When you select an agent, your agent's broker is part of the package. If your purchase rolls merrily along, you may never meet the broker. But if a problem occurs, guess who you can turn to for a quick fix? Brokers are the invisible grease in problematic transactions.

• All states issue two markedly different types of real estate licenses: one for salespeople (agents) and one for brokers. Agents who have broker's licenses have to satisfy much more stringent educational and experience standards than agents with a salesperson's license do.
  
  
• Your agent may have either type of license. Broker's licensees have the option either to operate independently or to work for another broker. An agent who has a salesperson's license, on the other hand, must work under a broker's direct supervision, ensuring that you have access to the broker's higher lever of expertise if you need it.
  
  
• Good brokers develop and maintain relationships with the people with whom their office deals -- other brokers, lenders, title officers, city officials, and the like. This reservoir of good will is yours to use if the going gets rough. Brokers with strong business relationships can work near-miracles for you in a crisis.
  
  
• House sales sometimes get highly emotional. If your life savings are on the line, you may lash out at the other players. Someone must handle the resulting quarrels and misunderstandings. That someone is the broker.
  
  
• Because the broker participates directly or indirectly in every deal the office handles, your broker's practical experience is directly related to the number of agents in the office. A broker who manages a 25-agent office, for example, gets 25 years of real estate experience per calendar year. Any broker who can survive five years of handling all the office's gut-wrenching messes becomes a superb problem solver out of sheer necessity.
  

Call your broker into the game if your agent is stymied by a tough problem or if you're having problems with the agent. Everything an agent does or fails to do is ultimately the broker's responsibility. After all, the broker's job is to help make your problems go away.