NJ agency and the Consumer Information Statement

Agency and the CIS, explained

Designated agency is the new one. When the buyer and the seller both work with the same firm, the firm can assign one licensee to represent only the buyer and a different licensee to represent only the seller. The firm itself is still a disclosed dual agent, so both parties must give informed written consent. A transaction broker, by contrast, represents neither side.

Timing is what the exam tests. Under N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.9, the licensee explains the relationships before the first discussion of a buyer's motivation or financial ability, or a seller's motivation or asking price. If it happens at a business meeting, the written CIS is handed over before it starts. If it happens by phone or socially, the CIS goes to the person at the next meeting, and no later than the first showing.

The 2024 law adds outer deadlines with a signed acknowledgment. A client gets the CIS no later than when they sign a brokerage services agreement, which is now required in every residential deal. A party with no firm of their own gets it before they sign an offer, or as soon as reasonably practical after. An unrepresented buyer just walking through an open house does not have to sign the acknowledgment.

Know the default. If a firm never affirmatively designates a relationship, the 2024 law treats it as the agent of the buyer or seller it is working with. Every relationship, even transaction broker, carries base duties to everyone: deal honestly and fairly, present written offers and counteroffers promptly, and disclose known material information. The four agency relationships add fiduciary duties of loyalty, confidentiality that lasts after the relationship ends, and accounting for money and property.

Handing over the CIS is not consent to dual agency. The firm needs separate informed written consent from both parties, and the CIS tells consumers that a dual agent cannot reveal the seller's lowest acceptable price or the buyer's highest price without express permission. A transaction broker sits outside agency entirely: no fiduciary duty, no promoting one side over the other, and no confidentiality duty.

Public open houses on residential property need a sign at the entrance or on the sign-in sheet, using wording set by the law. It tells visitors the open house agent represents the seller, that what they share is not confidential, and that they can ask for a buyer's agent. A visitor who already has an exclusive buyer's agent says so on the sign-in sheet.