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Georgia curriculum lesson · Real Estate Practice in Georgia

Duties of a Georgia Broker Engaged by a Seller

A seller's broker must perform the engagement, promote the seller's interests within its terms, seek acceptable price and terms, timely present all offers, disclose transaction material facts to the seller, recommend experts beyond the broker's expertise, account for money and property, exercise reasonable skill and care, comply with law, and protect information made confidential by express request or instruction. The broker also has specified duties to disclose actually known adverse facts to others.

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

What is the exam-ready answer?

A seller's broker must perform the engagement, promote the seller's interests within its terms, seek acceptable price and terms, timely present all offers, disclose transaction material facts to the seller, recommend experts beyond the broker's expertise, account for money and property, exercise reasonable skill and care, comply with law, and protect information made confidential by express request or instruction. The broker also has specified duties to disclose actually known adverse facts to others.
Official syllabus mapping for Duties of a Georgia Broker Engaged by a Seller
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.

Perform and promote

The broker follows the engagement and seeks a sale on the stated or acceptable terms, subject to the contract-status limits in Section 10-6A-5.

Offers and accounting

All offers to and from the seller are timely presented even when the property is under contract, and money or property in which the seller has an interest is accounted for.

Confidentiality

Information is protected when made confidential by express request or instruction, unless later permitted or disclosure is required by law.

Adverse facts

The broker timely discloses the specified actually known adverse physical facts and certain immediate-neighborhood conditions that a diligent buyer could not discover through listed sources.

Decision rule

Identify whether the fact concerns promotion of the seller, confidential information, an offer, money, an adverse fact, or a matter requiring expert advice.

Georgia rule and national contrast

Section 10-6A-5 says a seller's broker must present every offer promptly, even while the property is under contract. The broker does not have to go looking for more offers during that time unless the brokerage engagement says so.

Worked Georgia example

Scenario. A listed home is under contract when a second written offer arrives. The listing engagement does not require seeking backup offers.

Reason it through. The broker may not have to seek additional offers, but Section 10-6A-5 still requires timely presentation of offers to and from the seller.

Answer. Present the second offer timely and let the seller decide within existing contractual obligations.

Common exam traps

  • Confusing seeking with presenting offers
  • Disclosing confidential motivation
  • Diagnosing beyond expertise
  • Inventing a duty to discover unknown defects

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 listing broker knows the home's septic field failed last year and was patched. A buyer's ordinary inspection would not reveal it. The seller asks the broker not to mention it. What must the broker do?

  1. A. Keep it confidential, since the seller expressly asked.
  2. B. Mention it only if a buyer asks a direct question.
  3. C. Disclose it, since it is a known hidden physical defect.
  4. D. Suggest the buyer hire an inspector and say nothing more.
Show answer and explanation →

Answer: C. Disclose it, since it is a known hidden physical defect.

A seller's broker must disclose actually known adverse physical facts about the property that a reasonably diligent inspection would not reveal. The seller's request cannot turn a required disclosure into a confidence. Suggesting an inspection looks plausible, but the stem says an inspection would not find this defect.

Question 2

A death from natural causes occurred in a listed home two years ago. No buyer has asked about it. Under Georgia law, what must the listing broker do?

  1. A. Nothing unless a buyer asks, then answer truthfully.
  2. B. Disclose it in writing to every prospective buyer.
  3. C. Refuse to answer even if a buyer asks about it directly.
  4. D. Disclose it only to buyers who have no broker of their own.
Show answer and explanation →

Answer: A. Nothing unless a buyer asks, then answer truthfully.

Georgia does not require a licensee to volunteer that a death occurred on a property. If a buyer asks directly, the licensee may not give false information. The written-disclosure answer treats a stigma as if it were a physical defect.

Question 3

A buyer asks the listing broker whether a crack in the basement wall is structural. The broker has no special knowledge of the crack. What should the broker do?

  1. A. Say it looks cosmetic, based on the broker's experience.
  2. B. Recommend that the buyer get a structural engineer's opinion.
  3. C. Say it is structural, to guard against a later complaint.
  4. D. Decline to discuss it, since the buyer is not the client.
Show answer and explanation →

Answer: B. Recommend that the buyer get a structural engineer's opinion.

A broker recommends expert advice on matters beyond brokerage expertise, and whether a crack is structural is an engineering question. Guessing either way would be diagnosing beyond expertise. Calling it cosmetic from experience is plausible because it sounds helpful, but it could mislead the buyer.

Ready to move on?

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

  • Explain Duties of a Georgia Broker Engaged by a Seller in one clear answer without notes.
  • Separate Perform and promote from Offers and accounting 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 Buyer. The buyer's broker lesson mirrors this one from the other side, with the same rule on presenting offers during a pending contract and a duty to disclose known adverse facts about the buyer's ability to perform.

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

Duties of a Georgia Broker Engaged by a Seller questions

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

Is Duties of a Georgia Broker Engaged by a Seller 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 Duties of a Georgia Broker Engaged by a Seller?

Identify whether the fact concerns promotion of the seller, confidential information, an offer, money, an adverse fact, or a matter requiring expert advice.

How is this different from a national real estate rule?

Section 10-6A-5 says a seller's broker must present every offer promptly, even while the property is under contract. The broker does not have to go looking for more offers during that time unless the brokerage engagement says so.