic later in mixed practice without category labels.

Recommended next lesson

Continue with Dual Agency and Designated Agency in Georgia. The dual agency article picks up the conflict terms an engagement has to address, showing when one broker may represent both sides with everyone's written consent and how designated agency splits the work between two licensees in the same firm.

Return to the Real Estate Practice in Georgia hub for the complete official branch and the full lesson list for this Georgia group.

Georgia Brokerage Engagement Requirements and Prohibited Terms questions

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

Is Georgia Brokerage Engagement Requirements and Prohibited Terms on the Georgia real estate exam?

Yes. It maps to PSI's Real Estate Practice in Georgia group, which has 21 of the 52 Georgia questions. PSI does not publish a guaranteed question count for this individual lesson.

What is the main Georgia rule for Georgia Brokerage Engagement Requirements and Prohibited Terms?

Read the engagement before assuming authority, and separate contract compensation from statutory relationship status.

How is this different from a national real estate rule?

BRRETA controls Georgia brokerage engagements. National contract labels do not decide client status or allow prohibited terms in Georgia.