Contracts: Brokerage Agreements after A.B. 258, Deposits and Timelines
Area VI is the largest single area on the Nevada broker state portion at 22% - about 11 of the 50 items. It changed in 2025: Assembly Bill 258 removed oral brokerage agreements from Nevada law for agreements entered into on or after 1 October 2025.
Brokerage agreements must now be written
NRS 645.005 used to define a brokerage agreement as "an oral or written contract" between a client and a broker. Section 2 of A.B. 258 (2025) struck the words "an oral or," and the definition now reads "a written contract between a client and a broker in which the broker agrees to accept valuable consideration from the client or another person for assisting, soliciting or negotiating the sale, purchase, option, rental or lease of real property, or the sale, exchange, option or purchase of a business." The bill's digest states the effect plainly: the change removes the provisions under which an oral contract could be a brokerage agreement, "thereby requiring a brokerage agreement to be in writing." Section 6 applies the amendment to any brokerage agreement entered into on or after 1 October 2025. Consequentially, section 4 struck the old subsection 1 of NRS 645.320, "Be in writing," as redundant, leaving three requirements for an exclusive agency representation: a definite, specified and complete termination in its terms; no provision requiring the client to notify the broker of an intention to cancel the exclusive features after termination; and the signatures of both the client or an authorized representative and the broker or an authorized representative to be enforceable. The definition still excludes a property management agreement.
Preparation and handling of documents
NRS 645.300 requires a licensee who prepares or has prepared a brokerage agreement authorizing the licensee to purchase or sell real estate for compensation to deliver a copy to the client signing it "at the time the signature is obtained, if possible, or otherwise within a reasonable time thereafter," with the receipt permitted on the face of the agreement. NRS 645.633(1)(f) makes it a ground for discipline to omit a fixed date of expiration from any brokerage agreement or to fail to leave a copy of it, or of a property management agreement, with the client. NRS 645.324(2) requires the licensee to maintain each brokerage agreement for the Division's review and audit, and NRS 645.630(1)(e) makes failure to do so a separate ground. NAC 645.630 requires prompt delivery to the seller of every bona fide offer complete with all terms and conditions, and to both purchaser and seller of copies of each acceptance of an offer or counteroffer. NAC 645.632 requires, where a seller does not accept an offer within a reasonable time, written notice SIGNED BY THE SELLER telling the buyer the offer was not accepted - and the mirror image, signed by the buyer, where a buyer does not accept a counteroffer.
Settlement statements and advance fees
NRS 645.635(4) makes it a ground for discipline to fail to deliver the seller, within 10 BUSINESS days after the transaction closes, a complete detailed closing statement showing all receipts and disbursements handled for the seller; to fail to deliver the buyer a statement of all money received from the buyer and how it was disbursed; or to fail to retain true copies in the files. The same subsection provides that an escrow holder furnishing those statements relieves the licensee's responsibility and is deemed compliance. On advance fees, NRS 645.322 requires anyone who charges or collects one to furnish the client an accounting of the use of the money within 3 months after the charge or collection, and lets the Division demand an accounting too. NRS 645.323 requires a broker, broker-salesperson or salesperson license to accept an advance fee listing at all. NRS 645.324 lets the Commission prescribe the forms of brokerage agreements containing advance-fee provisions and the accounting to be kept, and makes any violation of the Commission's rules, orders or requirements a ground for discipline.
Earnest money and the timelines that hang off it
NRS 645.310(3)-(4) forbids commingling client money with the broker's own and requires a broker who receives money belonging to others to deposit it promptly in a separate checking account at a bank or credit union IN THIS STATE designated a trust account, into which all down payments, earnest money, rents and other client money must go unless everyone with an interest agrees otherwise in writing; the broker is personally responsible and liable for the deposit at all times, and advance payments may never sit in the business or personal account. NRS 645.630(1)(k) requires the broker, on acceptance of an agreement, to deposit any earnest-money check or cash before the end of the next banking day unless the purchase agreement provides otherwise, and NAC 645.657 requires the salesperson to pay a deposit over to the broker or the designated escrow within 1 business day of receiving a fully executed contract. NRS 645.630(1)(j) permits non-cash earnest money only where the owner is told before accepting the offer and the fact appears in the receipt. On offers, NRS 645.635(7) requires a bona fide offer to be put in writing when the proposed purchaser asks, and NRS 645.635(8) requires all written bona fide offers to be submitted to the seller when received before the seller accepts in writing "and until the broker has knowledge of that acceptance" - the later of the two endpoints controls.
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State-specific details
State exam facts
- State regulator
- Nevada Real Estate Division (NRED)
- Exam vendor
- Pearson VUE
- Prelicensing education
- 64 college credits, including a 45-hour (3-credit) Broker Management course and 45 hours (3 credits) of real estate law with at least 18 hours of Nevada law
- Passing score
- 75% (each portion scored separately)
- Scored questions
- 130
- Time limit
- 240 minutes
Who regulates real estate brokers in Nevada?
The Nevada Real Estate Division (NRED), within the Department of Business and Industry, licenses brokers and salespersons under NRS Chapter 645, and the Nevada Real Estate Commission adopts the regulations and imposes discipline. NRED contracts with Pearson VUE to deliver the licensing exams; Nevada no longer uses PSI, so a PSI bulletin found for Nevada is out of date.
What experience do I need before the Nevada broker exam?
Under NRS 645.330(4), a broker applicant must have been actively engaged full time as a licensed real estate broker-salesperson or salesperson in Nevada, or as a licensed broker, broker-salesperson or salesperson in another state or the District of Columbia, for at least 2 of the 4 years immediately preceding issuance of the broker's license. Education is separate: NRS 645.343 requires 64 semester units of college-level course work, including three semester units (45 hours) in broker management and three units in real estate law with at least 18 classroom hours of Nevada law. NRS 645.343(4) grants 16 semester units of credit for each 2 years of licensed experience in the preceding 10 years, up to 8 years, but that credit cannot be applied against the broker management course or the 18 hours of Nevada law.
How is the Nevada broker exam structured?
Pearson VUE's Nevada candidate handbook lists the Broker Combination exam as 130 scored items in 240 minutes: an 80-item national/general portion in 150 minutes and a 50-item Nevada state portion in 90 minutes. Each portion also carries 5 to 10 unscored pretest items inside the same clock. You need 75% correct to pass, and the two portions are scored separately — pass one and fail the other and you retake only the failed part, within 12 months.
What does the Nevada state portion actually test?
Pearson VUE publishes the Nevada outline (effective 15 January 2025) as percentages rather than item counts, with a separate percentage for salespersons and for brokers. For brokers the 50 state items are weighted: Duties and Powers of the Commission 5%, Licensing Requirements 5%, Agency and Duties Owed 20%, License Practice 20%, Disclosures 15%, Contracts 22%, Record Keeping 8%, and Special Topics 5%. Five subtopics are marked "Broker Only" — branch offices and license display, cooperative certificates, inspection of records, trust account records and management, and subdivisions. Record keeping is 8% for brokers against 3% for salespersons, while disclosures drops from 20% to 15%.
Sources: https://red.nv.gov, https://www.pearsonvue.com/content/dam/VUE/vue/en/documents/publications/092900.pdf, https://www.pearsonvue.com/content/dam/VUE/vue/en/documents/publications/092901.pdf, https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-645.html, https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NAC/NAC-645.html
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