New Jersey Real Estate Salesperson · New Jersey Brokerage Relationships and Agency
Duties and Brokerage Conduct
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In 30 seconds
In New Jersey a licensee owes clients full fiduciary duties and owes everyone else, including customers, honest and fair dealing plus disclosure of known material facts. The distinction tested most is that a client's confidential information stays private, but a material defect must be told to all parties no matter whom the licensee represents.
Why this matters
Exam writers love a scene where a licensee sits on an offer, leaks one buyer's price to another, or hides a personal stake in the property, and the answer is always the conduct rule.
The college version
In normal terms
- Clients get the fiduciary package remembered as OLD CAR; customers get honesty, fairness, and material-fact disclosure (see Topic 05).
- Conflicts, including any personal interest a licensee has in the property, must be disclosed in writing before the deal moves forward.
- Every offer is presented promptly, multiple offers are handled fairly without leaking one buyer's terms to another, and clients are never steered or selected by protected class.
Concepts in this outline
- Fiduciary duties to clients — the full OLD CAR package owed to a represented client: obedience, loyalty, disclosure, confidentiality, accounting, and reasonable care (see Topic 05).
- Honest and fair dealing with all parties — even a customer, whom the licensee does not represent, is owed truthfulness, fairness, and no misrepresentation.
- Material-fact disclosure — in New Jersey, known material defects are disclosed to all parties regardless of whom the licensee represents; stigma-type facts are handled differently.
- Confidential client information — a client's private facts, such as motivation or bottom-line price, are not shared without the client's consent.
- Disclosure of conflicts — any conflict, especially a licensee's personal interest in the property or a relationship with a party, is disclosed in writing before proceeding.
- Handling multiple offers — present every offer; do not reveal one buyer's terms to another without consent; follow current NJREC guidance on the specifics.
- Presenting offers promptly — all written offers are delivered to the client without delay, never withheld or delayed to favor another buyer.
- Avoiding discriminatory steering or client selection — never guide or choose clients by protected class; definitions of steering live elsewhere (see Topic 10), and NJLAD applies (see Topic 18).
Eli explains
The same idea, in plain words
Explain it like I’m 10
A licensee is a referee who is also on one team, so New Jersey draws clear lines. To your client, you owe fiduciary duties, the OLD CAR set (see Topic 05). To everyone else, including the customer on the other side, you still owe honest and fair dealing: no lies, no half-truths.
Two rules cut across all of it. A material fact, such as a leaking roof, must be disclosed to all parties regardless of whom you represent. Confidential client information, such as how low your seller would really go, stays locked up unless the client says otherwise. Defects go out, secrets stay in.
A conflict of interest must be disclosed, especially any personal interest in the property. With multiple offers, you present every offer and do not reveal one buyer's terms to another without consent; check current NJREC guidance for details. Offers are presented promptly, never held back to favor a friend. Steering or choosing clients by protected class is illegal under federal fair housing law (see Topic 10) and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (see Topic 18).
Worked example
Dante lists a Cherry Hill colonial for the Larsens, who privately tell him they would accept less than list price. Two offers arrive the same afternoon. Dante presents both to the Larsens that evening, without telling either buyer what the other wrote. One buyer asks what the sellers would really take, and Dante says only that all offers are being presented. The Larsens had mentioned a basement that floods in heavy rain, so Dante discloses that to both buyers, because a material defect is told to everyone. When Dante's cousin decides to bid too, Dante discloses that family relationship in writing to all parties before the offer is considered.
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