Is a document that outlines the relationship between a potential home buyer and the real estate brokerage. It is required by law, as governed by The Real Estate Council of Ontario, to commit the agreement to writing between the Buyer and Brokerage.
There are many benefits to signing a BRA with your REALTOR® which is outlined here: brafirst.ca
1. It obligates you to work with a specific Real Estate Brokerage when searching for properties in a specific Geographic area and for a specific length of time
Note that in recent court cases, the courts have decided that a geographic area must be relatively localized, as it is unreasonable for a REALTOR to serve the entire province. If the Agreement is valid for longer than 6 months, the Buyer must make an additional acknowledgment to what they are agreeing to.
2. It Sets out the commission rate in which the brokerage is to be compensated for representing your interests.
Note that if the BRA has an agreed commission rate of 2.5% and a Seller is only offering to pay the brokerage 2%, then the 0.5% difference will need to be paid by the Buyer to the Brokerage to total the agreed-upon 2.5%. However, the agreed-upon commission rate is always negotiable.
3. Outlines the ‘Holdover’ period.
The holdover clause is the brokerages way of protecting their efforts and ensuring that they have a claim to being paid a commission rate if you buy a property, which you were introduced to by your Real Estate representative, after the BRA expires.
There is other elements of the BRA, but the above cover the most important elements. For more on the Buyer Representation Agreement & other OREA standard forms, click the link below to search out all of the standard forms available to OREA Realtor members.
It is our goal to provide ultimate service to all our clients so that they are always thinking of referring the Toombs name to those who are looking to buy and sell real estate.