This week’s piece was “caused” by me making a giant mistake. I submitted an offer to purchase and didn’t send a fully completed Buyer Representation and Broker Compensation Agreement (BRBC) with the offer — as you all know, a huge mistake. So the first question this week is mine.
The BRBC is the form every California agent needs before showing property or submitting an offer. The NAR settlement required a written agreement before showing residential property and prohibits a buyer broker from receiving more compensation than the amount agreed upon in that agreement.
California, always on the bleeding edge of consumer protection, enacted AB 2992, which extended that mandate to all California licensees and all real property, including commercial. Subsequently, the DRE established a rebuttable presumption (I had to ask ChaGPT) that the agreement must be signed before touring a property.
The biggest mistake agents make is skipping the signed BRBC entirely. No signed agreement means no legal basis for payment and no contractual grounds to ask the seller to pay on the buyer’s behalf. Escrow will not disburse without an enforceable contract in the file.
Let that sink in: No BRBC, no money.
The second most common mistake is changing the compensation amount after the fact. An agent sets a lower amount in the BRBC, the seller agrees to pay more in the RPA, and the agent tries to change the BRBC to match. A unilateral amendment to increase compensation solely to match a seller offer is a likely violation of the settlement agreement.
If you make a mistake there’s no “backsies.”
The BRBC is not optional. It protects commissions, licenses and client relationships. Escrow needs the signed form in the file to disburse. Sign it early, set your compensation right (ask you broker for help), and always verify whether the buyer has an existing agreement with another broker before you start working.
Hope you find this helpful, and if you have any questions email me: americaanswers1@gmail.com.
Question: I submitted a BRBC that wasn’t completed fully with an offer that went into agreement. I left out the dates for representation and assumed the 90 days would start from when the client signed the BRBC. What can I do in this situation?
Answer: Ask your broker and call your association’s legal hotline, too. This happened to me, and I did not like what my broker and compliance officer told me. Then I called the CAR legal hotline and liked what they had to say even less.
The short answer is that an incomplete BRBC is not a clean document. If you leave the dates blank and just assume the 90 days would run from the signing date, you may or may not have a valid representation agreement at all. That matters because, without a properly executed BRBC, you may not be entitled to compensation if the deal closes, and you may have also put yourself in a compliance hole with the new NAR settlement rules.
If you figured this out before you went into agreement, get back on with your clients and do a new one. If you, like me, submitted the incomplete BRBC with an offer and went into agreement, your options are limited.
Your best move now is to call your legal hotline immediately and explain the situation exactly as it is: the form is incomplete, the deal is in contract, and the document cannot be amended without reopening negotiations.
They will tell you your options, which may include a corrective addendum signed by both parties, a waiver of the issue from the buyer or, in the worst case, accepting that your compensation is now at risk.
Question: Do I need a signed BRBC before every single showing, even for a first-time buyer just looking?
Answer: Yes. If you are a Realtor, as of the current NAR settlement rules, you need a signed buyer representation agreement before touring a home with a buyer. In practice, that means if you are taking a buyer out on a showing, you should have the BRBC signed first, rather than treating it like a form you deal with later.
That said, the exact rule can depend on your state law (California requires BRBC for all real property transactions for licensees), MLS policy, and brokerage compliance standards, so don’t guess. A first-time buyer “just looking” still counts if you are providing brokerage services, and the whole point of the BRBC is to define who you represent and how you get paid before you start spinning your wheels.
This isn’t just about compliance. It protects you from doing unpaid work and protects the buyer from not understanding the relationship. The conversation should happen first. There’s a definite learning curve on how to present the form to potential clients without scaring them off.
Question: If the buyer cancels the BRBC and then buys a property I showed them, am I still owed compensation?
Answer: It depends on what your BRBC actually says and whether you followed the steps to preserve your claim.
Most buyer representation agreements, including the CAR BRBC, include a protection period clause. If you filled in a number of days in that blank space, and if you delivered a written list of the properties you showed (the NBIP or similar) to the buyer within the required timeframe after cancellation, then you may still be owed compensation if the buyer buys one of those properties during the protection period.
The protection period only covers properties where there was “Broker Involvement” — meaning you actually showed the property in person or virtually, and wrote or presented an offer the buyer signed.
You can’t just send a list of all the properties sent by your MLS drip. You also need to deliver that written list to the buyer within the timeframe required — usually five days after cancellation for non-exclusive agreements — or your claim may not be valid, regardless of what the contract says.
So pull out your BRBC. Look for the protection period and the cancellation and notice requirements. If the protection period box is blank, you may not have a leg to stand on. If you did not send the NBIP, same problem. If you did both, you may still have a path to compensation.
Each week in America Answers, Inman contributor America Foy answers questions from the industry at large and offers advice on how to handle the situation.
Have questions? Email America Foy
America Foy is a broker associate at The Grubb Co. Get connected on LinkedIn and Instagram.
