New York Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

Under General Obligations Law § 5-703, which agreement is enforceable in New York without a writing?

• a.a lease for a term not exceeding one year✓
• b.a lease for a term of three years
• c.an assignment of a recorded easement
• d.a contract for the sale of a vacant lot

Subdivision 1 requires a writing to create, grant, assign, surrender or declare an estate or interest in real property, and it carves out exactly one thing in its own text: “other than a lease for a term not exceeding one year.” Subdivision 2 makes a contract for the leasing of real property for longer than one year, or for the sale of real property or an interest in it, void “unless the contract or some note or memorandum thereof, expressing the consideration, is in writing, subscribed by the party to be charged.” A three-year lease is over the line. A contract to sell land is squarely inside subdivision 2, and an easement is an interest in real property, so assigning one falls under subdivision 1.

The Property Condition Disclosure Statement must be delivered to a New York buyer:

• a.at the first showing of the property, and attached to the listing agreement
• b.at the closing, and attached to the deed presented for recording that day
• c.within three days after the contract is signed, and filed with the county clerk
• d.before the buyer signs a binding contract, and attached to it after✓

Real Property Law § 462(1) requires the seller to complete and sign the statement and cause it to be delivered to the buyer or the buyer's agent “prior to the signing by the buyer of a binding contract of sale,” and adds that “a copy of the property condition disclosure statement containing the signatures of both seller and buyer shall be attached to the real estate purchase contract.” Nothing is filed with a clerk. Section 466 puts a matching duty on licensees: the listing broker must timely inform the seller of the seller's obligations, and the buyer's agent — or the seller's agent dealing with an unrepresented buyer — must inform the buyer of the buyer's rights before the buyer signs. Section 461(5) is the exclusion worth memorizing: the act covers one-to-four family dwellings, not condominium units, cooperative apartments or unimproved land.

A New York seller willfully fails to perform the Property Condition Disclosure Act's requirements. Under Real Property Law § 465, that seller is liable for:

• a.a statutory penalty of twice the deposit, payable to the Department of State
• b.a $500 credit against the purchase price, plus the buyer's inspection costs
• c.a $500 credit against the purchase price at closing, and nothing further
• d.the buyer's actual damages, plus any other remedy in law or equity✓

Section 465(2) reads that a seller who provides the statement, or provides or fails to provide a revised statement, “shall be liable only for a willful failure to perform the requirements of this article. For such a willful failure, the seller shall be liable for the actual damages suffered by the buyer in addition to any other existing equitable or statutory remedy.” The $500 figure is the one to check rather than recall: article 14 as it now reads contains no $500 credit anywhere, although a great deal of New York course material and many contract riders still describe one, and the Department's current form is the Property Condition Disclosure Statement effective July 1, 2025. Section 464 adds the duty to deliver a revised statement as soon as practicable when the seller learns something that makes the first one materially inaccurate, but never after transfer of title or the buyer's occupancy, whichever is earlier.

Real Property Law § 443-a provides that which fact is not a material defect a New York seller or agent must disclose?

• a.that a fuel oil tank remains buried in the side yard
• b.that the basement floods after heavy coastal storms
• c.that the roof leaked during the last two heating seasons
• d.that the property was the site of a homicide or a felony✓

Subdivision 1 provides that it is not a material defect or fact that an owner or occupant is or was suspected to be infected with HIV or diagnosed with AIDS, or that the property “is, or is suspected to have been, the site of a homicide, suicide or other death by accidental or natural causes, or any crime punishable as a felony.” Subdivision 2 bars a cause of action for failing to disclose those facts and says the omission is not grounds for discipline. The other three options are physical conditions of the property itself, which the Property Condition Disclosure Statement asks about directly. Subdivision 3 gives a buyer for whom the stigma matters the only route available: a written inquiry submitted when negotiating or making a bona fide offer, which the seller may choose whether to answer.

Under Energy Law § 17-103, a New York seller of a residential structure must supply heating bills:

• a.within sixty days of a written request made by the buyer's lender only
• b.within thirty days of an oral request made at any point before closing
• c.within five days of a written request made after the contract is signed
• d.within fifteen days of a written request made before the contract✓

The truth in heating provision requires the seller, “within fifteen days of receipt of a written request from a prospective purchaser,” to furnish a complete set of heating or cooling bills, or a summary of them, “for the life of the structure or for the preceding two years, whichever is shorter.” The timing limit is in the same paragraph: “a seller need not honor a request for heating or cooling bills if such request is initially made after the signing of a purchase contract.” So the request has to be in writing, from the prospective purchaser, and made before the contract is signed. Paragraph (b) adds a parallel fifteen-day duty to disclose the type and areas of insulation the seller installed, and any installed by a previous owner and known to the seller.

Real Property Law § 333-c requires a disclosure notice when New York property lies in an agricultural district. The notice tells the buyer that:

• a.farm parcels in the district carry a permanent conservation easement
• b.farming activities occur in the district and may cause noise, dust and odors✓
• c.farm owners in the district hold a right of first refusal on any later sale
• d.farming activities in the district may restrict the buyer's right to build there

The statute prints the notice word for word, and its closing sentences are the ones tested: the buyer is informed “that the property they are about to acquire lies partially or wholly within an agricultural district, and that farming activities occur within the district. Such farming activities may include, but not be limited to, activities that cause noise, dust and odors.” Subdivision 2 requires both the prospective grantor and the prospective grantee to sign the notice before the sale. Subdivision 3 limits the consequence of skipping it: “Failure of the seller to provide such information to the buyer shall not prevent the recording officer from filing such deed,” so the sanction is not a defective record but exposure on the transaction and, for a licensee, the Department's view of the omission.

New York is a lien-theory state, which means that a New York mortgage:

• a.lets the lender take possession as soon as a payment is missed
• b.gives the lender a lien, so foreclosure must go through the courts✓
• c.passes title to the lender, so a trustee may sell without a suit
• d.creates a deed of trust held by a neutral third-party trustee

In a lien-theory state the borrower keeps legal title and the lender holds a security interest, so the lender cannot simply take the property back; it has to bring an action. New York accordingly forecloses judicially under article 13 of the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law, with a referee's computation, a judgment of foreclosure and sale, and a public sale. Title theory and the deed of trust with a power of sale belong to other states, and neither is how a New York mortgage is written. Taking possession on a missed payment describes no New York remedy at all. The practical consequence for a broker is timing: a New York foreclosure is measured in many months, and RPAPL § 1304 adds a ninety-day notice before the action even begins on a home loan.

Before commencing a foreclosure action on a New York home loan, RPAPL § 1304 requires the lender to send the borrower a notice:

• a.at least one year beforehand, in at least sixteen-point type
• b.at least ninety days beforehand, in at least fourteen-point type✓
• c.at least sixty days beforehand, in at least twelve-point type
• d.at least thirty days beforehand, in at least ten-point type

Subdivision 1 requires that “at least ninety days before a lender, an assignee or a mortgage loan servicer commences legal action against the borrower … including mortgage foreclosure, such lender, assignee or mortgage loan servicer shall give notice to the borrower in at least fourteen-point type.” The section then prints the text that must appear, opening “YOU MAY BE AT RISK OF FORECLOSURE,” and requires a list of government-approved housing counseling agencies in the borrower's area to be attached. The type size is part of the requirement, not decoration, and courts have treated compliance with § 1304 as a condition precedent to the action. This notice is separate from RPAPL § 1303, which requires a colored notice to tenants and to the homeowner served with the foreclosure papers themselves.

Tax Law § 253 imposes New York's basic mortgage recording tax at a rate of:

• a.fifty cents for each $100 of principal debt secured by the mortgage✓
• b.two dollars for each $500 of principal debt secured by the mortgage
• c.one percent of the principal debt secured by the mortgage over $1M
• d.ten cents for each $1,000 of principal debt secured by the mortgage

Subdivision 1 imposes “a tax of fifty cents for each one hundred dollars and each remaining major fraction thereof of principal debt or obligation which is, or under any contingency may be secured … by a mortgage on real property situated within the state.” That is the basic rate; subdivision 1-a adds a special additional tax of twenty-five cents per $100, from which mortgages held by a natural person or a credit union on premises of six residential dwelling units or fewer are excepted, and localities layer further amounts on top. Do not confuse the rate with the real estate transfer tax, which Tax Law § 1402 sets at two dollars for each $500 of consideration and which is charged on the conveyance rather than on the loan. The one percent figure belongs to the additional tax on residential conveyances of $1,000,000 or more.

A New York buyer purchases at $480,000 and borrows $384,000. The loan-to-value ratio is:

• a.75 percent, so the buyer's down payment is $120,000
• b.80 percent, so the buyer's down payment is $96,000✓
• c.85 percent, so the buyer's down payment is $72,000
• d.90 percent, so the buyer's down payment is $48,000

Loan-to-value is the loan divided by the lesser of price or appraised value, so $384,000 divided by $480,000 is 0.80, or 80 percent, and the balance of $96,000 is the buyer's own money. The ratio matters to a broker for a practical reason rather than an arithmetical one: conventional loans above 80 percent generally carry private mortgage insurance, so the difference between 80 and 85 percent changes the buyer's monthly payment and therefore the price the buyer can reach. Each wrong option is the arithmetic of a different loan amount — 75 percent would be $360,000, 85 percent $408,000 and 90 percent $432,000 — and none of them matches the $384,000 in the question.

In the secondary mortgage market, the Federal National Mortgage Association created in 1938:

• a.sets the interest rate that primary lenders may charge on home loans
• b.originates loans directly to borrowers through its own branch network
• c.buys loans from primary lenders, moving money to where it is needed✓
• d.insures loans against borrower default in place of private mortgage insurers

The Department's broker syllabus asks brokers to explain how the secondary market “is the conduit to bring investor monies from locations of excess to areas of need in the Primary Market,” and it dates the creation of the Federal National Mortgage Association to 1938, out of the financial and political climate of the 1930s. Buying closed loans replenishes a lender's capital so the lender can lend again, which is the whole mechanism. It does not lend to consumers itself, so it has no retail branch network. Insuring loans against default is the Federal Housing Administration's role, and guaranteeing them is the Department of Veterans Affairs' role. No secondary market institution fixes the rate a primary lender charges; the syllabus instead asks brokers to explain how deficit spending, foreign demand for Treasuries, employment and Federal Reserve action move the cost of money.

A New York borrower's mortgage balance is $250,000 at 6 percent annual interest. The interest portion of the next monthly payment is:

• a.$1,500, and any excess payment reduces principal
• b.$1,000, and any excess payment reduces principal
• c.$2,500, and any excess payment reduces principal
• d.$1,250, and any excess payment reduces principal✓

Interest on a fully amortizing loan accrues on the outstanding balance, so one month's interest is $250,000 times 6 percent divided by twelve, which is $1,250. Everything the borrower pays above that figure retires principal, which is why the interest share of each payment falls a little every month while the payment itself stays level. The common errors are visible in the wrong options: $1,500 uses a 7.2 percent rate, $1,000 uses 4.8 percent, and $2,500 is a full year's interest at 12 percent or two months at 6. Working the first month by hand is the fastest way to check a lender's quoted payment for plausibility.

An investment property has potential gross income of $200,000, vacancy and collection loss of $10,000, other income of $5,000 and operating expenses of $70,000. Net operating income is:

• a.$125,000, before annual debt service is deducted✓
• b.$120,000, before annual debt service is deducted
• c.$130,000, before annual debt service is deducted
• d.$135,000, before annual debt service is deducted

The reconstructed operating statement the broker syllabus asks for runs in a fixed order: potential gross income, less vacancy and collection loss, plus other income, gives effective gross income; effective gross income less operating expenses gives net operating income. Here $200,000 less $10,000 plus $5,000 is $195,000 of effective gross income, and $195,000 less $70,000 is $125,000. The line that follows is the one that separates the property from the deal: net operating income less annual debt service is before-tax cash flow, so financing never enters the net operating income figure. Reserves, fixed and variable expenses all sit above the line; mortgage payments, depreciation and income tax sit below it.

A Buffalo apartment building produces $96,000 of net operating income and sells for $1,200,000. The overall capitalization rate is:

• a.8 percent, since the rate is income divided by value✓
• b.12 percent, since the rate is income divided by value
• c.6 percent, since the rate is income divided by value
• d.10 percent, since the rate is income divided by value

The income capitalization relationship is value equals net operating income divided by rate, so the rate is net operating income divided by value: $96,000 divided by $1,200,000 is 0.08, or 8 percent. Rearranged the other way, a buyer who demands a 10 percent return on the same income would pay $960,000, and one satisfied with 6 percent would pay $1,600,000 — which is why a small change in the rate moves value so much on income property. The broker syllabus asks for both the overall rate and a built-up rate, and it ties the rate to risk: the worse the property's condition and the shakier its tenancy, the higher the rate a buyer demands and the lower the value that follows.

A two-family house in Queens sells for $840,000 and produces $70,000 of gross annual income. Its gross income multiplier is:

• a.10, because price is divided by annual gross income
• b.14, because price is divided by annual gross income
• c.8, because price is divided by annual gross income
• d.12, because price is divided by annual gross income✓

The gross income multiplier is sale price divided by gross annual income, so $840,000 divided by $70,000 is 12. Multipliers are a screening tool rather than a valuation: they use gross income, so they ignore differences in vacancy and in operating expenses between two buildings, and a property with high expenses will look identical to a lean one at the same multiplier. The broker syllabus lists four variants — potential gross income, effective gross income, net operating income and gross rent multipliers — and expects a broker to know which income figure each one uses. Where the rent figure is monthly rather than annual, a gross rent multiplier of 12 means something entirely different, so check the period before applying anyone's rule of thumb.

A New York investment property produces $150,000 of net operating income against $120,000 of annual debt service. The debt coverage ratio is:

• a.0.80, computed from income and annual debt service
• b.2.00, computed from income and annual debt service
• c.1.25, computed from income and annual debt service✓
• d.1.50, computed from income and annual debt service

Debt coverage is net operating income divided by annual debt service, so $150,000 divided by $120,000 is 1.25. Lenders read the figure as the cushion between what the property earns and what the loan costs, and commercial underwriting commonly asks for something in the region of 1.20 to 1.25 before it will fund. Inverting the division gives 0.80, which is the classic error and would describe a property whose income does not cover its payment at all. Getting 1.50 would need debt service of $100,000, and 2.00 would need $75,000. The broker syllabus lists the ratio alongside the equity dividend, loan-to-value, operating expense and cash break-even ratios as the set used to judge an investment property's financial health.

For federal income tax purposes, an investor in a New York apartment building recovers the building's cost:

• a.over 15 years, straight line, including the value of the land
• b.over 39 years, straight line, with no deduction for the land
• c.over 27.5 years, straight line, with no deduction for the land✓
• d.over 27.5 years, straight line, including the value of the land

The broker syllabus states the two recovery periods together — “Yearly depreciation allowances (27.5 /39yrs); straight-line” — and pairs them with land and building allocation ratios. Residential rental property uses 27.5 years and nonresidential real property uses 39, so an apartment building takes 27.5 and an office or retail building takes 39. Land is never depreciable, because it is not consumed, which is why the allocation between land and improvements has to be made before any deduction is computed. The depreciable basis, sometimes called book value, then feeds the taxable income formula the syllabus sets out: net operating income plus reserves, less loan interest, less depreciation, less amortized loan costs.

In a triple net commercial lease, the tenant pays base rent plus:

• a.a share of the landlord's income taxes and mortgage interest
• b.real estate taxes, building insurance and maintenance costs✓
• c.utilities only, with the landlord covering taxes and insurance
• d.real estate taxes only, with the landlord covering the rest

The three nets are real estate taxes, building insurance and maintenance, and the broker syllabus devotes two of the four hours of its Conveyance of Real Property chapter to commercial leasing terms including triple net, full-service gross, modified gross, sublease clauses, exclusive rights and rent escalation. Under a full-service gross lease the landlord pays those expenses out of the rent; a modified gross lease splits them, usually by fixing a base year and passing through increases. A tenant's share of a landlord's income taxes and mortgage interest is not passed through in any of these structures — those are the landlord's costs of ownership and financing, not the building's operating expenses. Knowing which structure is on the table is what makes two quoted rents comparable.

A Manhattan office tenant's rentable area exceeds its usable area because rentable area includes:

• a.a share of the building's common areas, expressed as a loss factor✓
• b.the square footage of the tenant's private storage space in the basement
• c.the area of the parking spaces the lease assigns to that tenant
• d.the square footage the tenant plans to sublet in a later year

Usable area is what the tenant can occupy and furnish; rentable area adds the tenant's proportionate share of lobbies, corridors, lavatories and mechanical space, and the gap between the two is quoted as a loss factor. Rent is charged on the rentable figure, so a suite with 10,000 usable feet and a 25 percent loss factor is billed on roughly 13,300 feet, and two buildings quoting the same rent per square foot can cost very different amounts for the same working space. The broker syllabus lists “Rentable vs. usable SF” among the rent types and lease clauses a broker must be able to explain. Storage, parking and any future sublease are separately negotiated and do not define the measurement.

A New York broker manages a rental building and holds tenants' security deposits. 19 NYCRR § 175.3(b) requires the broker to:

• a.deposit the money in the brokerage's own operating account monthly
• b.remit the money to the Department of State within three business days
• c.handle the money in compliance with General Obligations Law § 7-103✓
• d.pay the money to the owner and take a receipt for each tenant's deposit

The rule reaches a broker “having on deposit or otherwise in custody or control any money furnished as security by a tenant of real property” and requires that the money, including any required interest, be treated, handled and disposed of in compliance with General Obligations Law § 7-103; failure, “including failure to pay, apply or credit any required interest, shall constitute grounds for disciplinary or other appropriate action by the Secretary of State.” Section 7-103(1) makes the deposit the tenant's money, held in trust and not to be mingled with the holder's own funds. Section 7-103(2-a) requires an interest-bearing account for buildings of six or more family dwelling units, and § 7-103(2) lets the holder keep one percent a year as administration expenses, the balance of the interest belonging to the tenant. Handing the money to the owner does not discharge the broker's own obligation while the broker has custody of it.

When managing property for a client, 19 NYCRR § 175.3(a) forbids a New York broker from:

• a.taking a commission or rebate on client expenditures without consent✓
• b.collecting rent for a building the broker does not also have listed
• c.hiring a contractor the client has not personally interviewed first
• d.signing a lease on the client's behalf without a written power of attorney

The operative sentence is short: “When acting as an agent in the management of property a real estate broker shall not accept any commission, rebate or profit on expenditures made for his client without his full knowledge and consent.” The vice is the undisclosed benefit, not the spending itself, so a management fee or a supplier discount is permissible once the owner knows about it and agrees. The wrong options describe ordinary management activity that the rule does not touch: engaging trades is what a manager does, leasing authority comes from the management agreement, and collecting rent for others is licensed activity in its own right under § 440(1). The same disclosure principle runs through §§ 175.4, 175.5 and 175.6, which require a broker to disclose an interest before buying property listed with the broker, before buying for a client property in which the broker has an interest, and before selling property the broker owns.

A purchaser of a New York cooperative apartment acquires:

• a.a recurring right to occupy the apartment for a fixed period each year
• b.shares in the corporation and a proprietary lease for one apartment✓
• c.fee title to the apartment and a share of the common elements
• d.a life estate in the apartment and a seat on the board of directors

A cooperative corporation owns the building, and a purchaser buys shares allocated to a particular unit together with a proprietary lease giving the right to occupy it. The interest is therefore personal property rather than real property, which is why a co-op transfer is a stock and lease assignment rather than a deed, why the buyer's loan is a share loan secured under the Uniform Commercial Code rather than a mortgage, and why financing, board review and closing all work differently. Fee title to the unit plus an interest in the common elements describes a condominium. A life estate measured by a life and a board seat is not how shares work. A recurring right to occupy for a fixed period each year describes a time share.

A New York cooperative board reviewing a purchase application may:

• a.approve every applicant who satisfies the building's financial tests
• b.decline the applicant for any reason at all, including a protected basis
• c.decline the applicant without a reason, but not on a protected basis✓
• d.decline the applicant only after a written hearing on the application

Board approval is real discretion, and a board is generally not obliged to explain a rejection, which is why an experienced broker treats board review as a genuine contingency rather than a formality. The discretion is not unlimited. Executive Law § 296(5) reaches “any person having the right to sell” a housing accommodation and the agents of such a person, so a rejection resting on race, creed, color, national origin, citizenship or immigration status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, military status, sex, age, disability, marital status, status as a victim of domestic violence, lawful source of income or familial status is unlawful whether or not a reason is stated. There is no statutory right to a hearing, and no rule that forces approval of anyone who clears the building's financial tests.

Real Property Law § 339-z gives a New York condominium board a lien for unpaid common charges that ranks ahead of everything except:

• a.tax liens and sums unpaid on any mortgage of record
• b.mechanic's liens and sums unpaid on a home equity credit line
• c.tax liens and sums unpaid on a first mortgage of record✓
• d.judgment liens and sums unpaid on a recorded second mortgage

The section gives the board of managers, on behalf of the unit owners, “a lien on each unit for the unpaid common charges thereof, together with interest thereon, prior to all other liens except only (i) liens for taxes on the unit in favor of any assessing unit, school district, special district, county or other taxing unit, (ii) all sums unpaid on a first mortgage of record,” and (iii) sums unpaid on certain subordinate mortgages held by named public agencies. So a second mortgage, a judgment and a mechanic's lien all rank behind the common charge lien, and only the first mortgage among ordinary private lenders outranks it. The same section says unpaid common charges are paid out of the sale proceeds or by the grantee on a conveyance, and entitles either party to a statement of the arrears from the board before closing.

A New York house sells for $450,000. The state real estate transfer tax under Tax Law § 1402 is:

• a.$1,800, at two dollars for each $500 of consideration✓
• b.$2,250, at two dollars for each $400 of consideration
• c.$900, at one dollar for each $500 of consideration
• d.$4,500, at one percent of the total consideration

Section 1402(a) imposes the tax on each conveyance where the consideration exceeds $500 “at the rate of two dollars for each five hundred dollars or fractional part thereof.” Dividing $450,000 by $500 gives 900 units, and 900 times $2 is $1,800. The statute adds a rule that matters on modest houses: for a one, two or three-family house or an individual residential condominium unit, and for conveyances under $500,000, the consideration excludes the value of any lien or encumbrance remaining at the time of conveyance, so an assumed mortgage does not inflate the base. Tax Law § 1404 makes the tax the grantor's to pay unless the grantor is exempt or fails to pay, in which case it falls on the grantee. Localities, and New York City in particular, impose their own transfer taxes on top of this one.

Tax Law § 1402-a adds a tax on a New York residential conveyance of $1,000,000 or more. That tax is:

• a.half a percent of the consideration, and the grantor pays it
• b.two percent of the consideration, and the grantee pays it
• c.one percent of the consideration, and the grantor pays it
• d.one percent of the consideration, and the grantee pays it✓

The section imposes the additional tax on a conveyance of residential real property “when the consideration for the entire conveyance is one million dollars or more,” at “one percent of the consideration or part thereof attributable to the residential real property.” Subdivision (b) departs from the usual rule: notwithstanding Tax Law § 1404(a), “the additional tax imposed by this section shall be paid by the grantee,” and where the grantee fails to pay or is exempt the duty falls on the grantor, with both jointly and severally liable. Residential real property for this purpose includes a one, two or three-family house, an individual condominium unit and a cooperative apartment unit. The threshold is a cliff rather than a bracket, so the whole consideration is taxed once the sale reaches $1,000,000, which is why contracts near the line are negotiated so carefully.

A New York town's state equalization rate is 50 percent and a house is assessed at $180,000. Its indicated full value is:

• a.$360,000, since the rate is the percentage of full value assessed✓
• b.$90,000, since the rate is the percentage of full value assessed
• c.$270,000, since the rate is the percentage of full value assessed
• d.$180,000, since the rate is the percentage of full value assessed

Real Property Tax Law § 1202 has the commissioner ascertain, for each city, town and village, “the percentage of full value at which taxable real property … is assessed,” and that percentage is the state equalization rate. Full value is therefore assessed value divided by the rate: $180,000 divided by 0.50 is $360,000. Multiplying instead of dividing produces $90,000, which is the error the wrong options are built around. The rate exists because New York lets each assessing unit choose its own level of assessment, so without it a county or school district that spans several towns could not apportion a levy fairly, and a taxpayer could not tell whether an assessment is high or low relative to the market.

Real Property Tax Law § 305(2) requires that all real property in a New York assessing unit be assessed at:

• a.full market value in every assessing unit without exception
• b.a percentage set separately for each parcel by the local assessor
• c.the price paid at the most recent arm's length sale of the parcel
• d.a uniform percentage of value, which may be less than full value✓

The operative sentence is that “all real property in each assessing unit shall be assessed at a uniform percentage of value (fractional assessment),” with an exception for a city of one million or more whose administrative code permitted a classified assessment standard before January 1, 1981. Uniformity is the requirement; full value is not. That is precisely why the state equalization rate exists, and why a parcel's assessment tells you nothing about its market value until you know the level of assessment in that town. Assessing a single parcel at its own recent sale price while neighbors stay at an older level is the practice — sometimes called sales chasing — that the uniform percentage rule forbids.

Real Property Tax Law § 425 provides two variations of the STAR school tax exemption. The enhanced version is for:

• a.veterans who served during a period of declared war
• b.owners of newly built homes in their first three years
• c.senior citizens meeting the income and age conditions✓
• d.owners whose school district raised its levy that year

Subdivision 2(a) sets out both forms: a basic STAR exemption for property owned by persons who satisfy subdivision 3, and an enhanced STAR exemption “for property owned by senior citizens who satisfy the criteria set forth in both subdivisions three and four of this section.” Subdivision 4 is where the age and income conditions live, so enhanced STAR is the senior version and carries a larger exempt amount. The wartime veterans exemption is a different statute, § 458-a, and neither new construction nor a levy increase creates an exemption. A broker should also know that STAR now reaches many owners as a credit against state income tax rather than as a reduction on the school bill, so a buyer cannot assume a seller's exemption simply carries over.

A New York brokerage wants coverage against a claim that one of its licensees gave negligent professional advice. That coverage is:

• a.errors and omissions, or professional liability✓
• b.workers' compensation, which covers employee injuries
• c.premises liability, which covers injuries at the office
• d.a commercial crime bond, also called a fidelity policy

The Department's broker syllabus lists the coverages a brokerage should carry and names them separately: “liability, worker's compensation, professional liability (Errors and Omissions), Premises liability, commercial crime bond, (fidelity policy) for property management brokerages.” Errors and omissions responds to claims arising from professional services — a missed disclosure, a misdescribed property, bad advice — which is the exposure the question describes. A fidelity policy or crime bond responds to dishonesty by staff, which matters most where a brokerage handles other people's money. Premises liability responds to bodily injury on the brokerage's own premises, and workers' compensation to employee injury. The same chapter pairs insurance with agent safety, asking brokers to write guidelines covering threat identification, safety tactics and cyber security.

The Department of Environmental Conservation's freshwater wetlands jurisdiction under ECL § 24-0107 currently reaches wetlands of:

• a.7.4 acres, or smaller if the wetland is next to a public road
• b.5.0 acres, or smaller if the wetland drains into a public water supply
• c.12.4 acres, or smaller if the wetland is of unusual importance✓
• d.1.0 acre, or smaller if the wetland lies within a village boundary

The definition in force today covers lands and waters that are not tidal wetlands and “that have an area of at least twelve and four-tenths acres or, if less than twelve and four-tenths acres in size, are of unusual importance.” This is a figure to check rather than memorize: the same section carries a second version of the definition, noted as effective January 1, 2028, that lowers the threshold to seven and four-tenths acres. Material quoting either number without a date is unreliable, and a buyer of raw land should be told which version governs when the application is made. The unusual importance clause matters as much as the acreage, because it lets the Department reach a small wetland on its ecological merits.

General Business Law § 777-a implies a housing merchant warranty in the sale of a new New York home. Its longest period is:

• a.six years for material defects in the home itself✓
• b.two years for material defects in the home itself
• c.one year for material defects in the home itself
• d.ten years for material defects in the home itself

The warranty has three tiers, and the statute states each one: one year from the warranty date that the home will be free from defects due to a failure to have been constructed in a skillful manner; two years that the plumbing, electrical, heating, cooling and ventilation systems will be free from defects due to a failure to install them skillfully; and six years that the home “will be free from material defects.” The warranty is implied in the contract for the sale of a new home and survives the passing of title. Subdivision 2 limits it, excluding defects that are not defective workmanship, materials or design attributable to the builder, and excluding a patent defect the buyer's own examination ought to have revealed before taking title.

A Rochester subdivision has 60 unsold lots and the market absorbs 5 lots a month. The absorption period is:

• a.24 months, found by dividing inventory by monthly sales
• b.6 months, found by dividing inventory by monthly sales
• c.12 months, found by dividing inventory by monthly sales✓
• d.5 months, found by dividing inventory by monthly sales

Absorption is unsold inventory divided by the rate at which the market takes it up, so 60 lots divided by 5 lots a month is 12 months of supply. The broker syllabus asks a broker to explain “the formula for calculating absorption rates” and how to gather and interpret market data to draw meaningful conclusions from it, because the number drives a development's carrying costs: a project financed on an eight-month projection that in fact absorbs over twelve months pays four more months of interest and taxes. The same measure, applied to an existing housing market, is the months-of-inventory figure that distinguishes a seller's market from a buyer's market.

The federal lead-based paint disclosure rule applies to a New York home built:

• a.before 1990, and gives the buyer a ten-day inspection opportunity
• b.before 1978, and gives the buyer a ten-day inspection opportunity✓
• c.before 1978, and gives the buyer a thirty-day right to cancel
• d.before 1950, and gives the buyer a five-day inspection opportunity

Title 42 of the United States Code, § 4852d, requires that before the purchaser is obligated under a contract the seller provide the EPA lead hazard information pamphlet, disclose any known lead-based paint or hazards and hand over any available evaluation report, and “permit the purchaser a 10-day period (unless the parties mutually agree upon a different period of time) to conduct a risk assessment or inspection.” The lead warning statement the statute prints refers to residential property “on which a residential dwelling was built prior to 1978,” which is what fixes the date. The ten days buy an inspection window, not a free right to cancel, and the parties may agree to a different period. New York layers its own disclosures on top, and the broker syllabus lists lead paint alongside agricultural districts, truth in heating and bedbug disclosure.

Town Law § 267-b requires an applicant for a use variance in New York to prove unnecessary hardship by showing, for every use the district permits, that:

• a.the parcel has been vacant for at least five consecutive tax years
• b.the proposed use is more profitable than any use the district allows
• c.the neighbors within 500 feet have consented in writing to the change
• d.no reasonable return, a unique hardship, none of it self-created✓

Subdivision 2(b) sets four elements the applicant must demonstrate for each and every permitted use: that the applicant cannot realize a reasonable return, “provided that lack of return is substantial as demonstrated by competent financial evidence”; that the hardship is unique and does not apply to a substantial portion of the district or neighborhood; that the variance will not alter the essential character of the neighborhood; and that the hardship has not been self-created. Subdivision 2(c) then requires the board to grant only the minimum variance necessary. Greater profitability is not hardship, neighbor consent is not a legal test, and vacancy is not a substitute for financial proof. The parallel provisions for cities and villages are General City Law § 81-b and Village Law § 7-712-b.

In deciding an area variance, Town Law § 267-b(3) directs a New York zoning board of appeals to:

• a.weigh the benefit to the applicant against the detriment to the community✓
• b.apply the same unnecessary hardship test used for a use variance
• c.refer the application to the town planning board for a binding decision
• d.deny the application whenever any nearby neighbor files a written objection

The board “shall take into consideration the benefit to the applicant if the variance is granted, as weighed against the detriment to the health, safety and welfare of the neighborhood or community by such grant.” It is a balancing test, not the unnecessary hardship test, and that difference is the single most useful thing a broker can know about New York zoning relief: an area variance for a setback or a lot width is a far lower bar than a use variance. The statute lists the factors to weigh, including whether an undesirable change in neighborhood character will result and whether the benefit can be achieved by another method. Objections are evidence the board considers, not a veto, and a zoning board of appeals decides the application itself rather than handing it to the planning board.

A New York cease-and-desist zone adopted under Real Property Law § 442-h may remain in effect for no longer than:

• a.one year, though the Secretary of State may re-adopt the rule
• b.three years, though the Secretary of State may re-adopt the rule
• c.ten years, though the Secretary of State may re-adopt the rule
• d.five years, though the Secretary of State may re-adopt the rule✓

Subdivision 3(c) provides that “no rule establishing a cease and desist zone shall be effective for longer than five years,” while allowing re-adoption for further periods of up to five years each, and the same five-year ceiling applies to a nonsolicitation order under subdivision 2(a). Inside a zone, an owner files an owner's statement with the Secretary of State and no licensee may then solicit a listing from an owner whose name appears on the current list. The list is revised and reprinted at least annually on or before December 31, and 19 NYCRR § 175.17(a)(3)(vii) makes clear it is not untrustworthiness to solicit an owner who has filed but whose name is not yet on the current printed list. Section 442-h(2)(b) adds that a broker may not open a new office inside a nonsolicitation area without the Secretary's prior approval.

A New York City apartment is subject to rent stabilization. That means:

• a.the tenant owns the apartment and pays a monthly maintenance charge
• b.rent increases and renewal terms are set by law, not by the owner✓
• c.the apartment may not be offered for rent to a new tenant at all
• d.the owner may reset the rent to market on each renewal of the lease

Rent stabilization limits what an owner may charge and protects the tenant's right to renew, with permitted increases fixed by the local rent guidelines board rather than negotiated. A stabilized tenant remains a tenant holding a lease, so the ownership answer describes a cooperative or condominium instead. Free market resetting on renewal is exactly what stabilization prevents, and the units are plainly rentable — regulation controls the terms, not the availability. Two warnings for a broker. Misstating a unit's regulatory status is a representation about the property and can create liability. And New York's rent laws have been amended repeatedly since 2019, so verify a unit's status and its permitted increase against current sources rather than against a textbook.

In a comparative market analysis of a Syracuse house, the licensee adjusts:

• a.neither, since only the listing price of each comparable matters
• b.the comparable sales, never the subject property being priced✓
• c.the subject property, never the comparable sales being used
• d.both the subject and the comparables by the same percentage

The subject is the unknown; the comparables are the evidence. So when a comparable has something the subject lacks, its price is adjusted downward, and when it lacks something the subject has, its price is adjusted upward — the mnemonic is that the comparable is made to look like the subject. Adjusting the subject would move the very figure the analysis is trying to find. A uniform percentage applied to both changes nothing about their relationship, and using asking prices rather than closed sales measures what sellers hoped for rather than what buyers paid. The broker syllabus asks for the methodology of the sales comparison approach “and its relationship to the comparative market analysis,” together with paired-sales analysis to isolate what a single feature is worth in that market.

In transaction analysis, a New York broker separates a party's wants from that party's needs because needs are:

• a.the essential ingredients of a transactional agreement✓
• b.the concessions a seller lists in the offering materials
• c.the untempered desires the party brings to the table
• d.the terms the other party's broker is willing to concede

The broker syllabus draws the distinction in its own words: wants “are the un-tempered desires of a transaction party,” while needs “are the essential ingredients of a transactional agreement.” The practical consequence follows immediately in the same passage — one party's untempered wants must be asserted only in consideration of the realistic prospects of the other party's acceptance, and awareness of potentially adverse objectives has to be molded into an understanding of the other party's needs. Once that is done, the syllabus says, both parties have formed a mutual interest that should culminate in an agreement. Reading a want as a need is what produces an offer that cannot be accepted; reading a need as a want is what produces a deal that collapses before closing.

In transaction analysis, the New York broker's primary objective is to:

• a.keep both parties talking until one of them finally accepts the other's terms
• b.reach an agreement without sacrificing the client's interests to get one✓
• c.obtain the highest price the market will bear whatever the timing
• d.reach an agreement on whatever terms will close the transaction fastest

The syllabus states the dual objectives together: the overall objective is “to reach a transactional agreement on fair terms within a reasonable period of time,” the broker “must always represent the best interests of the client,” and “the primary objective of the broker must be to reach a transactional agreement without sacrificing the interests of the client simply to achieve an agreement.” That last clause is the one that governs, and it is what separates transaction analysis from selling: closing speed is not the measure, and neither is price alone, because timing, occupancy, contingencies, financing and inspection outcomes are all part of the terms. Attrition is not a method either; the syllabus asks for discussion, listening and an agreement attitude aimed at a bilaterally beneficial result.

A user-friendly confidentiality agreement matters in transaction analysis because it:

• a.opens the way for the other duties, especially loyalty and care✓
• b.replaces the statutory agency disclosure form for that transaction
• c.shifts the duty of disclosure from the broker to the client's attorney
• d.lets the broker share one party's negotiating position with the other

The syllabus opens its chapter on achieving agreements with the point that the inclusion of the fiduciary duty of confidentiality “opens the way for the necessary incorporation of the other agency duties, especially reasonable care, and loyalty,” and asks the broker to explain what must be in the agreement to make it user-friendly. The reason is behavioral: a client who is confident that a disclosure will not be handed to the other side will say what the broker needs to hear to structure the deal. Nothing about it moves the broker's disclosure obligations onto an attorney, and nothing replaces the agency disclosure form required by Real Property Law § 443. Sharing one party's negotiating position with the other is the opposite of confidentiality, and it is the specific harm a dual agent is warned against on the statutory form.