REALTOR®, salesperson and broker리얼터 / 세일즈 레프 / 브로커

What is it?

People say "realtor" or "agent" for anyone who sells homes, but Ontario law uses three different words. A salesperson (in advertising, sales representative or real estate agent) and a broker are two kinds of individual registration, and a brokerage is the company they work for. Every salesperson and broker must work for one brokerage.

REALTOR® is not a licence or a registration category. It is a trademark of the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) that only salespersons and brokers who are CREA members may use. Not every registered agent is a REALTOR®.

Who is allowed to trade in real estate?

Ontario’s Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002 (TRESA) prohibits trading in real estate for others without registration. The body that handles registration is RECO, the Real Estate Council of Ontario.

The law’s definition of "trade" is very wide. It covers not just buying and selling but renting, listing, advertising and negotiating. So a friend who finds you a home for a fee is trading in real estate and cannot do it without being registered.

According to the RECO Information Guide, registration requires completing the necessary education and carrying consumer deposit insurance and professional liability insurance.

Salesperson, broker and broker of record

For a client, the difference between a salesperson and a broker is small. Both follow the same law and code of ethics, and your contract is with the brokerage, not the individual. Every brokerage must have a broker of record.

Titles allowed in advertising

The TRESA regulation sets out how agents must describe themselves in advertising, which includes websites, business cards and social media. A salesperson must use one of "salesperson", "real estate agent", "real estate salesperson", "sales representative" or "real estate sales representative". A broker must use "broker", "real estate broker", "real estate agent" or similar. "REALTOR®" may be used alone or as "REALTOR® salesperson" or "REALTOR® broker" if the person is a CREA member.

Agents must use the name they are registered under (no nicknames or short forms), and every ad must clearly show the brokerage’s name. That is why the owner of this site is identified as "Joonghyun Ahn, Sales Representative, HomeLife Frontier Realty Inc., Brokerage". If an ad has no brokerage name or an odd title, check the registration.

A personal real estate corporation (PREC) is not registered and may not advertise. Agents working in a team must still identify each agent and the brokerage.

How to check registration

1. Search the agent’s or brokerage’s name in the Agent/Brokerage Search (public register) at reco.on.ca.
2. Confirm the status is "registered", and that the registration number, expiry date and brokerage match the advertising.
3. Look for enforcement activity in the past 5 years: referrals to hearings and discipline decisions, charges and convictions, and registrar’s proposals to refuse, revoke, suspend or add conditions to a registration.
4. If the name in the ad differs from the register, or there is no registration, do not deal with that person. A deposit given to someone who is not registered may not be protected by RECO’s deposit insurance.

What an agent must do for you

• Give you the RECO Information Guide: before providing any services, the agent must give you the guide (or a link to it) and explain its contents. You will usually be asked to sign that you received it.
• Written agreements: to become a client, you sign a representation agreement with the brokerage (a buyer representation agreement or a listing agreement). A self-represented party must be given a separate information form.
• Honesty and integrity: the Code of Ethics requires agents to act with courtesy, honesty, good faith and integrity toward everyone they deal with, and to promote and protect their clients’ best interests.
• Deposits in trust: client money must go into the brokerage’s trust account, and money can move out of it only with the broker of record’s authorization (or, when the broker of record is absent or unable to act, that of the broker the brokerage has named to stand in).
• Refer what they cannot do: for legal, tax or inspection questions they are not qualified to answer, agents must advise you to get the service from a lawyer, accountant or inspector.

What to watch out for

• Using the word "realtor" does not prove CREA membership, and membership is not a higher licence. The differences are that CREA members also follow the REALTOR® Code and have access to MLS® Systems.
• If an agent gives mortgage, legal or tax advice, ask whether they are licensed in that field. Mortgage brokering is regulated by FSRA and lawyers by the Law Society.
• Do not choose an agent only because they speak Korean. Check the registration, experience and recent sales in the neighbourhood too.
• If something goes wrong, raise it first with the brokerage’s broker of record; if that does not resolve it, you can file a complaint with RECO.

Example