What is the exam-ready answer?
| Official syllabus topic | Real Estate Practice in Georgia: Listings and Agency |
|---|---|
| Official PSI group | Real Estate Practice in Georgia |
| Published group count | 21 of the 52 Georgia questions |
| Exam portion | Georgia salesperson supplement |
| Source edition | PSI 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.
Client
A client is a party to a brokerage engagement with the broker. Duties depend on the seller, landlord, buyer, or tenant section and the signed engagement.
Customer
A customer has no brokerage engagement. Assistance can include ministerial acts that do not require discretion or the licensee's own judgment.
No automatic fiduciary label
BRRETA Section 10-6A-4 limits duties to the statute and agreed writing and says the broker is not a fiduciary to any party.
Changing relationships
When an existing relationship changes, the broker must timely disclose the new relationship to the affected brokers, customers, or clients.
Side-by-side exam comparison
Compare the roles across the same facts. The written relationship and permitted level of judgment control, not who appears friendliest or who ultimately pays compensation.
| Decision dimension | Client | Customer |
|---|---|---|
| Relationship source | Express written brokerage engagement with the broker | No brokerage engagement with that broker |
| Representation | Broker represents the client in the role created by the engagement | Broker does not represent the customer as an agent |
| Permitted help | Advice, advocacy, and services within the engagement and law | Ministerial acts that do not require discretion or independent judgment |
| Duties | Role-specific BRRETA duties plus duties expressly agreed in a signed writing | Applicable honesty, offer-presentation, accounting, and adverse-fact duties without client advocacy |
| What does not decide status | Compensation source does not replace the engagement | Showings, forms, friendliness, or repeated help do not create representation by themselves |
Decision rule
Georgia rule and national contrast
Worked Georgia example
Scenario. A listing licensee shows an unrepresented buyer three homes and provides published tax records, but no buyer engagement is signed.
Reason it through. Showings and factual assistance can be ministerial. Without a brokerage engagement, the buyer remains a customer rather than the broker's client.
Answer. The buyer is a customer unless the relationship is changed through a brokerage engagement.
Common exam traps
- Inferring agency from repeated help
- Calling every client duty fiduciary
- Assuming compensation creates the relationship
- Confusing ministerial assistance with advocacy
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 1A listing licensee shows an unrepresented buyer three homes and gives the buyer published tax records. No buyer engagement is signed. What is the buyer's relationship to the listing broker?
- A. Client, because the licensee has shown several homes.
- B. Customer, because no brokerage engagement exists.
- C. Dual-agency client, because the broker also has the seller.
- D. Implied client, because the licensee supplied records.
Show answer and explanation →
Answer: B. Customer, because no brokerage engagement exists.
Under BRRETA a client is someone who has entered a brokerage engagement with the broker. Showings and handing over published records are ministerial help, so the buyer is a customer. The repeated-help answer looks plausible, but representation does not arise from how much assistance someone gets.
Question 2A seller client insists that the listing broker, as a fiduciary, owed every loyalty duty found in traditional agency law. Under BRRETA, what does the broker owe the seller?
- A. Every common-law fiduciary duty, because the seller is a client.
- B. Only the tasks listed in the engagement, with no statutory duties.
- C. Fiduciary duties to the seller and also to the buyer in the sale.
- D. The BRRETA duties plus any extra duties agreed in a signed writing.
Show answer and explanation →
Answer: D. The BRRETA duties plus any extra duties agreed in a signed writing.
BRRETA says a broker owes only the duties in the statute plus any extra duties expressly agreed in a signed writing, and it states that the broker is not a fiduciary to any party. The first choice reflects national agency shorthand that Georgia rejected. The second goes too far the other way, because the statutory duties apply even when the engagement does not list them.
Question 3A broker has been helping a buyer as a customer. During negotiations on a property, the buyer signs a buyer brokerage engagement with that broker. What must the broker do?
- A. Timely disclose the new relationship to everyone in the deal.
- B. Nothing, because a change in relationship is a private matter.
- C. Note the change on the settlement statement at closing.
- D. Get the seller's written approval before accepting the buyer.
Show answer and explanation →
Answer: A. Timely disclose the new relationship to everyone in the deal.
When a broker enters a new brokerage relationship with an existing customer or client, BRRETA requires timely disclosure of the new relationship to the others involved in the transaction. Waiting until closing is too late to let the other side adjust. The seller has no approval right over whom the buyer engages.
Ready to move on?
You are ready for the next lesson when all of these are true.
- Explain Client Versus Customer Under BRRETA in one clear answer without notes.
- Separate Client from Customer 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 Duties of a Georgia Broker Engaged by a Seller. With the client and customer line drawn, the seller's broker lesson lists exactly what BRRETA requires of a broker engaged by a seller, from presenting every offer to disclosing known hidden physical defects to buyers.
Return to the Real Estate Practice in Georgia hub for the complete official branch and the full lesson list for this Georgia group.