Glossary
Real Estate Broker Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential real estate broker terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key real estate broker vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in real estate broker training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Buyer agreement
- A contract to represent a buyer.
- Closing
- Completing a sale.
- CMA
- Comparative market analysis.
- Commission
- Payment based on sale price.
- Contingency
- A condition in a contract.
- Disclosure
- Required information about a property.
- Dual agency
- Representing both sides, where allowed.
- Earnest money
- A deposit showing a buyer’s commitment.
- Escrow
- Funds held by a neutral party.
- Fair housing
- Laws against discrimination.
- Listing agreement
- A contract to sell a property.
- Managing broker
- A broker who supervises agents.
- MLS
- Multiple Listing Service.
- Split
- How commissions are shared.
- Trust account
- An account holding client funds.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Real Estate Broker practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Real Estate Broker training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.