Massachusetts Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

A Massachusetts company charges prospective tenants a fee for finding them apartments. It never lists or sells property. Does the license law reach it?

• a.No, the license law reaches only the sale, exchange, or listing of real estate
• b.No, a license is required only where the fee is paid by the property's owner
• c.Yes, but only where the company also negotiates the lease for the landlord
• d.Yes, finding dwelling accommodations for a fee for tenants requires a license✓

M.G.L. c.112 s.87DDD1/2 opens by saying that no person shall engage in the business of finding dwelling accommodations for prospective tenants for a fee unless licensed as a broker or salesperson under s.87PP. That sentence exists precisely because apartment-finding does not look like a sale, so the answer that limits licensure to sales, exchanges, and listings has the statute backwards. Who ultimately bears the fee is a separate question the same section answers elsewhere, and it has no bearing on whether a license is needed in the first place. And nothing conditions the requirement on negotiating lease terms for the landlord, since the triggering activity is the finding itself.

What must a Massachusetts candidate be able to show before sitting the broker examination?

• a.Two years affiliated as a salesperson at twenty hours a week, plus sixty classroom hours
• b.Three years affiliated as a salesperson at twenty-five hours a week, plus forty classroom hours✓
• c.Five years affiliated as a salesperson at thirty-five hours a week, plus twenty classroom hours
• d.One year affiliated as a salesperson at forty hours a week, plus ninety classroom hours

Two sources have to agree here. M.G.L. c.112 s.87SS requires a broker applicant to submit proof of having been actively associated with a real estate broker for three years as a salesperson and of forty classroom hours of Board-approved courses. 254 CMR 2.00(6) supplies the intensity the statute leaves out: twenty-five hours per calendar week, which is stricter than an average of twenty-five hours a week because it is measured week by week. PSI bulletin 4460 repeats both figures and adds that the experience must be no more than two years old at the examination. Every other combination offered moves one or both numbers, and each is wrong on its face: the hours never fall to twenty, the years never rise to five or drop to one or two.

A Massachusetts licensee renews on inactive status. What may that licensee still lawfully do?

• a.Negotiate a lease for a client provided an active broker signs the paperwork
• b.Assist with or direct the procuring of prospects and take referral fees for it✓
• c.Hold listings personally while another licensee handles the showings and offers
• d.Nothing at all, because an inactive license is treated as an expired license

M.G.L. c.112 s.87XX1/2 says a licensee on inactive status may not act as a broker or salesperson as defined in s.87PP, 'except that he may assist with or direct the procuring of prospects and may receive referral fees for such procurement activities.' That carve-out is the whole of what inactive status permits. Negotiating a lease is squarely within the s.87PP definition, and having an active broker countersign does not convert the act into someone else's. Holding listings is the same problem, since listing property is named in the definition. The last choice overstates it in the other direction: the section expressly preserves the referral activity, and an inactive license is renewed and can be reactivated, unlike one that has lapsed.

A Massachusetts licensee reaches renewal without being able to certify the required continuing education. What happens?

• a.The Board renews it in full and allows a six-month grace period to comply
• b.The license simply expires and the licensee must retake the licensing examination
• c.The Board refuses the renewal outright and the licensee must apply again as new
• d.The Board renews the license on inactive status and the licensee cannot practice✓

M.G.L. c.112 s.87XX1/2 provides that every person who fails to furnish written certification that the required courses were completed 'shall be granted inactive status by the board upon renewal of his license,' and the same section bars an inactive licensee from acting as a broker or salesperson. PSI bulletin 4460 states the current requirement as twelve hours, to be completed before renewing as active. So the license does continue to exist, which rules out both an outright refusal and a lapse that would send the licensee back to the examination room. And there is no grace period in the section: the certification has to be in hand at renewal, or the renewal comes back inactive.