Georgia Still Tests BRRETA Not Common Law Agency

Georgia is one of the fastest growing real estate markets in the country. More people are entering the field, and competition to earn your license on the first attempt has never been stronger.

The Georgia Real Estate Commission oversees licensing in the state. PSI administers the exam with 52 state specific questions and 100 national questions; you need 75% to pass. Georgia replaced common law fiduciary agency with BRRETA, a statutory framework that defines duties differently than anything in national prep. Candidates who apply standard fiduciary principles to Georgia exam questions will fail the agency section. Add GREC disciplinary procedure and closing cost proration math to your focused prep, and you cover the three areas that produce the most missed questions on the state portion. When I taught pre-licensing courses, BRRETA was always the section that generated the most confused looks, and the most office hours.

BRRETA (Agency Law)

BRRETA eliminated common law fiduciary agency in Georgia. The exam doesn't test what a fiduciary owes. It tests BRRETA's specific enumerated duties, and those duties aren't the same thing. Here's the thing most people miss: BRRETA isn't just a disclosure framework. It replaced the entire fiduciary model, and the exam treats it that way.

Georgia's BRRETA replaced traditional fiduciary duties with specific statutory duties (reasonable care, confidentiality, compliance), students fail because they apply common law agency principles instead of BRRETA's enumerated duties.

BRRETA is Georgia's statute, but similar agency disclosure frameworks exist in neighboring states. North Carolina uses its Working With Agents brochure as the required disclosure mechanism, and Tennessee mandates an agency disclosure form at first meaningful contact. Both test different specifics than BRRETA.

The PSI exam will test BRRETA's enumerated duties by name. Know each duty the statute imposes, understand that BRRETA's list is exhaustive rather than illustrative, and know what happens when a Georgia licensee acts outside those statutory duties. Importing fiduciary duties from national prep will produce wrong answers on every BRRETA scenario.

GREC Disciplinary Actions

GREC's disciplinary ladder has intermediate steps, reprimand and restriction, that candidates who only memorize "suspend or revoke" will miss entirely on the exam.

GREC can reprimand, suspend, revoke, or fine licensees, students miss questions because they don't understand the escalation ladder of sanctions or that GREC can impose restrictions short of full suspension.

Know all four disciplinary actions GREC can impose, understand that restrictions short of suspension are a distinct sanction the Commission uses, and be prepared for scenarios where the exam asks which sanction is appropriate for a given violation. The PSI exam won't always make the answer obvious. It tests whether you know GREC's full range of authority, including the steps between a reprimand and a full suspension.

Closing Cost Prorations

Georgia uses a 365-day proration year, not 360, and the exam tests which closing items are prorated to the day versus prepaid through month end. Both details determine whether your math produces the right answer.

Georgia uses a 365-day year for proration calculations and students confuse which items are prorated to the day of closing versus prepaid through the end of the month, the math questions are among the most frequently missed.

Practice proration math using the 365-day method and know which charges Georgia prorates to the day of closing and which are handled as prepaid credits or debits. The PSI exam will present a closing scenario with a specific date and require you to calculate a proration. Using the wrong number of days or the wrong item classification produces a wrong answer the exam is specifically designed to catch. What do Georgia closing agents and mathematicians have in common? They both count every single day. (Your groan is valid.)