Nebraska Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

A Nebraska salesperson seeking a broker's license by the standard route must show:

• a.One year of active licensed service and ninety class hours beyond the salesperson courses
• b.Two years of active licensed service and sixty class hours beyond the salesperson courses✓
• c.Three years of active licensed service and no further course work of any kind
• d.Four years of active licensed service and thirty class hours beyond the salesperson courses

Section 81-885.13(3)(a) requires the applicant to have first served actively for two years as a licensed salesperson or broker and to furnish evidence of sixty class hours in addition to the hours required for the salesperson license. Rule 299 NAC 1-004.01 reads "served actively for two years" as full-time experience, or, if less than full time, a period equal to two years of full-time work. The ninety hours in three courses is the salesperson's own prelicense requirement under section 81-885.13(2). The alternative in section 81-885.13(3)(b) is not a longer service period but a hardship route, open on special application and hearing where a brokerage cannot retain a designated broker with the two years' experience.

Which activity falls inside the Nebraska statutory definition of a broker?

• a.Drafting the deed that conveys title to the buyer at closing
• b.Appraising real estate for a lender in a federally related transaction
• c.Surveying a parcel to establish where its boundary lines run
• d.Auctioning real estate for another in expectation of compensation✓

Section 81-885.01(2)(b) writes auctioneering into the definition, reaching any person who auctions, offers, attempts, or agrees to auction real estate. Appraisal for a federally related transaction belongs to the Real Property Appraiser Act; section 81-885.16 lets a licensee give a broker's price opinion or comparative market analysis but forbids calling it an appraisal. Preparing the deed is legal work, and 299 NAC 5-003.01 treats preparing a land contract or trust deed for closing without an attorney's approval as unworthiness. Surveying is a separate licensed profession.

Which person is outside the reach of the Nebraska Real Estate License Act?

• a.A nonresident broker who negotiates the sale of Nebraska farmland by phone
• b.An unlicensed assistant who discusses the asking price with prospective buyers
• c.A personal representative selling estate property under the authority of a will✓
• d.A resident apartment manager who also lists other owners' houses for sale

Section 81-885.04(3) exempts a person acting as a receiver, trustee in bankruptcy, personal representative, conservator, or guardian, or acting under a court order or under the authority of a will or trust instrument. The other three all fall inside the act. Section 81-885.04(9) lets an unlicensed person facilitate initial contact but expressly forbids discussing price or the customer's motivation. Section 81-885.04(4) exempts a resident manager only for leasing in connection with that employment, not for listing other owners' property. And section 81-885.03 makes even a single negotiating act sufficient contact with Nebraska, so the nonresident needs a license under section 81-885.17.

An unlicensed person working under Nebraska's initial-contact exemption may not:

• a.Discuss the price the prospective customer would be willing to offer or accept✓
• b.Identify the entity that employs the unlicensed person placing the call
• c.Give the name of the broker on whose behalf the contact is being made
• d.Send written material the broker created by email or United States mail

Section 81-885.04(9) permits an unlicensed person to supply lists of potential purchasers or make the initial contact, but bars discussing the services the broker offers, the customer's motivation or motivating factors, and the price the customer would offer or accept. The three permitted acts are in fact required or expressly allowed: the person must identify himself or herself, the employing entity, the broker, and the broker's business at the beginning of any contact, and may pass along written material the broker created. Under section 81-885.24(36) the broker must also hand that person a copy of section 81-885.04 or written instructions explaining the exemption.

A Nebraska licensee who prepares a comparative market analysis in the ordinary course of business:

• a.May prepare it, but may not describe the result as an appraisal✓
• b.May prepare it only for the federally related transactions a lender orders
• c.May prepare it and may describe it as an appraisal once it is put in writing
• d.May prepare it only after obtaining a state real property appraiser credential

Section 81-885.16(1) exempts the licensee from the Real Property Appraiser Act for a broker's price opinion or comparative market analysis given in the ordinary course of business, with the express proviso that it not be referred to as an appraisal. Where the licensee is paid something other than a commission or brokerage fee for it, subsection (2) requires the opinion to be written, signed, dated, and to carry a bold fourteen-point disclaimer. Subsection (3) points the other way from the last option: such an opinion is confined to transactions other than federally related ones and may not be the sole basis of value for originating a loan.

Nebraska will issue a nonresident broker's license only if the applicant proves completion of:

• a.A ninety-hour approved course in general real estate principles and practice
• b.A sixty-hour approved course on Nebraska closing and settlement procedure
• c.A twelve-hour approved class on trust accounting and transaction records
• d.A three-hour approved class on the License Act and the agency sections✓

Section 81-885.17(3)(c) conditions the nonresident license on adequate proof of a three-hour commission-approved class specific to the Nebraska Real Estate License Act and sections 76-2401 to 76-2430, and subsection (7) adds an affidavit certifying the applicant has reviewed and is familiar with the act and rules. The applicant also files a certified copy of the resident-jurisdiction license, pays the fee, and submits to fingerprinting and a criminal history check. The ninety hours is the resident salesperson's prelicense requirement, and the twelve hours in section 81-885.13(9) falls due within a hundred eighty days after any license is issued.

A Nebraska broker who opens a second place of business in the state must:

• a.Obtain a second broker's license issued in the branch office's own name
• b.Obtain a branch office license and place any licensed salesperson in charge
• c.Obtain a branch office license and place a broker or associate broker in charge✓
• d.Record the second location with the register of deeds in that county

Section 81-885.19(2) requires a branch office license for each additional place of business, on payment of an annual fee the commission sets at not more than fifty dollars, and provides that the broker or an associate broker shall be the manager — a salesperson may not run a branch. Rule 299 NAC 2-012 defines a branch office as a location other than the main office where licensees spend substantial time on licensed business, advertise that they can be reached there, and keep what would ordinarily count as a business office; a model home used temporarily is not one. Nothing is filed with the register of deeds, and no second broker's license issues.

What follows when an active Nebraska licensee fails to file the required errors and omissions certificate?

• a.The commission refers the matter to the Attorney General for prosecution
• b.The commission imposes a civil fine while the license stays on active status
• c.The commission places the license on inactive status until it is filed✓
• d.The commission revokes the license after holding a formal disciplinary hearing

Section 81-885.55(3) requires a certificate of coverage on file for every licensee who does not join the commission's group policy, and directs the commission to place the license on inactive status until it receives one; returning to active status then costs the transfer fee under section 81-885.14. Every licensee other than an inactive broker or salesperson must carry the coverage. Subsection (4) supplies the one escape: if the commission cannot obtain group coverage at a reasonable premium not exceeding five hundred dollars, the requirement does not apply for that year.