Who Does Your Real Estate Agent Actually Work For?

By Jatin Dua · Broker of Record, RE/MAX Quantum Realty · Updated September 10, 2026 · 10 min read — client versus self-represented party under TRESA, the RECO Information Guide, designated representation, multiple representation and open offers.

What actually changed on 1 December 2023?

The Trust in Real Estate Services Act came into force that day, and it rewrote the answer to the most basic question in a real estate transaction: who is this person working for?

Before, Ontario had three positions. You could be a client, with full representation. You could be unrepresented. Or you could be a “customer” — a fuzzy middle status where a brokerage provided some services without representing you, and consumers routinely misunderstood what they were getting. That middle status is gone.

What replaced it is deliberately binary. You are a client, in which case the brokerage owes you the full set of duties, or you are a self-represented party, in which case the brokerage is not permitted to advise you, give you opinions, or act in your interests, because it is acting in someone else’s. There is no third option, and there is no version where an agent is a bit on your side.

What does being a client actually get you?

A client relationship starts with a written representation agreement — a buyer representation agreement or a listing agreement — that sets out the brokerage’s duties, the term, and how the brokerage is paid. What you get in return is not a document; it is a set of obligations owed to you personally:

• Loyalty. Your interests come first, ahead of the brokerage’s and ahead of the other side’s.
• Confidentiality. Your motivation, your maximum price, your timeline and your circumstances are not shared, and confidentiality survives the end of the agreement.
• Advice and opinion. This is the one people underrate. A client can be told what a property is worth, what to offer, what the risks in a document are, and when to walk away. A self-represented party cannot be told any of that.
• Disclosure of material facts. Facts known to the brokerage that would affect your decision must be disclosed to you.
• Negotiation on your behalf. The brokerage advocates for your position rather than acting as a neutral conduit.

What is a self-represented party?

A self-represented party is someone who deals with a brokerage without being represented by it. You are permitted to do this — nobody is forced to sign a representation agreement — but you need to understand precisely what it means, because the restriction runs the other way.

A brokerage dealing with a self-represented party may not give advice, provide opinions, negotiate on their behalf, or advance their interests. It can supply factual information — the measurements on the listing, the dates, the documents, the process — and it can perform limited administrative services. But if you ask the listing agent whether the price is fair, or what you should offer, the correct answer under TRESA is that they cannot tell you.

Before providing any assistance, the brokerage must give a self-represented party the RECO Information Guide and confirm that it has been received. The self-represented party is also asked to acknowledge, in writing, that they understand they are not being represented. If you are asked to sign an acknowledgement like that, read it. It is not a formality; it is the document that records that you were told nobody in the room is on your side.

What is the RECO Information Guide and when must you get it?

The RECO Information Guide is a standard document, published by the regulator, explaining the difference between client and self-represented status, what each means, and what protections apply. Under TRESA, a brokerage must use it and confirm you have received it before providing assistance — not at the offer stage, not after you have viewed six properties, and not attached to a stack of paperwork on offer night.

If you have been working with somebody for weeks and you have never seen it, that is worth asking about. It is a small thing that tells you something about how the file is being run.

What is designated representation?

TRESA permits brokerages to use designated representation, and it solved a genuine structural problem.

Previously, representation attached to the brokerage. If a buyer and a seller in the same transaction were both signed with the same brokerage — even with two different agents who had never spoken — the brokerage was in multiple representation, with all the restrictions that come with it. In a large brokerage, that happened frequently and for no good reason.

Under designated representation, the brokerage designates a specific registrant to represent a specific client. The duties are owed by that designated representative. Two designated representatives in the same brokerage can therefore represent opposite sides of the same deal, each fully advocating for their own client, with the brokerage responsible for keeping confidential information from crossing between them. As a consumer, the practical effect is that you keep a real advocate rather than getting a neutral referee because of an accident of office affiliation.

Ask which model your brokerage uses. It is a fair question and you are entitled to a straight answer.

What is multiple representation, and what can your agent tell you in it?

Multiple representation is where the same representative — or the brokerage, where designated representation is not used — represents both the buyer and the seller in the same trade. It is permitted, but only with the informed written consent of both parties, given in advance. It cannot be sprung on you when an offer is being drafted.

What changes when you consent is significant, and it is the reason I tell people to think hard before agreeing:

• The representative must be impartial between two parties with directly opposed interests.
• They may not tell the buyer the lowest price the seller will accept, and may not tell the seller the highest price the buyer will pay, without written direction from the party concerned.
• They may not disclose either party’s motivation — the divorce, the job transfer, the closing they have to meet — without written direction.
• They may not advise either party on price strategy in the way they could if they represented only one of you.

What they still may and must do: provide factual information about the property and the process, present all offers, and disclose the number of competing written offers to buyers who have submitted one. In other words, in multiple representation you keep the paperwork and the process, and you lose the advocacy. That is the trade. Sometimes it is worth making. It should always be a decision, not a default.

What is an open offer process?

TRESA also changed what can be disclosed about competing offers. Under the current rules, a seller may direct the brokerage to disclose the substance of competing offers to other buyers — an open offer process.

Three points matter, and they are commonly muddled:

• It is optional. Nothing requires a seller to run an open process.
• It is the seller’s choice, given as a direction to the brokerage. It is not the listing agent’s decision and it is not the buyer’s entitlement.
• The number of competing written offers is disclosable either way. A buyer who has submitted a written offer can be told how many others there are, whether or not the seller has opted into an open process.

What is never disclosable is personal or identifying information about a competing buyer. That does not change under an open offer process.

My own view, and I will label it as a view: openness cuts both ways. Showing every buyer the number to beat can sharpen offers, and it can just as easily set a ceiling. It depends on the depth of interest in the specific property, and a seller can change their direction as things develop.

So what should you actually do?

Decide, deliberately, which status you are in before you start looking at homes — not on the day you want to make an offer.

If you want somebody to tell you what a property is worth, what to offer, what the risks are in the agreement, and when to walk away, you need to be a client, and that means a signed representation agreement. Read it: the term, the geographic area, the holdover period and how the brokerage is paid. Ask what happens if you want out.

If you would rather be self-represented, that is a legitimate choice, but go into it with your eyes open. Say less at showings than you think you should. Retain a real estate lawyer early and pay for the review you are not going to get from the listing brokerage. Do your own comparable research. And understand that the person across the table is doing their job properly by not helping you.

You can also check any registrant publicly. RECO is the provincial regulator and registration status is searchable on its website. It takes about a minute.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Real Estate Council of Ontario — the regulator’s consumer guidance on client and self-represented status, designated representation and multiple representation, and its public registrant search. Accessed 10 September 2026.
• RECO Information Guide — the standard guide that must be provided and its receipt confirmed before a brokerage provides assistance. Accessed 10 September 2026.
• Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002 (Ontario) — the statutory framework in force since 1 December 2023, including representation and self-represented party provisions. Accessed 10 September 2026.
• RECO — About open offers — the seller’s control over disclosure of the substance of competing offers and buyers’ entitlement to the number of offers. Accessed 10 September 2026.
• Ontario — buying a home — consumer overview of working with a registered brokerage in Ontario. Accessed 10 September 2026.

Related reading

• Client vs self-represented party in Ontario
• Designated representation and multiple representation
• Competing offers and open offer disclosure
• How to choose a Realtor in Etobicoke