How New Jersey Enforces Buyer Agency Agreements for Real Estate Professionals

Written by:

Rudi Davis

Date:

15 Feb 2026

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A member of a local real estate professional standards committee says she is seeing widespread violations of buyer agency agreement requirements, with some agents showing properties to buyers without the legally required documentation, leaving them open to fines that can exceed $22,000.

Susan Greenbaum, a Realtor Associate with Keller Williams Village Square Realty and a member of the professional standards and grievance committee for the Greater Bergen Board of Realtors, reports that these violations are not isolated incidents. She has observed consistent patterns among specific agents and offices. “You’re working with an unscrupulous agent,” Greenbaum recently told a client who lost out on a home after receiving poor advice and being shown properties without a signed buyer agency agreement. “That’s a $22,000 fine,” she explains.

Greenbaum notes that these requirements have been in place since 2004, when New Jersey established rules governing dual agency, designated agency, and buyer representation. The rules are designed to protect buyers by requiring clear disclosure of agency relationships before agents begin showing properties.

How the Violations Occur

The violation Greenbaum describes is straightforward but significant. Some agents take buyers to open houses or private showings without first executing a buyer agency agreement. If the buyer later wants to make an offer, the agent claims to have introduced the buyer to the property, positioning themselves to collect a commission, even though a formal agency relationship was never established at the time of the introduction.

Greenbaum says she has always required buyer agency agreements before working with clients. “You want to work with me? You’re going to have to sign,” she says. “I don’t work for free when you can just go off to an open house and say you found a house and I wasn’t there.”

This practice, she explains, creates several problems beyond the regulatory violation itself. Buyers who work with agents that skip the agreement process lack formal representation during negotiations, may unknowingly enter undisclosed dual agency situations, and forfeit protections that agency relationships are meant to provide.

“I’m a watchdog,” Greenbaum says of her committee role. She believes some agents’ disregard for these rules should prompt intervention from the state real estate commission. “I feel like calling Jim down at the real estate commission and saying, you’ve got to check this office out because their clients are losing.”

Why Enforcement Is Largely Complaint-Driven

Greenbaum’s experience suggests that enforcement of buyer agency requirements is primarily reactive. Violations typically come to light only when buyers file complaints or disputes arise—often after buyers have already suffered harm.

“You can’t just take people out without telling them their rights,” Greenbaum says, referencing the disclosures that must accompany buyer agency agreements. These disclosures inform buyers about their rights, the agent’s duties, and the nature of the representation.

She adds that agents who ignore these requirements often neglect other professional standards as well. “Some agents are untrained and think this is the Wild West,” she says, referring those who treat mandatory disclosures and agreements as optional.

Industry competition may encourage this behavior. Agents who skip agency agreements can move buyers through showings faster, reducing the time spent on paperwork and consultations. This gives non-compliant agents a speed advantage, while compliant agents are perceived as disadvantaged because they take time to establish formal relationships.

A Larger Pattern of Professional Standards Decline

Greenbaum connects the buyer agency violations to a broader decline in professional standards. She says her committee role has exposed her to repeated violations by the same agents and offices, with little evidence that enforcement actions deter further misconduct.

Current enforcement, she observes, focuses on individual complaints and penalties. However, offices that operate outside the rules often continue to do so because the likelihood that any single violation will be reported and penalized remains low.

Greenbaum argues that this approach fails to address systematic problems. “It’s very competitive,” she says, and agents who see little risk of being caught have little incentive to change.

Setting a Higher Standard for Buyer Representation

Greenbaum’s own process provides a model for upholding professional standards. She conducts a formal buyer consultation before showing any properties, setting clear expectations, and ensuring buyers understand the process. “The first thing I say is you’re not to open a credit card, you’re not to buy anything, you’re not to buy or lease a car, you’re not to buy furniture. The only thing you’re going to do before closing is pay off debts.”

She also provides buyers with detailed guides that explain every aspect of the transaction, including glossaries of real estate terms, breakdowns of closing costs, and timelines for each phase. “If this is your Bible, at the end there’s a glossary and the closing costs down to the last dollar,” Greenbaum says. “I tell them during the consultation, there’s a test on this book later; the test is, do you know what you’re supposed to bring to closing?”

This approach, she believes, protects buyers and ensures they are fully informed before making significant decisions. She says it also guards against the pitfalls buyers face when working with agents who skip agency agreements and fail to provide adequate guidance.

What’s Next: Enforcement and Industry Standards

Whether this level of documentation and buyer education becomes the norm depends on how aggressively real estate boards enforce existing requirements and whether they increase penalties to deter violations.

Greenbaum argues that without more vigorous enforcement and meaningful consequences, offices that routinely violate professional standards will continue to do so. The industry’s reliance on complaint-driven enforcement, she says, leaves too many buyers exposed and undermines trust in the profession.

As market competition remains high and agents seek any edge, how boards and the state respond to these violations will determine whether formal buyer agency agreements regain their intended role as the foundation of ethical real estate practice—or remain an often-ignored rule with little practical effect.