The Buyer Representation Agreement (OREA Form 300) is a legal contract between you and a brokerage. It formally establishes the agency relationship and triggers full fiduciary duties — loyalty, confidentiality, disclosure, obedience, and competence — owed to you by your agent.

Under TRESA, a BRA must be signed before the brokerage:

• Arranges a private showing of any property
• Provides personalized market analysis or property recommendations
• Drafts or presents any offer on your behalf
• Negotiates any terms representing your interests

TRESA eliminated the old “customer” category entirely. There are now only two options:

If you decline to sign a BRA, the listing brokerage is legally prohibited from providing you any services. You navigate the entire transaction alone, with no professional protection and no recourse if things go wrong.

Under the old REBBA rules, if a buyer and seller were both clients of the same brokerage, the brokerage was in “multiple representation.” This created an unavoidable conflict of interest: the agent could not truly be loyal to both sides.

TRESA introduced designated representation: different agents within the same brokerage can now each represent their own client fully and independently, without the conflict that used to define “double-ending.”

This is a meaningful improvement for consumers: both buyer and seller can have genuinely loyal representation even when their agents share the same brokerage roof.

Check the geographic scope — Make sure the area described matches where you actually intend to look. A scope that is too broad could lock you in for an area you later decide not to pursue.

Understand the holdover clause — Even after the BRA expires, a 60–90 day holdover typically applies. If you purchase a home the agent showed you during this window, commission is still owed.

Do not sign overlapping BRAs — Do not sign two BRAs covering the same area and property type with different brokerages at the same time. The exclusivity clause means you could owe commission to both.

Read the commission terms — Even though sellers typically pay buyer-agent commission in the GTA, know what you have agreed to in case a listing does not offer co-operating commission.

Workaround for multiple searches — You can legitimately sign BRAs with different brokerages if the geographic scopes or property types are clearly distinct and non-overlapping.