Maryland Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

Section 17-302 allows an unlicensed individual to sell, in one calendar year, no more than:

• a.3 unimproved lots that the individual owns
• b.12 unimproved lots that the individual owns
• c.10 unimproved lots that the individual owns
• d.6 unimproved lots that the individual owns✓

Section 17-302(a)(1) exempts an individual who sells 'in a calendar year, 6 or fewer unimproved lots that the individual owns.' Two limits are doing the work: the lots must be unimproved, and they must be the seller's own — the exemption is for an owner disposing of land, not for anyone acting for someone else, which is what a license exists to regulate. The count resets with the calendar year rather than running over any twelve-month period. Section 17-302(a)(2) is a separate exemption on a different axis: an individual may subdivide and sell unimproved property owned for 10 years or more, with no cap on the number of lots, and (b) lets an heir add the years of preceding owners in the line of inheritance to reach that decade.

A Maryland license placed on inactive status expires, unless it is reactivated:

• a.1 year after the date it was placed on inactive status
• b.2 years after the date it was placed on inactive status
• c.5 years after the date it was placed on inactive status
• d.3 years after the date it was placed on inactive status✓

Section 17-316(c) is flat: 'unless a license on inactive status is reactivated, the license expires 3 years after the date it is placed on inactive status.' Inactive is not dormant — subsection (d) keeps the licensee responsible for renewing on the ordinary two-year cycle and meeting continuing education while inactive, and subsection (b)(2) preserves the Commission's power to discipline the license in the meantime. The three-year clock runs alongside all of that. Once it expires, § 17-316(e) sends the person back to §§ 17-301 through 17-308 — a fresh qualification, application, and examination — so the two-year renewal term is not the number to remember here. A salesperson or associate broker also lands on inactive status automatically on losing the affiliation named in the license certificate.

Chapter 330 of 2024 replaced Maryland's fixed license expiration with staggered expiration. A renewing licensee must now complete the required continuing education:

• a.Not later than 30 days before the license expires✓
• b.At any point before the license actually expires
• c.Within 30 days after the license has expired
• d.By April 30 of every even-numbered year

Chapter 330 of 2024 (Senate Bill 564, effective 1 October 2024) rewrote § 17-314. Subsection (a) now reads 'licenses issued under this title shall expire on a staggered basis,' and subsection (c)(1)(iv) requires the renewing licensee to have complied with the continuing education requirements of § 17-315 'not later than 30 days before the license expires.' That 30-day margin is the point of the change — it gives the Commission time to verify the hours before the license lapses — so finishing on the last day no longer satisfies the statute. A licensee who misses it is not automatically unlicensed but is subject to a reinstatement fee under (c)(2). April 30 of an even-numbered year is a real Maryland deadline, but it belongs to branch office certificates under § 17-518(e)(1), which staggering did not touch.

To renew a Maryland real estate license, a licensee must complete continuing education totaling:

• a.8 clock hours during the preceding 2-year term
• b.15 clock hours during the preceding 2-year term✓
• c.12 clock hours during the preceding 2-year term
• d.22 clock hours during the preceding 2-year term

Section 17-315(a)(1) requires 'at least 15 clock hours of continuing education instruction' during the preceding two-year term, and § 17-315(b)(2) then dictates how much of that block is spoken for: every two years a renewing licensee needs a 3-hour legislative and regulatory update, a 2-hour fair housing course, a 3-hour ethics course covering the Maryland Code of Ethics, and a 3-hour course on brokerage relationships and disclosures. A clock hour is defined by COMAR 09.11.06.01B(3) as a minimum of 50 minutes of instruction per 60-minute hour, so 15 clock hours is not 15 wall-clock hours in a seat. Licensees who work solely in nonresidential real estate swap the fair housing requirement for a 2-hour course on the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

The 1.5 clock-hour course on the requirements of broker supervision must be completed, every two years, by a renewing:

• a.Salesperson, buyer's agent, or unlicensed assistant
• b.Appraiser, home inspector, or settlement attorney
• c.Broker, branch office manager, or team leader✓
• d.Instructor, course monitor, or education provider

Section 17-315(b)(2)(vi) attaches the supervision course to the three roles that actually supervise: it applies 'every 2 years for the renewal of a real estate broker license and the renewal of the license of an individual designated as a branch office manager or a team leader,' and requires at least one 1.5 clock hour course covering the requirements of broker supervision. COMAR 09.11.01.23, amended effective 27 April 2026, adds a front-end deadline — a licensee newly designated as broker, branch office manager, or team leader must take the course within 90 days of the designation unless they completed it in the previous four years. The course exists because Maryland layers supervision: § 17-320(d) and § 17-545 make branch managers and team leaders answerable alongside the broker, not instead of the broker. A rank-and-file salesperson, an unlicensed assistant, and the other licensed professions in the transaction supervise nobody under Title 17.

When real estate brokerage services are provided through a Maryland corporation or LLC, § 17-321 requires that:

• a.Each shareholder or member hold a broker license
• b.A licensed broker be designated broker of the firm✓
• c.The entity itself be issued a broker license by MREC
• d.A majority of the directors be licensed salespersons

Maryland licenses individuals, not companies. Section 17-321(b)(2) requires that the corporation, limited liability company, or partnership designate a licensed real estate broker 'as the broker of the firm, to be individually responsible for the provision of real estate brokerage services' through it, and subsection (e) makes that person subject to every provision of Title 17 governing those services. That is why the entity is never itself the licensee — it holds no license to suspend, so accountability has to rest on a named individual. Subsection (d) then limits who may work through the firm to the designated broker and licensees affiliated with that broker, whatever their corporate title, and subsection (f) preserves the entity's own liability for its agents' acts. Section 17-511(b)(1) separately caps associate brokers and salespersons at 50% of the interest in the business.

Before a Maryland broker may maintain a branch office, § 17-518 requires the broker to:

• a.Register the branch with the county and the zoning board
• b.Close the principal office while the branch is operating
• c.Obtain a branch office certificate and designate a manager✓
• d.Station at least three licensed salespersons at the branch

Section 17-518(b) requires a branch office certificate before the broker may maintain the office, and (c) sets out the application, the written notice naming the manager, and a $5 fee. Subsection (d)(1) then requires a designated manager for each branch — which may be the broker — and (d)(2) says that if the broker designates someone else, that person must be a licensed associate broker, a salesperson with at least 3 years of experience, or a salesperson who has completed the broker prelicense course and passed the broker examination. Subsection (d)(4) gives the manager the duty to supervise the licensees registered to that office. County registration and zoning approval govern where a business may sit and neither creates the certificate nor substitutes for the Commission's requirements. Nothing requires closing the principal office or staffing a branch to any headcount. The certificate expires on the first April 30 falling in an even-numbered year and renews for two-year terms.

Section 17-511 caps the interest that licensed associate brokers and salespersons may hold, directly or indirectly, in a business providing real estate brokerage services at:

• a.50 percent of the interest in the business✓
• b.25 percent of the interest in the business
• c.10 percent of the interest in the business
• d.75 percent of the interest in the business

Section 17-511(b)(1) provides that 'not more than 50% of the interest in a business may be held directly or indirectly by associate real estate brokers, real estate salespersons, or any combination of associate brokers or salespersons.' The effect is to keep control of a brokerage with the broker who answers for it, since a licensee who works under a broker cannot own the firm outright. Subsection (b)(2) closes the obvious route around it: an interest held by the licensee's spouse, parent, child, or sibling counts as the licensee's own unless that family member is themselves affiliated with the business as an associate broker or salesperson. For a corporation, 'interest in a business' is defined in (a)(4) as the outstanding voting stock. COMAR 09.11.01.22 requires licensees to report ownership interests with the renewal application, and any acquisition or disposal within 30 days.