Nevada Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

Among the courses a Nevada broker applicant must document is a Nevada-specific broker management course. Under NAC 645.437 and the education chart in the Pearson VUE Nevada candidate handbook, that course is:

• a.30 hours, or 2 college credits, of broker management
• b.60 hours, or 4 college credits, of broker management
• c.45 hours, or 3 college credits, of broker management✓
• d.90 hours, or 6 college credits, of broker management

NAC 645.437(2) itemizes what an approved broker management course must contain, and the parts add to 45 hours: 6 hours on office policy, procedure, risk management, errors and omissions, controlled business arrangements, compensation and independent-contractor status; 3 on business plans; 3 on brokerage forms; 6 on financing programs and closing costs; 6 on state and local laws; 6 on federal laws; 6 on agent-client relationships; 3 on valuation and economics; and 6 on emerging trends. NRS 645.343(2)(e) states the same requirement in academic units - "[t]hree semester units or an equivalent number of quarter units in broker management" - and the Division's chart reprinted in the candidate handbook reads "45 hours or 3 college credits Broker Management course." The other totals do not match either measure. Two further points sit alongside this one and are tested in their own right: NRS 645.343(3) requires 64 semester units of college-level course work overall, and NRS 645.343(4) allows 16 semester units of credit for each 2 years of licensed experience in the preceding 10 years, up to 8 years - but that experience credit may not be applied against the broker management requirement or against the 18 classroom hours of Nevada real estate law.

A Nevada broker opens a second office in another city. Under NRS 645.530 and NAC 645.175, the broker must:

• a.display a photocopy of the main office license in the branch and file a notice of the branch with the Division
• b.keep the original broker license at the branch and display a certified copy of it at the main office
• c.obtain an additional broker license for the branch and display that license conspicuously in the branch✓
• d.register the branch with the county recorder and display the recorded registration in the branch

NRS 645.530(2)(a) is explicit: a broker shall display his or her license conspicuously in the broker's place of business, and "[i]f a real estate broker maintains more than one place of business within the State, an additional license must be issued to the broker for each branch office so maintained by the broker, and the additional license must be displayed conspicuously in each branch office." A photocopy, a certified copy or a county registration is not the additional license the statute requires. NAC 645.175 adds the operating rules: the broker to whom the license is issued is responsible for every branch, a branch license may issue only in the name under which the broker is licensed at the main office, a branch supervisor may not manage more than one branch, and a branch need not establish its own trust account - but if it does, one of the required signatures on that account must be the branch supervisor's. Under NAC 645.177, every branch must be supervised by a broker or a broker-salesperson who has had 2 years of active experience within the preceding 4 years, and while supervising the branch a broker-salesperson carries all the duties and penalties of a broker.

An out-of-state broker holds a Nevada cooperative certificate for a single transaction. Under NAC 645.185, the buyer's earnest money in that transaction:

• a.may be held by the out-of-state broker in a trust account in his or her own state
• b.may be handled only by the cooperating Nevada broker, in accordance with NRS 645.310✓
• c.may be held by either broker, provided both are signatories on the account used
• d.must be deposited with the Division and held by it until the transaction closes

NAC 645.185(7) states that "[a]ny money received in a cooperative transaction may be handled only by the cooperating Nevada broker in accordance with NRS 645.310." That follows from subsection 6, which puts the Nevada broker "in charge of the transaction from beginning to end" and requires the out-of-state broker to work through the Nevada broker or a licensee associated with that broker. The Division does not act as a depository, and neither a home-state trust account nor a joint account displaces the Nevada broker's exclusive control of the money. The rest of NAC 645.185 is worth holding with it: the certificate is valid for the earlier of 12 months or the completion or termination of the single transaction named in the application, it is not transferable, only a natural person who is a broker may hold one, and it may be used only to represent someone who is not a Nevada resident in the purchase of Nevada real estate - never as authority to sell Nevada property on an owner's behalf. Accepting a certificate also appoints the Nevada broker as the out-of-state broker's agent for service in any Division proceeding about the transaction.