Sample practice questions

A few real questions from this free bank, with full explanations. Use the practice tool above for the whole set.

1. 1. Property Ownership

   A commercial tenant bolts custom display shelving to the walls to run a retail store. Absent any agreement to the contrary, what is the usual character of that shelving?

   • a.A permanent fixture that automatically belongs to the landlord
   • b.Real property that must be conveyed with the building
   • c.A trade fixture the tenant may remove before the lease ends
   • d.An easement appurtenant to the leased space

   Answer: c

   Explanation: Items a commercial tenant installs to conduct business are trade fixtures. Even though they are attached, the law lets the tenant remove them before the lease ends (repairing any damage), because the tenant's intent was to use them in the business, not to improve the landlord's property permanently. This is an exception to the general rule that attached items become part of the realty. It is not an easement, which is a right to use another's land, not an object.

2. 2. Contracts

   A seller was adjudicated legally incompetent by a court and has a guardian. Without the guardian's involvement, the seller signs a listing agreement. That agreement is:

   • a.Enforceable as long as the broker acted in good faith
   • b.Voidable, so the guardian may choose to enforce it
   • c.Valid unless and until a court sets the agreement aside
   • d.Void, because the seller lacked legal capacity

   Answer: d

   Explanation: Once a court has adjudicated a person incompetent and appointed a guardian, that person can no longer contract, so agreements signed without the guardian are void rather than merely voidable. Voidable describes contracts a party may elect to disaffirm, such as one signed by a minor or under duress, where assent is impaired but legal capacity has not been judicially removed. Treating the listing as valid until challenged, or as rescued by the broker's good faith, ignores that the seller had no power to create it. The guardian, with any required court approval, is who can list the property.

3. 3. Contracts

   A seller revokes an exclusive right-to-sell listing halfway through the term, with no cause and while the broker is actively marketing. The seller's position is that:

   • a.The agency ends, yet the seller may be liable for damages
   • b.The revocation is ineffective and the listing stands
   • c.The seller owes the full commission automatically
   • d.Only the broker may terminate an exclusive listing

   Answer: a

   Explanation: Agency is a personal relationship, so a principal always has the power to revoke it and the agency does end. But power is not the same as right: revoking without cause during the term can breach the listing contract and expose the seller to damages, often measured by the broker's proven expenses or lost commission. So the revocation is not ineffective and the listing does not simply continue. Whether the full commission is owed depends on the contract's wording and on proof, not on any automatic rule. And either party, not only the broker, can terminate.

4. 4. General Principles of Agency

   An affiliated licensee buys a rental duplex for her own account from an owner she met socially, using none of the firm's listings, name, forms, or trust account. A dispute follows. Is the firm liable?

   • a.Yes, since a broker answers for everything an affiliated licensee does
   • b.No, because the purchase fell outside the scope of the agency
   • c.Yes, because her license made the transaction licensed activity
   • d.No, so long as she never mentions the deal to her broker

   Answer: b

   Explanation: Vicarious liability reaches acts within the scope of the agency. A licensee investing on her own account, with none of the firm's listings, name, forms, or trust money involved, is acting as a private buyer, so the brokerage does not answer for that deal. This is a limit, not an exemption: the broker still owes supervision over brokerage activity, and state law commonly requires a licensee to disclose her licensed status when she buys or sells on her own account, so her personal duties continue. Saying a broker answers for everything states the rule far too broadly, holding a license does not convert a private purchase into brokerage business, and concealing the deal would aggravate matters rather than shield anyone.

5. 5. Practice of Real Estate

   A brokerage wants to send marketing text messages to consumer cell numbers using an automated dialing platform. What does the TCPA generally require first?

   • a.Only that a number be absent from the state list
   • b.Prior express written consent from each recipient
   • c.Nothing, if a licensee personally drafts each message
   • d.Merely a disclosure of the firm's name in the text

   Answer: b

   Explanation: The Telephone Consumer Protection Act treats an autodialed or prerecorded marketing message to a cell number, a text included, as requiring prior express written consent from the recipient, and statutory damages run per message, which is why careless campaigns produce class actions. Screening against a state list addresses a different program and supplies no consent. Having a human draft the wording does not help when an automatic dialing platform sends it, because the statute focuses on the equipment and the consent. Identifying the firm is required in advertising generally but is not what makes the text lawful.

6. 6. Financing

   A broker whose transaction is short on value telephones the appraiser and asks her to hit the contract number so the loan can close. That request:

   • a.Is acceptable if the broker supplies recent comparables
   • b.Is allowed because the borrower paid the appraisal fee
   • c.Improperly pressures the appraiser and is prohibited
   • d.Is proper, since the broker is not the lender

   Answer: c

   Explanation: Federal appraiser independence rules bar anyone with an interest in the transaction from coercing, bribing, or otherwise attempting to influence an appraiser to reach a particular value. Handing over factual comparable sales through proper channels is permissible, but attaching it to a demand for a number is not, so supplying data does not rescue this call. Who paid the fee is irrelevant to independence. And the prohibition covers agents, brokers, and sellers, not merely lender employees. Note too that the borrower is entitled to a copy of the appraisal report promptly, without having to ask.

7. 7. Property Ownership

   A seller wants to keep an heirloom chandelier that is wired into the dining room ceiling. How should the listing broker handle it before the property is marketed?

   • a.Have the seller remove and replace it before marketing begins
   • b.Rely on the general rule that light fixtures are personal property
   • c.Note it in the listing remarks and settle the question at closing
   • d.Assume the chandelier's heirloom status excludes it from the sale

   Answer: a

   Explanation: A wired-in chandelier is annexed to the realty and is presumed to be a fixture that conveys. The cleanest solution is severance before marketing: the seller physically removes it, installs a replacement, and no buyer ever forms an expectation about it. Treating light fixtures as personal property inverts the presumption and invites a dispute. Listing remarks are marketing copy, not a contract term, and rarely bind a buyer. Leaving the item to be sorted out at closing is how transactions collapse at the table. If the chandelier stays in place, the exclusion must be written into the purchase agreement, because an express agreement between the parties controls.

8. 8. Real Estate Calculations

   A building produces a stable $120,000 net operating income. Investors who once accepted an 8% capitalization rate for this property type now demand 10%. What happens to the indicated value?

   • a.It falls $150,000, from $1,500,000 to $1,350,000
   • b.It rises $300,000, from $1,200,000 to $1,500,000
   • c.It falls $300,000, from $1,500,000 to $1,200,000
   • d.It stays at $1,500,000, since NOI did not change

   Answer: c

   Explanation: Value = NOI / cap rate. At 8% the building is worth $120,000 / 0.08 = $1,500,000; at 10% it is worth $120,000 / 0.10 = $1,200,000, a decline of $300,000. Value and cap rate move inversely, so a higher required return cannot raise value, and the reversed pairing has the direction backwards. Subtracting 10% of the old value gives $1,350,000, treating the two-point shift as a discount on price rather than a change in the divisor. Value is not fixed by income alone: identical NOI is worth less when buyers demand more. Check: 10% of $1,200,000 = $120,000.

9. 9. Property Disclosures

   A licensee lists a single-family home built in 1962 for sale. Under the federal lead-based paint rule, what must the seller provide before the buyer is obligated under the contract?

   • a.A certified laboratory result showing the home's lead levels
   • b.The EPA pamphlet, known hazards and records, and a chance to test
   • c.A signed guarantee that the home contains no lead-based paint
   • d.Written proof that all lead-based paint has been removed

   Answer: b

   Explanation: For target housing built before 1978 the seller must give the buyer the EPA-approved lead hazard pamphlet, disclose any known lead-based paint and lead hazards, hand over any available records or reports, and include the Lead Warning Statement with signed acknowledgments in the contract. In a sale the buyer must also be given a 10-day period, unless both sides agree to a different period, to conduct an inspection or risk assessment. Nothing in the rule obliges the seller to test the property, to remove paint, or to certify the home lead-free; the rule delivers information and opportunity. The licensee must ensure compliance and retain the signed disclosure.

10. 10. Louisiana Licensing Requirements

    Which of these may lawfully be done in Louisiana without a real estate license?

    • a.An owner selling or leasing property that she owns herself
    • b.A neighbor paid a finder's fee for producing a buyer for a house
    • c.An assistant negotiating lease terms on behalf of a brokerage's client
    • d.A relocation company collecting a fee for referring a buyer to a broker

    Answer: a

    Explanation: R.S. 37:1438(A)(1) and (A)(5) place the owner outside the licensing chapter entirely: an unlicensed person who is the owner or lessor of the property and performs acts of ownership regarding it, or any entity that sells, exchanges, leases, or manages its own property, needs no license. The exemption turns on acting for oneself, which is exactly what the other three do not do. A neighbor paid to produce a buyer is performing an act for another in the expectation of consideration, the conduct R.S. 37:1436(B) makes unlawful without a license. An assistant may perform the narrow clerical and showing tasks listed in R.S. 37:1438(A)(6), but negotiating lease terms is not among them. And a relocation company demanding a referral fee without reasonable cause is separately made unlawful by R.S. 37:1447(A), which also treats the demand as interference with a brokerage relationship.