In the good old days of real estate their was one way to buy or sell a house - through your full service real estate broker. Typically this real estate broker, or one of his agents, provided a wide array of services for a fairly large commission rate. Whether or not you required all of the services in their bundle you paid for the entire package.

Today, in most areas, more and more home buyers and sellers are fortunate to have choices in real estate services and the fees that they pay for those services. Transaction brokerage is one of the newer alternatives to the traditional real estate brokerage service model. Rather than acting as an "agent" for the buyer or seller in a real estate transaction, a transaction broker acts as a professional assistant or counselor.

A transaction broker can, for instance, assist the seller of a property in properly pricing the property for sale, assist a buyer in preparing a purchase offer on a home or assist both parties in fulfiling the obligations of the contract towards a successful closing. Although not an agent for either party, they are required to treat all parties honestly and fairly and use reasonable skill and care in the performance of their duties.

Since the transaction broker avoids the potential liability of actually advocating and negotiating on behalf of either party, they are usually able to offer real estate services at a greatly reduced fee compared with traditional real estate agents. Transaction brokers are also at liberty to offer services on an "a la carte" basis thereby reducing the costs to their customers.