Mississippi Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

An applicant for a Mississippi resident broker's license must be at least 21 and domiciled in the state, and must also have:

• a.held an active salesperson's license 12 months and 120 hours✓
• b.held an active salesperson's license 24 months and 90 hours
• c.held any Mississippi real estate license and 180 course hours
• d.held an active broker-salesperson's license and 60 course hours

Section 73-35-7 sets the resident broker path: age twenty-one (21) or over with legal domicile in Mississippi, twelve (12) months as an active real estate salesperson before applying for the broker's examination, one hundred twenty (120) hours of real estate courses, the broker's examination, and clearance through the Section 73-35-10 background investigation. The statute also carries an alternative the wrong answers miss: an applicant who has not held an active salesperson's license for at least thirty-six (36) months must complete one hundred fifty (150) classroom hours in courses that count toward a degree at a college or university approved by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Sixty (60) hours is the salesperson figure, not the broker's, and the 24-month and 180-hour numbers appear nowhere in the section. A separate quirk: Section 73-35-7 also makes a new broker sign a form under penalty of perjury that he will hire no salespersons for thirty-six months unless he qualified on the longer 36-month track.

Mississippi's continuing-education requirement for a licensee renewing an active license is:

• a.8 clock hours every year, with no carry-over permitted
• b.16 clock hours per two-year renewal, up to 6 carried over✓
• c.12 clock hours per two-year renewal, no carry-over allowed
• d.20 clock hours per two-year renewal, up to 10 carried over

Section 73-35-18(1) requires not less than sixteen (16) clock hours of approved course work for each two-year license renewal, and the Commission may dictate the subject matter of up to eight of those sixteen. Excess hours generally cannot be banked, with one exception the statute spells out: approved hours earned in the final three (3) months of the renewal period, if in excess of the sixteen, may be carried into the next period, and no more than six (6) may be carried this way. Subsection (2) exempts a licensee who has held a Mississippi broker's or salesperson's license for at least twenty-five (25) years and is older than sixty-five (65) — both conditions, not either. Inactive licensees are not required to take continuing education while inactive, but before returning to active status they must cumulatively make up what they missed.

Mississippi's errors-and-omissions insurance requirement applies to:

• a.every Mississippi licensee, including those on inactive status
• b.active individual brokers, broker-salespersons and salespersons✓
• c.responsible brokers and licensed brokerage firms and companies
• d.any licensee who handles escrow or trust money for a client

Section 73-35-16(2) names the persons who must submit proof of insurance: any active individual broker, active broker-salesperson or active salesperson. Coverage is optional for a partnership or a corporation, and subsection (3) says in terms that individuals whose licenses are on inactive status are not required to carry it. The requirement therefore turns on active status, not on rank in the firm and not on whether the licensee touches trust money. Coverage may be bought through the Commission's approved group carrier or independently. Subsection (5) fixes the group policy minimums: a per-claim limit of not less than $100,000, an annual aggregate of not less than $100,000, limits applying per licensee per claim, and maximum deductibles of $2,500 per claim for damages and $1,000 per claim for defense costs. MREC Rule 9.2 supplies the consequence — an active licensee who neither pays the premium nor proves independent coverage within thirty days after the due date goes on inactive status automatically.

Which person may perform a licensed real estate act in Mississippi without holding a license?

• a.Someone paid a commission to find a buyer for one house
• b.A property manager collecting rents for several owners
• c.A timeshare seller employed by a resort's marketing arm
• d.An attorney at law performing duties as an attorney✓

Section 73-35-3(9)(a) places attorneys at law, in the performance of primary or incidental duties as such attorneys, outside the chapter entirely. The same subsection exempts the holder of a duly executed power of attorney authorizing the sale, purchase, leasing or exchange of real estate; a receiver, trustee, administrator, executor or guardian acting under court order or under a deed of trust or will; public officers performing their duties; and anyone dealing exclusively in oil and gas leases and mineral rights. The other three answers describe activity the chapter reaches. Subsection (1) lists managing and negotiating among the acts that make a person a broker, and subsection (3) provides that one (1) act done with the expectation of compensation is enough to make the actor a broker subject to the chapter. Subsection (2) puts timesharing and condominiums inside the definition of "real estate," and MREC Rule 8.1 requires anyone other than the developer and its regular employees who sells a timeshare plan in Mississippi to be licensed.