Mississippi Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

Since 1 July 2026, a Mississippi licensee may take a prospective buyer on a tour of a property:

• a.only after a written buyer brokerage agreement is signed
• b.without first entering into a brokerage agreement✓
• c.only if the buyer signs an agreement at the property
• d.only when the seller's own agent is present at the tour

Mississippi went the opposite way from most states after 2024. The act codified within Chapter 35, Title 73 by SB 2713 (2026 Regular Session), ch. 349, Section 1, effective July 1, 2026, provides that "[a] licensee shall not be required to enter into a brokerage agreement with a customer who is a prospective buyer in order for a licensee to provide a tour of a property to that prospective buyer." The written agreement attaches later, not at the door: "[a] written brokerage agreement shall be required prior to a licensee either listing for sale or submitting an offer on a property on behalf of a client or customer for compensation." So in Mississippi the showing is free and the offer is not. Cite the act rather than a code section — the Legislature has not yet assigned the new provision a number, and MREC's own compilation prints it under the heading "Section 73-35-__ (Needs catchline)." Section 73-35-3(4), added the same session, defines a brokerage agreement as a written agreement between a broker and a consumer establishing a brokerage relationship and stating the terms, conditions and compensation.

Under Mississippi's 2026 brokerage-agreement law, a written brokerage agreement is required before a licensee:

• a.submits an offer on a property for compensation✓
• b.shows a listed property to a prospective buyer
• c.answers a buyer's question about the asking price
• d.lets a prospective buyer into a public open house

The act requires a written brokerage agreement before a licensee either lists a property for sale or submits an offer on a property on behalf of a client or customer for compensation. Two carve-outs in the same subsection dispose of the other answers: a buyer brokerage agreement is not required of a seller's agent conducting an open house as to prospective buyers, nor as to a buyer customer for whom a seller's agent presents an offer while acting solely for the seller and without receiving compensation from the buyer. Showing property and answering questions are not triggering events at all. The act reaches only real property on which a dwelling unit is located, or a residential stock cooperative of one to four dwelling units, transferred by or with the aid of a licensee, and it excludes the same categories the property-condition-disclosure article excludes: court-ordered transfers, foreclosures and transfers after default, fiduciary transfers, transfers between co-owners or family members, transfers to or from a governmental entity, and land with no dwelling on it.

In a Mississippi single agency, written agency disclosure to the party the broker represents must be made:

• a.at the first substantive meeting with the other party
• b.when the party signs the offer to purchase the property
• c.before the agreement for representation is entered into✓
• d.within ten days after the listing agreement is signed

MREC Rule 4.3(A) requires the broker in a single agency to disclose in writing, to the party the broker is an agent for, that the broker is that party's agent, and "[t]he written disclosure must be made before the time an agreement for representation is entered into between the broker and the party." It goes on an MREC Agency Disclosure Form — Form A, "Working With A Real Estate Broker," which states on its face that it is an acknowledgment of disclosure and not a legally binding contract. The first-substantive-meeting trigger is real, but it belongs to the other side of the transaction: Rule 4.3(B) uses it for the party the broker does not represent. Rule 4.3(C) adds that if the agency relationship later changes, new disclosure forms must be acknowledged by all parties involved, and Rule 4.3(F) requires the terms of the relationship to be ratified on all contracts pertaining to the transaction.

For the party a Mississippi broker does not represent, the "first substantive meeting" is before or immediately prior to:

• a.the buyer's first drive past the listed property
• b.the seller's acceptance of a written offer to purchase
• c.a bona fide open house or model home showing
• d.showing the property or eliciting confidential facts✓

MREC Rule 4.3(B) requires written disclosure to the party the broker does not represent at the time of the first substantive meeting, on an MREC Agency Disclosure Form. Rule 4.2(H)(1) defines that moment for a seller's agent as before or just immediately prior to the first of three things: showing the property to a prospective buyer, eliciting confidential information from a buyer about the buyer's real estate needs, motivation or financial qualifications, or executing any agreement governed by Section 73-35-3. Rule 4.2(H)(2) then takes three situations back out of the definition: a bona fide open house or model home showing that involves nothing more than the showing, preliminary conversations or small talk about price range, location and property styles, and responses to general factual questions about property already advertised. Note the limit on that open-house carve-out — the moment confidential information is elicited or an agreement is executed there, the disclosure is due.

Disclosed dual agency is permitted in Mississippi only where the broker obtains:

• a.a written designation by the responsible broker
• b.the informed written consent of both parties✓
• c.a signed waiver of the fiduciary duty of loyalty
• d.the written consent of the party paying the fee

MREC Rule 4.2(F) defines a disclosed dual agent as an agent representing both parties to a transaction with the informed consent of both, with a written understanding of the specific duties and representation afforded each. Rule 4.3(B) then times that consent: it is deemed timely if the seller signs the Consent To Dual Agency portion of MREC Form A when the seller's representation agreement is entered into, the buyer signs the same portion when the buyer's representation agreement is entered into, and the broker confirms both parties' understanding on the MREC Dual Agency Confirmation Form — the buyer's before the offer to purchase is signed, the seller's before the offer is presented — with that form attached to the offer and kept attached whatever the outcome. Who pays the fee does not decide it: Rule 4.2(D) says compensation, considered alone, is not the determining factor in an agency relationship. And consent is not a waiver of loyalty; a dual agent still owes both parties every fiduciary duty except full disclosure and undivided loyalty, which the conflict makes impossible.

Without written instruction from the party concerned, a Mississippi disclosed dual agent may not tell the buyer:

• a.how many days the property has been on the market
• b.that the roof was replaced after a hail storm in May
• c.that the seller will take less than the listed price✓
• d.the amount of the annual homeowners' association fee

MREC Form A lists exactly what a disclosed dual agent may not reveal absent written instruction to the contrary from the party concerned: that the seller will accept less than the asking or listed price, that the buyer will pay a price greater than the price submitted in a written offer, the motivation of any party for selling, buying or leasing, and that a party will agree to financing terms other than those offered. Those four are each side's bargaining position, and protecting them is what makes dual agency workable at all. The other answers are facts about the property or the listing rather than a party's negotiating posture, and one of them runs the other way: a known material defect in the physical condition of the property is something a licensee must not conceal, because Section 73-35-21(1)(a) makes a substantial misrepresentation in connection with a real estate transaction a ground for discipline.

A Mississippi seller's agent shows a house to an unrepresented buyer. To that buyer the licensee owes:

• a.honesty and fair dealing in the transaction✓
• b.obedience to the buyer's lawful instructions
• c.confidentiality as to the buyer's top price
• d.undivided loyalty in negotiating the price

MREC Form A states the seller's agent's duties in two lines: to the seller, the fiduciary duties of loyalty, confidentiality, obedience, disclosure, full accounting and the duty to use skill, care and diligence; to the buyer and the seller alike, a duty of honesty and fair dealing. Rule 4.2(E) defines a customer as a person not represented in the transaction, and Rule 4.2(G) reserves the six fiduciary duties for the principal. That division is why Form A warns the unrepresented buyer, in terms, not to disclose the price he is willing to pay, the other terms he would accept, or his motivation for buying: the seller's agent would be required to pass all of it to the seller. Loyalty, obedience and confidentiality run to the client. Honesty runs to everyone.

MREC's agency disclosure requirements do not apply when a Mississippi licensee transacts with:

• a.a first-time buyer who is represented by counsel
• b.a limited liability company or a municipality✓
• c.an out-of-state buyer purchasing the house unseen
• d.a buyer who declines to sign the disclosure form

MREC Rule 4.4 excuses compliance with the Rule 4.3 disclosure requirements in transactions with a corporation, non-profit corporation, professional corporation, professional association, limited liability company, partnership, real estate investment trust, business trust, charitable trust, family trust, or any governmental entity — entities presumed sophisticated enough not to need the consumer warning. The rule adds that operating under the exception in no way circumvents the common law of agency. Having a lawyer, or buying from a distance, does not put an individual on that list. And a party who refuses to sign does not make the disclosure disappear: Rule 4.3(E) tells the broker to annotate the form that a copy was delivered on a stated date and that the recipient declined to acknowledge receipt. Rule 4.3(D) covers the party who is simply unavailable — disclose orally, note the form, and forward it for signature as soon as possible, with electronic transmission sufficient.