Idaho Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

A married Idaho couple owns their home as community property. One spouse alone signs a deed conveying it, and no power of attorney has been given. Under Idaho Code 32-912, the conveyance is:

• a.Valid, because either spouse may manage community property
• b.Valid, if the other spouse later takes part of the proceeds
• c.Ineffective, because both spouses must join in the deed✓
• d.Ineffective, unless the buyer recorded the deed in good faith

Idaho Code 32-912 gives either spouse the right to manage and control community property and to bind it by contract, then carves out the exception that decides this item: "neither the husband nor wife may sell, convey or encumber the community real estate unless the other joins in executing the sale agreement, deed or other instrument of conveyance." One signature is not enough for community real property, which is why the management answer fails — it states the general rule and misses the exception. Later acceptance of proceeds is not the joinder the statute requires. Recording is irrelevant here: 55-812 sorts out priority between competing conveyances, but it cannot supply a signature the statute demands. The statute does allow one spouse to give the other complete power to convey by express power of attorney, and 32-903 keeps property owned before marriage, or acquired by gift, bequest, devise or descent, separate.

Idaho's homestead exemption under Idaho Code 63-602G exempts from property taxation:

• a.The first $125,000 of market value or 50%, whichever is less✓
• b.The first $125,000 of market value or 50%, whichever is more
• c.A flat 50% of the market value of any residence the owner holds
• d.The entire market value of one home per household each year

Idaho Code 63-602G(1) exempts "the first one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars ($125,000) of the market value for assessment purposes of the homestead ... or fifty percent (50%) of the market value for assessment purposes of the homestead ..., whichever is the lesser." Reading it as whichever is greater inverts the operative word and would hand the largest exemptions to the most valuable homes. A flat 50% on any residence the owner holds drops both the cap and the occupancy condition: 63-602G(2)(a) grants the exemption only where the homestead is owner-occupied and used as the owner's primary dwelling place, and subsection (2)(c)(iii) makes the owner certify no other application anywhere. Exempting the full value describes no Idaho provision at all. A brokerage should also know that an owner ordinarily applies once under subsection (4), and that a second exemption improperly claimed triggers recovery of tax plus a matching penalty under subsection (6)(a).

Under Idaho Code 63-304, a manufactured home becomes real property once the running gear is removed, it is permanently affixed to a foundation, and the owner:

• a.Delivers the certificate of origin to the county assessor
• b.Obtains an appraisal showing site-built construction quality
• c.Notifies the Idaho Real Estate Commission of the change
• d.Records a statement of intent to declare it real property✓

Idaho Code 63-304(1) makes a manufactured home real property if the running gear is removed, the home becomes permanently affixed to a foundation on land the owner owns, is purchasing or leases under qualifying financing, and "if the owner or purchaser of a manufactured home records with the county recorder in the county in which the manufactured home will be situated a statement of intent to declare the manufactured home as real property." Recording with the county recorder is the act that completes the conversion. The certificate of origin or original title is attached to the declaration form under 63-304(3) so the declaration can later be reversed, but handing it to the assessor is not the operative step. No appraisal is required. The Commission is not involved — although Idaho Code 54-2003(3) does require an active licensee who sells a mobile, manufactured or floating home for another to comply with the license law regardless. Once converted, 63-305 makes the home a fixture and bars physical removal without the consent of everyone holding an interest in the land.

An Idaho farm is sold together with a licensed water right used to irrigate it. Under Idaho Code 42-220, the water right:

• a.Is appurtenant to the land and passes with the conveyance✓
• b.Stays with the seller unless it is separately deeded across
• c.Terminates at the sale and must be applied for again
• d.Belongs to the irrigation district rather than to either party

Idaho Code 42-220 provides that "all rights to water confirmed under the provisions of this chapter, or by any decree of court, shall become appurtenant to, and shall pass with a conveyance of, the land for which the right of use is granted." Idaho Code 42-101 frames the same idea: the right to use public water "shall not be considered as being a property right in itself, but such right shall become the complement of, or one of the appurtenances of, the land." So the right runs with the ground unless the parties do something to sever it, which is the opposite of the second option. Nothing in the title terminates a licensed right on sale; under 42-220 the use may be denied only for failure to pay delivery charges or other reasons set out in the title. Nor does it belong to the district, which delivers water rather than owning the appropriator's right. A broker should still flag Idaho Code 42-248, which requires notice of a change in ownership of a water right to the Department of Water Resources within 120 days, with a $25 filing fee per right.

In an Idaho nonjudicial trustee's sale under a deed of trust, notice of the sale must be mailed to the grantor and the other required parties at least:

• a.Thirty days before the day fixed for the sale
• b.Sixty days before the day fixed for the sale
• c.Ninety days before the day fixed for the sale
• d.One hundred twenty days before the day fixed for the sale✓

Idaho Code 45-1506(2) requires that, after the notice of default is recorded, "at least one hundred twenty (120) days before the day fixed by the trustee for the trustee's sale, notice of such sale shall be given by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested," to the grantor, anyone who has requested notice of record, successors in interest, and junior lienholders of record. Thirty days is a different deadline in the same section — 45-1506(6) requires the last of four weekly newspaper publications to fall at least thirty days before the sale, and 45-1506(5) requires the three service attempts on an adult occupant to be made at least thirty days out. Sixty and ninety days appear nowhere in the sale-notice rule. Two companion figures are worth carrying into the exam: the default may be cured within 115 days of the recording of the notice of default under 45-1506(12), and the purchaser takes possession on the tenth day following the sale under 45-1506(11).

A buyer takes a deed to Idaho land, pays value in good faith, and records before an earlier buyer records. Under Idaho Code 55-812, the earlier conveyance is:

• a.Valid, because that deed was delivered first in time
• b.Void as against the later buyer who recorded first✓
• c.Valid, because Idaho follows a pure race recording rule
• d.Void only if the later buyer also had actual notice of it

Idaho Code 55-812 provides that "every conveyance of real property other than a lease for a term not exceeding one (1) year, is void as against any subsequent purchaser or mortgagee of the same property, or any part thereof, in good faith and for a valuable consideration, whose conveyance is first duly recorded." Two conditions must both hold — good faith and valuable consideration, and first recording — which makes Idaho a race-notice jurisdiction rather than a pure race one. Under a pure race rule the recording alone would decide, and good faith would not matter, so that option misstates the standard. Priority in delivery does not save the first buyer; the whole purpose of the recording act is to reward the party who records. And the last option gets notice backwards: actual notice defeats good faith, so a later buyer who knew of the earlier deed loses rather than wins. Idaho Code 55-606 states the same rule from the grantor's side, and 55-813 defines conveyance broadly enough to reach mortgages and any instrument affecting title, but not wills.