Agents employed to buy or sell real estate, to negotiate exchanges thereof, to procure leases, options and loans, are usually termed brokers. Mechem on Ag. Sec. 934. "A broker is one who is engaged for others on a commission to negotiate contracts relative to property, with the custody of which he has no concern." Braun v. Chicago, 110 I11. 186; Kramer v. Bliss, 88 Va. 456, 13 S. E. 914; Younkerv. W. U. Tel. Co., 123 N. W. 577, 146 Iowa, 499; Morehouse v. Winter, 150 I11. App. 290; Sutton v. Cummings & Kill Cheese & Butter Co., 159 S. W. 950, 155 Ky. 465; Oregon Home Builders v. Montgomery Inv. Co., 184 P. 487, - Or. Sup. -; Gile v. Tautakawa, 187 P. 323, - Wash. Sup. - . Another definition is, "Brokers are persons whose business it is to bring buyer and seller together; they need have nothing to do with the negotiation of the bargain." Hartley v. Anderson (Pa. Supreme), 24 A. 675; Mechem on Ag. Sec. 13. The latter clause designates those agents known as middle-men, whose presumed aloofness from partisanship confers upon them certain privileges. See Sec. 475. A "broker" is one engaged in making contracts for others relating to property not in his custody, he acting in a sense as agent for both parties; and a salaried agent, not acting for a fee or commission, is not a broker. Rodman v. Manning (Or. Sup. '09), 99 P. 657, 1135.

As a general rule, the broker is a special agent for a single object, and he cannot bind his principal beyond the limit of the authority conferred upon him. Fruit Auction Co. v. F. Quattro-chi & Son, 200 S. W. 700, - Mo. App. - . A person whose business is to bring buyer and seller together, though he act as such in but a single transaction, is a "broker" within Civ. Code, Sec. 124, sub. 6, requiring brokers' contracts to sell real estate, or some memo thereof, to be in writing. Eaton v. Yount, 191 P. 1009, - Cal. App. - .

One who negotiates the sale of real property, a person engaged in the business of procuring purchasers or sales of lands for third persons upon a commission contingent upon success. 33 Cyc. 1557.