South Carolina Clients and Customers Have Different Rights

South Carolina requires clients to sign a written representation agreement before any broker can advocate or advise on price, and the LLR tests that boundary throughout the agency section.

The PSI exam for South Carolina tests 30 state specific questions alongside 80 national questions with a 70% passing threshold. The client-versus-customer distinction, transaction broker duties, and the state's specific disclosure-of-real-estate-interest rules are areas where South Carolina law imposes obligations that national prep materials describe differently, or not at all. Let me break this down, because the client-versus-customer line matters more here than in almost any other state.

Agency Relationships

South Carolina draws a hard line between clients and customers that determines what the brokerage can legally do. Once a buyer is labeled a customer rather than a client, the brokerage is limited to ministerial services and can't advise on price or negotiating strategy.

South Carolina distinguishes between clients (with written agreements) and customers (with only ministerial services), until a representation agreement is signed, the brokerage cannot advocate or advise on price.

The PSI exam will test scenarios where the brokerage has not yet signed a representation agreement. Know exactly which services are permitted for customers, which require a client relationship, and what converts a customer to a client under South Carolina law. The distinction isn't subtle: advising on price without a signed agreement isn't a gray area in South Carolina. It's a violation.

Transaction Broker Duties

South Carolina's transaction broker role carries six mandatory customer duties defined by statute. The LLR exam tests whether candidates can identify which duties apply to customers and which require a full client relationship to trigger.

A transaction broker must disclose "material adverse facts" but has no duty of loyalty, students confuse the six mandatory customer duties with the higher obligations owed to clients.

Know all six mandatory customer duties by category, know that "material adverse facts" disclosure applies regardless of relationship type, and be able to distinguish what a transaction broker owes versus what a buyer's agent owes. The LLR exam tests the boundary between them. I know, I know, six duties to memorize. But this one actually matters on the exam.

Disclosure of RE Interest

South Carolina imposes three separate disclosure requirements when a licensee holds a personal interest in a transaction, each with a different format and timing. The LLR exam tests all three because candidates who learned general disclosure rules can only identify one of them correctly.

Licensees must disclose their license status in bold, underlined, capital letters on the first page of any contract when they are a party, plus at first contact and in all advertising, miss any one of these three and you miss the question.

Know the specific formatting requirement for contract disclosure, when first-contact disclosure must occur, and what advertising disclosure must include. The LLR exam presents questions where one of these three requirements is missing and asks whether the licensee is in compliance.

Real estate interest disclosure requirements protect consumers when a licensee has a personal stake in a transaction. Georgia mandates disclosure under GREC rules when a licensee is buying or has a financial interest, and Florida requires disclosure under FREC guidelines. South Carolina's specific requirements for when and how licensees must disclose their real estate interest are what the SC exam tests.