California's 90-day clock: AB 2992 and the BRBC

California moved a year before Texas did. AB 2992 took effect on January 1, 2025, and it carries something Texas law does not: a hard ceiling on how long a buyer agreement can run.

What AB 2992 requires

A buyer's broker needs a written buyer representation agreement in order to be compensated in a sale of real property. It has to be signed as soon as practicable, and no later than the moment the buyer's offer to purchase is executed.

The scope is wider than people expect. It covers sales of office, retail, industrial, multifamily, and single-family property. It does not reach leases or rental agreements, state and federal land, or loan brokerage services.

The 90-day cap

This is the detail that separates California from every other state on this list, and it is the one that creates real work. In Texas you negotiate a termination date and it might be six months out. In California, with an individual buyer, you are back at the signature line four times a year whether the search is going well or not.

Ninety days is also almost exactly long enough to forget. It is past the point where the agreement is fresh in anyone's mind and short enough that a slow search will outlast it. A buyer who started looking in January and writes an offer in May has been through at least one renewal you needed to remember.

The BRBC form

The California Association of REALTORS publishes the Buyer Representation and Broker Compensation Agreement, known as the BRBC. The form was revised 12/24 to satisfy the new law. It sets out the scope of representation, whether the relationship is exclusive, how long it lasts, how the broker gets paid, and how either side cancels.

What this means for your pipeline

A California agent with fifteen active buyers is managing fifteen expiry dates that each land within a quarter of being signed. The renewal is the compliance event, not the original signature, and it comes around again and again.

• Log the end date at signing. Ninety days from a date you have to reconstruct later is a date you will get wrong.
• Give yourself a week of warning, not a day. Renewals need a conversation, and buyers do not answer on demand.
• Keep every signed version, not just the current one. The chain is what proves you were representing them the whole way through.

ExactCircle tracks each agreement's end date and emails you 7 days out, 3 days out, and on the day. See the California page.

This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice. Rules change and local association forms vary. Check with your broker or attorney before you rely on any of it.