Glossary

Procuring Cause

The broker whose uninterrupted efforts were the direct and proximate cause of bringing about a completed sale or lease, entitling that broker to the commission even absent a formal introduction agreement.

Procuring cause disputes arise most often when a buyer is shown a property by one broker, the relationship lapses or the buyer goes quiet, and the deal ultimately closes after a different broker (or the buyer directly) re-engages the seller — each broker may claim to have been the efficient cause of the sale. Boards and arbitration panels look at the continuity of the broker's efforts, whether the chain of causation was broken by abandonment, and whether a competing broker's intervention was the actual reason the deal closed. Listing agreements and buyer representation agreements typically include a protection period or tail clause specifically to remove ambiguity — if a buyer the agent introduced during the listing term closes within a defined window after expiration, the original agent is still owed the commission regardless of who technically procured the final contract.