Alaska Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

An Alaska salesperson advertises a rental duplex the salesperson personally owns. Under 12 AAC 64.130, the advertisement must include:

• a.the salesperson's own license number and its expiration date
• b.the phrase “for sale by owner” in place of a firm name
• c.nothing extra, as a licensee's own property is exempt
• d.the broker's business name as registered with the department✓

12 AAC 64.130(8) makes it grounds for revocation or suspension to advertise “to buy, sell, rent, lease or exchange any real estate without including in the advertisement the broker's business name registered with the department,” and then closes the obvious loophole: “this paragraph applies to all real estate advertised to the public including that owned by the licensee.” 12 AAC 64.112 is what gives that name meaning — the broker registers the name the firm advertises and does business under, and it must be separate and distinct from every other active broker's registered name. A different rule, 12 AAC 64.550(e), requires a licensee who owns rental property to tell tenants and prospective tenants in writing that the owner is licensed.

Before an Alaska licensee may advertise a property for sale, lease or rent, 12 AAC 64.130 requires the licensee to have obtained:

• a.written confirmation that the title carries no liens
• b.the written authority of the owner or the owner's agent✓
• c.a market analysis signed by a state-certified appraiser
• d.a completed residential property transfer disclosure

12 AAC 64.130(6) lists as grounds for revocation or suspension “advertising a property for sale, lease, or rent without first obtaining the written authority of the owner or the owner's authorized agent to sell, lease, or rent the property.” AS 08.88.341 points the same way by requiring every listing or management contract to be in writing and signed by the client or the client's authorized representative. A market analysis, a transfer disclosure statement and a title search all belong to other stages of a transaction, and none of them substitutes for the owner's written authority to market the property.

An Alaska salesperson takes an earnest money check from a buyer on a Friday evening. Under AS 08.88.331, the salesperson must:

• a.hold it until the seller has accepted or rejected the buyer's offer
• b.endorse it over to the title company the buyer chose for closing
• c.turn it over to the employing broker or the broker's agent at once✓
• d.put it in the salesperson's account and remit it within five days

AS 08.88.331 lets an active salesperson or associate broker perform licensed activities “only through the real estate broker who employs or contracts with the licensee,” and adds that “[a]ll money or other proceeds collected in trust and related to a real estate transaction shall immediately be turned over to the broker or the broker's authorized representative.” The five-day clock in 12 AAC 64.200 is the broker's deadline for getting money into the trust account, not a license for the salesperson to hold it. AS 08.88.071(a)(3)(H) makes an employed licensee's failure to turn money over immediately a stand-alone ground for discipline.

Under AS 08.88.401, an Alaska salesperson may accept a commission for licensed activity from:

• a.the title company, as a disbursement from the proceeds
• b.the employing broker only, apart from assistant wages✓
• c.the employing broker or the cooperating broker in the deal
• d.any party to the transaction who agrees in writing to pay

AS 08.88.401(b)(2) provides that an associate broker or salesperson “may accept a fee or commission for performance of an act for which a license is required by this chapter only from the licensee's employing broker,” with one carve-out: the wages of a person engaged as a licensed assistant under AS 08.88.398 may be paid by that assistant's employer. 12 AAC 64.250(1) reinforces the rule from the other side by forbidding a broker to pay a salesperson's commission directly from the trust account, and 12 AAC 64.240(e) allows payment to a licensee's own legal entity only where that entity is owned by the licensee. A commission remains payable after the licensee leaves: 12 AAC 64.960 lets a broker pay a former associate broker or salesperson for services performed while actively licensed.

AS 08.88.341 governs Alaska listings and management contracts. Which statement matches the section?

• a.An exclusive listing needs a definite expiration date, extended in writing✓
• b.An oral listing binds the client once a written offer is accepted
• c.A management contract may renew automatically absent objection
• d.An open listing must be filed with the commission before marketing

AS 08.88.341 requires that “[a]ll real estate listings or management contracts must be in writing and must be signed by the broker or associated licensee of the broker and by the client or an authorized representative of the client,” and then that “[a]ll real estate exclusive listings or management contracts must have a definite expiration date that may be renewed or extended only by a written agreement signed by the client or the client's authorized representative.” That rules out an oral listing and an automatic renewal alike. Nothing in AS 08.88 requires a listing to be filed with the commission; what gets registered is the office and the business name, under AS 08.88.291 and 12 AAC 64.112.

Notwithstanding Alaska's law on the practice of law, AS 08.88.405 lets a licensee prepare which documents in the course of licensed work?

• a.Deeds of trust and title opinions for the parties to the deal
• b.Nothing at all; an Alaska attorney must draft every document
• c.Only the forms the commission has adopted by reference
• d.Real property contracts, earnest money agreements and leases✓

AS 08.88.405 provides that “[n]otwithstanding AS 08.08, a person licensed as a real estate broker, associate real estate broker, or real estate salesperson under this chapter may prepare real property contracts, earnest money agreements, leases, and other documents related to real property if the documents are prepared by the person in the course of the person's work” as a licensee. The authority is tied to the licensee's own transactions rather than to general drafting, and it does not extend to giving a title opinion. Only a few forms are adopted by reference — the transfer disclosure statements in 12 AAC 64.930, the Consumer Disclosure in 12 AAC 64.118 and the Waiver of Right To Be Represented in 12 AAC 64.119 — and AS 08.88.403 separately lets a broker pay an attorney or associate broker to review a transaction before it closes.

Under 12 AAC 64.200, money a licensee receives in an Alaska real estate transaction must reach the appropriate trust account within:

• a.fifteen days following receipt
• b.ten days following receipt
• c.five days following receipt✓
• d.three days following receipt

12 AAC 64.200 requires that “[a]ll money deposited with the broker or person employed by or affiliated with the broker as trustee in real estate transactions must be deposited in or mailed to the appropriate trust account within five days following receipt,” with relief only where “geographical location, weather conditions, or transportation facilities make such depositing impossible or unreasonable” — a practical concession to rural Alaska rather than a general extension. The fifteen-day figure belongs elsewhere: 12 AAC 64.240(b) gives the broker 15 days after closing to withdraw the broker's own commission from the trust account.

A buyer offers a promissory note instead of cash as earnest money on an Alaska property. Under 12 AAC 64.130, a licensee may accept it only if:

• a.the owner is told before accepting and the receipt says so✓
• b.a federally insured Alaska bank first endorses the note
• c.the seller's broker deposits an equal sum of its own funds
• d.the note is converted to cash before the offer is presented

12 AAC 64.130(12) makes it grounds for revocation or suspension to accept “as earnest money anything other than cash unless the offered non-cash substitute is communicated to the owner before accepting the offer to purchase, and the acceptance of the non-cash substitute is identified as a non-cash substitute on the earnest money receipt.” 12 AAC 64.271 adds that when a seller approves a non-cash deposit, “control over the item deposited must be surrendered to the broker,” who must then tell the principal parties what measures were taken to safeguard it. Depositing the broker's own money instead would be commingling, which 12 AAC 64.250(4) forbids outside the small service-charge allowance.

A person practices real estate in Alaska on an expired license. Beyond any civil penalty, AS 08.88.401 makes that conduct:

• a.a class A misdemeanor✓
• b.a class B misdemeanor
• c.a class C felony
• d.a violation only, with no criminal exposure

AS 08.88.401(f)(4) forbids knowingly using or attempting to use “an expired, suspended, revoked, or nonexistent license,” and AS 08.88.401(g) supplies the grade: “A person who violates this section or AS 08.88.161 is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.” That sits on top of, not instead of, the civil penalty the commission may levy under AS 08.88.167, which the statute itself frames as “[i]n addition to penalties prescribed by any other provision of law.” A separate misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year or a $1,000 fine, applies under AS 08.88.485 to filing a commission document containing a willful material misstatement of fact.