Free practice
The real estate agent, agency defined, and client versus customer
Finish →Question 1 of 40
Which relationship is the defining feature of agency?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Acting on behalf of a principal within granted authority
Agency involves representation of a principal within the agent's authority. Information, payment, and ownership alone do not define that relationship.
Question 2 of 40
Under New York Real Property Law § 443, an agent is a licensed broker, associate broker, or salesperson acting in what capacity?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: A fiduciary capacity
New York's definition combines the specified real estate license with acting in a fiduciary capacity.
Question 3 of 40
Marta engages a broker to represent her in selling her house. Eli, who has no agent, asks that broker for a showing. Relative to that broker, how should the parties be classified?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Marta is a client; Eli is a customer.
The broker represents Marta. Arranging Eli's showing does not by itself create buyer representation.
Question 4 of 40
A New York seller's agent says, 'The buyer is my customer, so I need not be honest with the buyer.' What is the best evaluation?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Incorrect, because the agent owes the buyer honest, fair, good-faith dealing.
New York distinguishes representation from duties to the other party. A seller's agent owes honest, fair, good-faith dealing to the buyer without representing the buyer.
Question 5 of 40
A buyer signs only the receipt acknowledgment on New York's agency disclosure form identifying the licensee as the seller's agent. What does that signature establish?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: The buyer acknowledges receipt of the agency disclosure.
A receipt acknowledgment records receipt of the disclosure. It is not itself an agency contract, an offer acceptance, or dual-agency consent.
Question 6 of 40
Which duty most clearly distinguishes a New York seller's single agent's obligation to the seller from the agent's dealings with a buyer customer?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Undivided loyalty
Undivided loyalty belongs to the seller's fiduciary relationship. Honesty, reasonable skill and care, and good faith also apply in dealings with the buyer.
Question 7 of 40
A tenant hires a New York broker to negotiate a lease on terms acceptable to the tenant. Whose interests does that broker represent?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: The tenant's interests
A tenant's agent represents the tenant's interests in negotiating rent and lease terms. Ownership, signatures, and occupancy do not change the stated agency.
Question 8 of 40
What must both buyer and seller provide for a broker to represent them as a dual agent in New York?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Informed consent in writing
New York permits dual agency with both parties' informed written consent. Fee arrangements or agreement on price do not replace that consent.
Question 9 of 40
For a covered New York residential listing, when must the listing agent provide agency disclosure to the seller?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Before entering into the listing agreement
The listing agent must provide the disclosure before entering the listing agreement with the seller.
Question 10 of 40
Leah has a buyer's agent from one firm. She views a house listed by Omar, who represents the seller through another firm. How is Leah classified relative to these agents?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: A client of her buyer's agent and a customer of Omar
Client and customer describe the person's relationship to a particular agent. Leah is represented by her buyer's agent, not by Omar.
Question 11 of 40
A New York seller's agent knows of a serious foundation defect materially affecting the house's value. No legal exception applies. The buyer is a customer. What should the agent do?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Disclose the known defect to the buyer
New York's seller-agent duties include disclosing known facts materially affecting property value or desirability, except as otherwise provided by law. The stem excludes an exception.
Question 12 of 40
Which description best identifies a principal in an agency relationship?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: The person on whose behalf the agent acts
The principal is the represented person. Financing, first contact, and ownership are not substitutes for representation.
Question 13 of 40
A New York broker represents a buyer and seller with their informed written consent. Which explanation of that arrangement is accurate?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Both are represented, but the broker cannot provide undivided loyalty.
Dual agency represents both parties, with limits on fiduciary duties. Consent does not make conflicting undivided loyalty possible.
Question 14 of 40
For a covered New York residential transaction, when does a seller's agent provide the agency disclosure to a prospective buyer?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: At the first substantive contact with the buyer
New York requires a seller's agent to provide the disclosure at first substantive contact with the buyer.
Question 15 of 40
A seller pays a brokerage fee, but the facts do not identify whom the broker agreed to represent. What is the soundest conclusion about client status?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Determine the representation relationship rather than deciding from payment alone.
Payment alone does not identify the principal. The representation undertaking determines client status.
Question 16 of 40
A New York buyer's agent advises the buyer about an offer, while a separate listing broker represents the seller. Which instruction fits the buyer's agent's role?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Negotiate purchase terms acceptable to the buyer.
A buyer's agent represents the buyer's interests by negotiating a purchase on price and terms acceptable to the buyer.
Question 17 of 40
Which statement correctly describes a customer of a real estate agent?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: A person with whom the agent deals but whom the agent does not represent
Customer status describes dealings without representation by that agent. A person authorizing representation is a principal or client.
Question 18 of 40
A New York landlord engages a broker to find a tenant. An unrepresented applicant asks that broker about the apartment. Which statement describes the broker's duties?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: The landlord receives representation; the applicant is owed honest and fair dealing.
The landlord's agent represents the landlord and still owes honest, fair, good-faith dealing to the tenant applicant.
Question 19 of 40
In a covered New York residential transaction, a buyer is about to agree that a broker will act as the buyer's agent. When must that broker provide the agency disclosure to the buyer?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Before entering the agreement to act as the buyer's agent
The buyer's agent provides the disclosure before entering the agreement to act as the buyer's agent.
Question 20 of 40
A buyer says, 'The listing agent spent three hours answering my questions, so I must be that agent's client.' Which fact would best resolve the buyer's assumption?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Whether the agent undertook to represent the buyer's interests
Representation, not the time or usefulness of assistance, determines client status.
Question 21 of 40
Which pair consists of fiduciary duties New York identifies as owed by a seller's agent to the seller?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Confidentiality and duty to account
Confidentiality and accounting are among the fiduciary duties identified in New York's seller-agent disclosure.
Question 22 of 40
A New York seller's agent describes the home honestly to an unrepresented buyer. The seller objects that honesty toward the buyer amounts to buyer representation. Which response is best?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Honest dealing is owed to the buyer and does not by itself create buyer representation.
New York requires honest dealing toward the buyer without converting the seller's agent into the buyer's representative.
Question 23 of 40
A New York broker proposes representing both a landlord and a tenant in the same lease negotiation. What is required for this dual agency?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Informed written consent from both landlord and tenant
New York permits rental dual agency when both landlord and tenant give informed consent in writing.
Question 24 of 40
What is the primary purpose of New York's agency disclosure form?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: To explain the agency relationship and its rights and obligations
The disclosure form helps parties understand the nature of agency and the rights and obligations it creates. It is not a representation contract.
Question 25 of 40
Which fact most directly shows that a licensee is acting in a fiduciary role for a buyer?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: The licensee has undertaken to protect the buyer's interests as the buyer's representative.
An undertaking to represent the buyer and protect the buyer's interests establishes the fiduciary role; routine information and access alone do not.
Question 26 of 40
A New York seller's agent is asked to secure a buyer on price and terms acceptable to the seller. This task primarily reflects which relationship?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Representation of the seller as client
Securing a buyer on terms acceptable to the seller is part of representing the seller's interests under New York's seller-agent description.
Question 27 of 40
A brokerage says that its buyer client and seller client will each receive undivided loyalty from the same broker acting as their dual agent in New York. Both have signed informed consents. What is wrong with the statement?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Written consent does not make undivided loyalty available in dual agency.
New York permits consented dual agency but recognizes that a dual agent cannot provide the full range of fiduciary duties, including undivided loyalty.
Question 28 of 40
Which question best distinguishes a client from a customer of a particular agent?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Whom does this agent represent?
Representation is the distinguishing fact. Transaction activity and the volume of assistance do not define client status.
Question 29 of 40
A New York seller's agent is dealing with a buyer customer. Which statement about reasonable skill and care is correct?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: It applies in performing the agent's duties in dealings with the buyer.
New York's seller-agent disclosure expressly includes reasonable skill and care in the agent's dealings with the buyer, without requiring buyer representation or payment.
Question 30 of 40
A buyer's representative tells a seller customer in New York, 'Because I represent the buyer, I may deal with you unfairly.' Which principle corrects that claim?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: A buyer's agent still owes the seller honest, fair, good-faith dealing.
New York imposes honest, fair, good-faith dealing toward the seller on a buyer's agent while preserving the distinction between representation and customer dealings.
Question 31 of 40
A homeowner engages a listing broker, but no buyer has yet made an offer. What is the homeowner's relationship to that broker?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Client because the broker has undertaken seller representation
The seller's client relationship follows the undertaking of representation, not later events in a prospective sale.
Question 32 of 40
Under New York's agency framework, a real estate salesperson performs agency work under whose supervision?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: The real estate broker with whom the salesperson works
A sales agent works under the supervision of the real estate broker. A customer, lender, or closing attorney does not replace that supervisory role.
Question 33 of 40
A seller's agent gives a buyer an agency disclosure identifying seller representation and then answers property questions. Which additional conclusion is justified without assuming a new agency agreement?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: The buyer can receive assistance while remaining a customer of the seller's agent.
Providing information is compatible with customer status. Neither disclosure nor questions alone establish a change in representation.
Question 34 of 40
In agency terminology, which term is another name for the represented principal?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Client
The represented principal is the client. A customer is not represented by that agent, while the salesperson performs the representative role.
Question 35 of 40
A New York landlord's agent is asked by a prospective tenant to negotiate the lowest possible rent on the tenant's behalf. The agent has not undertaken tenant representation. What is the best explanation of the agent's current role?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: The agent represents the landlord, though the tenant is owed honest and fair dealing.
A New York landlord's agent represents the landlord's interests. The tenant's request does not itself establish tenant representation.
Question 36 of 40
Which comparison correctly distinguishes two New York arrangements: a seller's single agent dealing with a buyer customer, and a broker acting as a properly consented dual agent?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: The single agent represents the seller; the dual agent represents both with limited fiduciary duties.
Single seller agency represents the seller and imposes customer duties toward the buyer. Dual agency represents both parties but limits the fiduciary duties available.
Question 37 of 40
A buyer hires an independent buyer's agent after initially visiting a property through its seller's agent. The seller's agent's relationship remains unchanged. What changes in the buyer's status?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: The buyer becomes the buyer's agent's client and remains the seller's agent's customer.
The new engagement creates representation by the buyer's agent. It does not alter the seller's agent's separate relationship.
Question 38 of 40
Which phrase best captures the central responsibility of a fiduciary in the agency relationship?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Protecting the represented party's interests within the agency relationship
A fiduciary acts for the represented party's interests within the agency relationship. Closing a sale or collecting compensation does not displace that responsibility.
Question 39 of 40
A seller signs a New York agency disclosure receipt and later enters a listing agreement engaging the broker. Which statement best distinguishes those documents?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: The receipt acknowledges disclosure; the listing agreement authorizes seller representation.
New York's disclosure form is not a contract. The listing agreement is the owner-agent contract authorizing the sale, lease, or finding of a buyer or lessee.
Question 40 of 40
An unrepresented buyer is comparing assistance from a New York seller's agent with hiring a separate buyer's agent. What would the separate buyer's agent add?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Representation of the buyer's interests with fiduciary duties to the buyer
A separate buyer's agent adds buyer representation and fiduciary duties. The seller's agent already owes honest dealing, and the seller's agency is not transferred.
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