Florida Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

Two competing brokerages agree over lunch to both charge a 6% commission so neither undercuts the other. This agreement is:

• a.Legal, because commissions are customary
• b.Legal, if disclosed to clients
• c.Illegal price fixing under antitrust law✓
• d.Legal, because each firm sets its own policy

An agreement among competing firms to set commission rates is price fixing, a per se violation of federal antitrust law, and it is illegal regardless of custom or disclosure. Commission rates must always be negotiated independently between each broker and client and are never set by agreement among competitors. Other antitrust violations include market allocation, group boycotts, and tie-in arrangements. A broker must train agents never even to discuss setting rates with competitors, since such talk alone invites liability.

A broker discovers that earnest money was mistakenly deposited into the firm's operating account instead of the trust account. This error is an example of:

• a.Conversion
• b.Commingling✓
• c.Novation
• d.Subrogation

Commingling is mixing client or third-party trust funds with the broker's own operating or personal funds, which is exactly what happened here. Conversion is the more serious step of actually using those trust funds for the broker's own benefit. A broker must deposit trust funds into a proper trust account within the time the state requires, keep a ledger for each beneficiary, and reconcile regularly. Even an innocent commingling error is a violation, so brokers build office procedures to prevent it.

A broker directs an agent to show minority buyers homes only in certain neighborhoods and white buyers homes in others. This practice is called:

• a.Blockbusting
• b.Redlining
• c.Puffing
• d.Steering✓

Steering is directing prospective buyers toward or away from particular neighborhoods based on a protected class, and it violates the federal Fair Housing Act. Blockbusting is inducing owners to sell by suggesting a protected group is moving into the area. Redlining is denying loans or insurance in certain areas based on their composition. A broker is responsible for training and supervising agents to prevent all of these, since fair-housing violations create serious liability for the entire firm.

Two parties dispute who is entitled to the earnest money after a deal collapses. What should the broker holding the deposit generally do?

• a.Retain the funds in trust until the parties agree, a court orders release, or another lawful resolution occurs✓
• b.Release the funds to whichever party the listing agent believes is right
• c.Split the deposit evenly between the parties immediately
• d.Move the deposit into the operating account until the dispute ends

When the parties dispute a deposit, the broker must not decide the dispute or pick a side. The broker holds the funds in the trust account until the parties reach a written agreement, a court orders release, or the broker uses a lawful procedure such as interpleader where available. The broker cannot release funds on an agent's opinion, split them unilaterally, or move them to the operating account. Proper handling of disputed deposits is a classic broker-level trust-account duty.

Which of the following is a core reason a brokerage maintains a written office policy manual and reviews transaction files?

• a.To guarantee every agent earns the same commission
• b.To supervise licensees and reduce the firm's risk of violations✓
• c.To eliminate the need for errors-and-omissions insurance
• d.To set commission rates jointly with other firms

Written policies and regular file review are supervision and risk-management tools: they help the broker ensure agents follow the law, deliver required disclosures, and handle funds correctly, reducing the chance of violations for which the broker could be liable. They do not standardize commissions (which are negotiable) or set rates with competitors (which would be illegal antitrust conduct), and they complement rather than replace errors-and-omissions coverage. Supervision is a defining broker responsibility.

Which federal law's protected classes are race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, and disability?

• a.The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act
• b.The Truth in Lending Act
• c.The federal Fair Housing Act✓
• d.The Sherman Antitrust Act

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, and disability. RESPA governs settlement-cost disclosures and referral kickbacks; the Truth in Lending Act governs credit disclosures and advertising; and the Sherman Antitrust Act addresses price fixing and other anticompetitive conduct. Some state and local laws add protected classes such as age, marital status, sexual orientation, or source of income, which a broker must also enforce.

How long must a brokerage keep its transaction and trust-account records?

• a.For the retention period set by the state's license law✓
• b.Only until the transaction closes
• c.Exactly one year in every state
• d.There is no requirement to retain records

Brokers must keep transaction and trust-account records for the retention period established by their state's license law, and those periods vary by state, which is why the safe answer is 'the period set by state law' rather than a specific national number. Records typically must be produced on request during audits or investigations. Because retention rules differ, a broker sets office procedures to keep complete files for the required time. This question also models why the exam avoids inventing a single nationwide figure.