RECAD After the 2025 Acts
Area IX is worth 5 scored items on the Real Estate Consumer's Agency and Disclosure Act, Sections 34-27-80 through 34-27-88. Two 2025 acts rewrote its vocabulary, and pre-2025 study material is now wrong in several places.
The three relationships — and the one that was deleted
Section 34-27-82(a) now reads that a licensee may act as a single agent, dual agent, or transaction facilitator. Act 2025-380 deleted the definitions of "sub-agent" and "limited consensual dual agent" outright, and renamed the transaction broker a transaction facilitator, providing that the two terms have the same meaning. Dual agency is narrowed to one licensee, an individual, representing both sides with the informed written consent of all parties once all have signed the consent agreement.
Designated single agents
New Section 34-27-82(g) lets a qualifying broker whose licensees hold separate agency agreements with different parties in the same transaction designate them as single agents as to their own clients. "A designated single agent is not a dual agent," and no licensee involved is assumed to have knowledge as to a party with whom he or she has no agency agreement, so confidences are not imputed across the firm. Rule 790-X-3-.13 adds that the designation must be in writing and made as soon as reasonably possible.
Disclosure and the written brokerage agreement
The written brokerage services disclosure is due as soon as reasonably possible and before any confidential information is disclosed, and in any event before the licensee provides any brokerage service — which includes showing a property to a prospective buyer, but not a seller's agent conducting an open house. Section 34-27-82(e) then draws a line many licensees get backwards: a consumer or customer "may not be required to enter into a written brokerage agreement in order for a licensee to show a property," while a written brokerage agreement is required before a licensee lists a property for sale or submits an offer on a property for compensation. Section 34-27-82(i) puts a new representation disclosure clause on every offer to purchase, with three boxes for each licensee: agent, dual agent, or transaction facilitator.
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State-specific details
State exam facts
- State regulator
- Alabama Real Estate Commission (AREC)
- Exam vendor
- Pearson VUE
- Prelicensing education
- 60-clock-hour broker pre-license course (minimum grade 70)
- Passing score
- 70 (scaled score, 0-100)
- Scored questions
- 120
- Time limit
- 210 minutes
Who regulates real estate brokers in Alabama?
The Alabama Real Estate Commission (AREC) licenses brokers, salespersons and companies under Title 34, Chapter 27 of the Code of Alabama. AREC contracts with Pearson VUE to schedule and deliver the licensing exams, and candidates must pre-register with the Commission before an exam authorization is sent to Pearson VUE.
What experience do I need before the Alabama broker exam?
An applicant who holds no out-of-state broker license must prove an active real estate salesperson license in any state for at least 24 of the 36 months immediately preceding application, high school graduation or the equivalent, and completion of a Commission-approved course of at least 60 clock hours (Ala. Code § 34-27-32). Applicants have six months after finishing the course to pass the exam.
How is the Alabama broker exam structured?
It is two multiple-choice portions taken in one 3.5-hour appointment: an 80-item national/general portion with 2.5 hours allotted, and a 40-item Alabama state portion with 1 hour. There is no simulation section. Ten to fifteen unidentified pretest items are also included and do not count. Candidates receive one overall scaled score, and a 70 or higher passes; fail the overall exam and the entire test must be retaken.
What is the biggest topic on the Alabama state portion?
Violations which may result in disciplinary action — 12 of the 40 scored state items, 30% of the state portion on its own. Pearson VUE's outline lists thirteen lettered violations under it, from misrepresentation and advertising to rebates, lotteries and the handling of documents, all drawn from the prohibited-acts list in Ala. Code § 34-27-36.
Sources: https://www.pearsonvue.com/content/dam/VUE/vue/en/documents/publications/093300.pdf, https://www.pearsonvue.com/us/en/al/realestate.html, https://arec.alabama.gov
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