Agent

Key Takeaways

• Washington issues no agent license; RCW 18.85.011 establishes broker, managing broker, and designated broker.
• The pre-2010 entry level license was recognized as a broker's license on July 1, 2010 under RCW 18.85.481, and the supervisory levels became managing broker licenses.
• Agent still carries a legal meaning in Washington, because RCW 18.86.010 defines an agent as a broker who has an agency relationship with a principal.
• Every agent in a Washington transaction holds a broker license, but a licensee is only an agent once a principal has appointed them.

What It Means

In Washington the word agent leads two lives, and pre-license exams test both. The first is historical. Before July 1, 2010, the state ran a two level license structure whose entry level, titled salesperson in the license law, let a person provide brokerage services to clients but not supervise other licensees inside a firm. Most people called that person an agent. The 2010 restructure folded that level into today's Broker license and folded the supervisory levels into the Managing Broker license.

The second life is current, and it is about role rather than rank. Washington's agency chapter defines an agent as a broker who has an agency relationship with a principal, and it sweeps in the firm's Designated Broker and any managing broker supervising that broker. So agent is not a synonym for licensee. A broker showing a house to an unrepresented shopper is not that shopper's agent, because no Agency Relationship has been created. The license says what a person may do, while agency says whose side they are on.

How It Works in Washington

In Washington, RCW 18.85.011 sets the license categories, and agent is not one of them. The section defines a broker as a natural person acting on behalf of a real estate firm to perform brokerage services under the supervision of a designated broker or managing broker, defines a managing broker as one who may supervise other brokers, and defines a designated broker as the managing broker who owns or controls the firm and holds the designated broker endorsement from the department.

The changeover itself is written into RCW 18.85.481. After July 1, 2010, a salesperson's license continued in effect but was recognized by the department as a broker's license, and associate broker, branch manager, and designated broker licenses continued in effect but were recognized as managing broker licenses. Licensees kept their existing renewal dates and completed a transition course by their first renewal after that date, so nobody had to requalify from scratch. Meanwhile RCW 18.86.010 keeps the word agent alive on the agency side, defining it as a broker who has an agency relationship with a principal, and RCW 18.86.020 sets out how that relationship is created. For the current ladder rather than the retired one, see our guide to becoming a Washington managing broker.

Example

A Bellingham firm lists a condo at $412,000. The firm's designated broker, Renata, appoints Jae as the broker for the listing under a services agreement with the seller, so Jae is the seller's agent for that transaction. Marcus, another broker at the same firm, meets a shopper named Owen at the open house. Owen signs nothing, so Marcus is not Owen's agent.

Owen offers $398,000 through Marcus, who presents it as required. The seller counters at $405,000, splitting the $14,000 gap evenly, and Owen accepts. Three people held a license in that deal and all three are brokers by title. Only Jae was an agent, because only Jae had a principal. Renata's authority came from her designated broker endorsement rather than from any agency relationship with Owen. That is the distinction Washington exams keep testing, and it is why the word agent by itself never answers the question of who represents whom.

Common Mistakes and Exam Traps

• An answer naming agent as a current Washington license level is wrong; the levels are broker, managing broker, and designated broker.
• Agent is not a synonym for licensee, because a broker becomes an agent only when a principal has appointed that broker under a services agreement.
• The 2010 change renamed license categories rather than forcing licensees to requalify, although a transition course was due by the first renewal after July 1, 2010.
• Titles such as salesperson and associate broker belong to other states or to Washington's retired structure, and neither appears in RCW 18.85.011.