In Georgia, an exclusive buyer agreement ties you to a single broker who earns a commission on any home you buy during the term, while a non-exclusive buyer agreement lets you work with more than one agent and pay only the broker whose work actually led to your purchase. Since August 17, 2024, you’ll usually be asked to sign one or the other before an agent can show you a home, so the choice between Georgia’s exclusive and non-exclusive buyer agreement now comes up at the start of your search rather than at closing.1National Association of Realtors. What the NAR Settlement Means for Home Buyers and Sellers
What Each Agreement Commits You To
An exclusive buyer agreement makes one broker your only broker for a set period, often six months to a year. During that window, if you buy any property in the area the agreement covers, that broker is owed their commission. It doesn’t matter whether the agent found the house, whether you spotted it on Zillow, or whether a cousin tipped you off at a cookout. The Georgia Association of REALTORS publishes a standard form for this arrangement, the Exclusive Buyer Brokerage Engagement Agreement (GAR Form F110).2Georgia Association of REALTORS. Downloadable Forms
Because the agent knows they’ll be paid if you buy, they have a strong reason to put real effort in. Expect deeper searches, more thorough market analysis, and harder negotiation. The trade-off is flexibility. You can’t call a different agent and start touring with them without risking a breach, and if the relationship sours, your way out is limited.
A non-exclusive buyer agreement lets you work with multiple brokers at the same time, or search on your own. You owe a commission only to the broker whose efforts actually led to the purchase. GAR offers a standard form here too, the Non-Exclusive Buyer Brokerage Engagement Agreement (GAR Form F113).2Georgia Association of REALTORS. Downloadable Forms
The flexibility is real. One agent can show you homes in Decatur while another covers Marietta, and you can still look at for-sale-by-owner listings without any broker involved. The predictable cost: agents working under a non-exclusive agreement know their paycheck isn’t guaranteed, and some will put less energy into your search as a result. If three agents are all “working” with you, don’t expect any of them to treat you as a priority client.
How the Commission Gets Triggered
This is where the two forms diverge most sharply, and where buyers most often get caught off guard.
Under an exclusive agreement, you owe the commission whenever you buy a property during the contract term. The agent doesn’t have to have shown it to you. They don’t have to have heard of it. The exclusive makes payment close to a certainty for the broker, which is the reason the service tends to be better.
Under a non-exclusive agreement, commission turns on who the “procuring cause” of the sale was. If an agent showed you the home, pulled comps, and helped you draft the offer, that agent was the procuring cause and earns the commission. If you found the property on your own and used no broker’s services, you may owe nothing. When two brokers both think they did the work, the dispute goes to arbitration through local REALTOR boards, and the outcome depends on who actually contributed to the sale closing.3Georgia Association of REALTORS. Arbitrable Issues
Under either form, the commission rate is negotiable. The NAR settlement rules require the agreement to say so plainly, and Georgia has never set a legally mandated rate.4National Association of Realtors. Written Buyer Agreements 101 Compensation can be a flat fee, an hourly rate, or a percentage, and it has to be stated in objective terms rather than left open-ended. The agreement also can’t let your agent collect more from any source than the figure you agreed to in writing.
The Protected Period After Expiration
Both agreement types typically include a protected period, sometimes called a safety clause. For a window after the agreement expires, often 90 to 180 days, you still owe the broker a commission if you buy a property they introduced you to while the agreement was active.
The reason is straightforward. Without the clause, a buyer could tour homes with an agent for months, wait for the term to lapse, buy one of those same homes the next week, and pay nothing. The protected period closes that door.
Scope matters. The clause generally reaches only properties the agent actually showed you or sent you information about during the term, not every home you might eventually buy. And in most versions, the protected period ends immediately if you sign a representation agreement with a different broker.
If You Need to Get Out Early
The standard GAR buyer brokerage forms don’t include an early termination clause. There’s no built-in right to cancel just because you’ve changed your mind.
- Mutual agreement in writing to end the relationship. Many brokers will release an unhappy client rather than drag things on, but they don’t have to.
- Breach by the agent. If the broker fails to perform their duties under the agreement or under Georgia’s Brokerage Relationships in Real Estate Transactions Act, that failure can give you grounds to terminate. Document the problems as they happen.
- Waiting it out. If neither of the above applies, the term simply has to run.
Even after you’re out, the protected period can still apply. Buyers who assume walking away from the agreement means walking away from all obligations often learn otherwise when they go to close on a house their old agent had shown them.
Which One Should You Sign
A non-exclusive agreement is the safer first step with an agent you haven’t worked with before. It gives you a trial period to see how responsive they are, how well they know your market, and how hard they negotiate, without locking you in. Some agents will offer a non-exclusive for the first month as a way to prove their value before asking for exclusivity.
An exclusive agreement makes sense once you trust the agent and you’re serious about buying soon. The commitment buys you a committed agent in return, and in a market where homes move in days, that focus can make the difference on an offer. It also keeps the arrangement simple: one agent, one relationship, no question later about who gets paid.
A few things worth negotiating before you sign either form:
- Keep the term short. Three to six months is reasonable for an exclusive. You can renew if things are going well; a shorter term limits the damage if they aren’t.
- Define the geographic area narrowly. Some agreements cover all of metro Atlanta, others only a county or two. The tighter the territory, the more room you keep to work with other agents elsewhere.
- Negotiate the compensation figure. The first number your agent writes down isn’t the only option, and the agreement has to state the figure in objective terms.
- Read the protected period carefully. Know how long it runs and what triggers it before you sign, not after.
If you’re thinking about signing exclusive agreements with different agents for different parts of the state, make sure the territories don’t overlap. Two exclusives covering the same ground is how a buyer ends up owing two commissions on one house.