What’s The Difference Between A Real Estate Salesperson And A Real Estate Broker?

In a recent post about the latest list of real estate salespersons whose accreditation have been approved by the Professional Regulatory Board of Real Estate Service (PRBRES), I received a question asking “what’s the difference between a real estate salesperson and a real estate broker?” Let me try to answer this as objectively as possible through this post.

Before anything else, I would like to say thank you to Kian for the excellent question which he left through a comment.

To avoid any subjectivity in my interpretation, I believe the best way to answer this is to refer directly to what the RESA Law IRR says.

Let us first define the terms Real Estate Broker and Real Estate Salesperson in the Philippines.

Real Estate Broker Definition

As per Section 3-g-(4) of the RESA Law IRR:

“Real estate broker – a duly registered and licensed natural person who, for a professional fee, commission or other valuable consideration, acts as an agent of a party in a real estate transaction to offer, advertise, solicit, list, promote, mediate, negotiate or effect the meeting of the minds on the sale, purchase, exchange, mortgage, lease or joint venture, or other similar transactions on real estate or any interest therein.”

Real Estate Salesperson Definition

As per Section 3-g-(5) of the RESA Law IRR, a Real estate salesperson is defined as:

“Real estate salesperson – a duly accredited natural person who performs service for, and in behalf of a real estate broker who is registered and licensed by the Professional Regulatory Board of Real Estate Service for or in expectation of a share in the commission, professional fee, compensation or other valuable consideration.”

Other pertinent points in the RESA Law IRR

Other pertinent points in the RESA Law IRR concerning real estate salespersons can be found in Section 31, excerpts of which have been quoted below:

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“Real estate salespersons shall be under the direct supervision and accountability of a real estate broker. As such, they cannot by themselves be signatories to a written agreement involving a real estate transaction unless the real estate broker who has direct supervision and accountability over them is also a signatory thereto. No real estate salesperson, either directly or indirectly, can negotiate, mediate or transact any real estate transaction for and in behalf of a real estate broker without first securing an authorized accreditation as real estate salesperson for the real estate broker, as prescribed by the Board. A real estate broker shall be guilty of violating R.A. No. 9646 or the IRR for employing or utilizing the services of a real estate salesperson when he/she has not secured the required accreditation from the Board prior to such employment.

No salesperson shall be entitled to receive or demand a fee, commission or compensation of any kind from any person, other than the duly licensed real estate broker who has direct control and supervision over him, for any service rendered or work done by such salesperson in any real estate transaction.

No violation of this provision shall be a cause for revocation or suspension of the certificate of registration of the real estate broker unless there was actual knowledge of such violation or the broker retains the benefits, profits or proceeds of a transaction wrongfully negotiated by the salesperson.”

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What I have quoted above states the boundaries between a real estate salesperson and a real estate broker, which I believe is a good way of pointing out the differences between the two.

As stated above, I would like to avoid any subjective interpretation in my part, so I choose to leave it at that… for now.

What do you think? Let me know your take on this by leaving a comment below.

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Text by Jay Castillo and Cherry Castillo. Copyright © 2008 – 2013 All rights reserved.

Full disclosure: Nothing to disclose.