Ohio Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

After an Ohio transaction closes and the agency agreement has ended, the licensee still owes the former client:

• a.The full fiduciary duties, until the statute of limitations has run
• b.An accounting of money and property, and continued confidentiality✓
• c.Nothing at all, once the transaction file has been closed
• d.A duty to keep marketing the property until the client says otherwise

ORC 4735.74 provides that "unless otherwise agreed in writing, a licensee owes no further duty to a client after performance of all duties or after any contract has terminated or expired," with two exceptions: "(A) Providing the client with an accounting of all moneys and property relating to the transaction" and "(B) Keeping confidential all information received during the course of the transaction," subject to the listed exceptions. The full fiduciary package in ORC 4735.62 does not survive on a limitations clock, because the section ends those duties on performance or termination. Nor does everything end: two duties expressly outlive the agreement, and confidentiality is the one candidates most often forget. And marketing stops with the agreement, which is exactly why ORC 4735.55(C)(1) requires an expiration date and ORC 4735.18(A)(28) disciplines a broker who leaves one out.

A former client tells an Ohio licensee about a crime the client intends to commit. What may the licensee do?

• a.Nothing; the information must be kept confidential without exception
• b.Disclose it, because an intended crime is a listed exception✓
• c.Disclose it, but only after receiving a court order
• d.Disclose it, but only with the client's written permission

ORC 4735.74(B) keeps information received during the transaction confidential after the relationship ends, but lists six exceptions, of which division (B)(4) is "the information is necessary to prevent a crime the client intends to commit." So confidentiality is not absolute. Client permission is another of the exceptions, in division (B)(1), but it is one route among six rather than the only one. A court order or a requirement of law is a third, in division (B)(2); the remaining three cover information that becomes public from another source, disclosure needed to defend the brokerage against an accusation or to establish a commission claim, and sales information supplied to a licensed appraiser. Reading any single exception as exclusive misses the structure of the subsection, which is a list.

An Ohio licensee wants to buy a property personally. Ohio license law prohibits the licensee from:

• a.Buying property that the licensee's own brokerage has listed for sale
• b.Earning any commission at all on the licensee's own purchase
• c.Being represented in the purchase by a different brokerage
• d.Acting as a licensee and an undisclosed principal in the same transaction✓

ORC 4735.18(A)(15) reaches a licensee "having acted in the dual capacity of real estate broker and undisclosed principal, or real estate salesperson and undisclosed principal, in any transaction." The defect is the concealment, not the purchase: what the chapter demands is that the licensee's interest be on the table. ORC 4735.16(B)(2) carries the same idea into advertising, requiring a licensee who advertises property the licensee owns to "indicate that the property is agent owned." Buying an in-house listing is therefore not forbidden as such, though ORC 4735.71(C) does bar the licensee who is a party to the transaction from taking part in a dual agency relationship in it. A commission is not automatically forbidden either; it must be disclosed, which is what ORC 4735.18(A)(13) means in prohibiting "any undisclosed commission, rebate, or direct profit." And being represented by another brokerage is not a violation at all — it is one clean way to keep the roles apart.

A purchaser asks an Ohio licensee to draft a custom contingency clause for the offer. The licensee:

• a.May not perform a service that constitutes the practice of law✓
• b.May draft it, because a real estate license authorizes contract drafting
• c.May draft it if the brokerage's attorney reviews it afterwards
• d.May draft it as long as no separate fee is charged for the drafting

ORC 4735.02(A) closes with the sentence "nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed as authorizing a real estate broker or salesperson to perform any service constituting the practice of law," and ORC 4735.18(A)(32) makes "performing any service for another constituting the practice of law, as determined by any court of law" a ground for discipline. The license therefore confers no drafting authority; ORC 4735.63(C) and ORC 4735.65(D) repeat the limit at the end of both the seller-duty and purchaser-duty sections. Later review by the brokerage's attorney does not cure it, because the violation is in the act of performing the service. Nor does declining a separate fee, since the chapter's prohibition turns on the nature of the service rather than on how it is billed. What the licensee may do is what ORC 4735.62(G) contemplates: advise the client to obtain expert advice on material matters.

An Ohio licensee's advertising claims membership in a professional real estate association the licensee has never joined. This is:

• a.Acceptable, if the licensee applies for membership within thirty days
• b.Acceptable puffery, because association membership is voluntary
• c.A ground for disciplinary sanctions by the Ohio Real Estate Commission✓
• d.A matter for the association alone, outside the Commission's reach

ORC 4735.18(A)(12) lists "having falsely represented membership in any real estate professional association of which the licensee is not a member" among the grounds on which the Commission may impose disciplinary sanctions, so the claim is actionable as license law regardless of what the association itself does. A later application does not repair it, because the violation is complete when the false claim is published. Calling it puffery misreads the provision: membership is indeed voluntary, and that is precisely why a false claim of it misleads consumers about the licensee's standing. And the Commission's reach is not displaced by the association's private remedies; ORC 4735.18(A)(21) separately covers advertising "which was misleading or inaccurate in any material particular," and under ORC 4735.051(I) the sanctions available run from a public reprimand and a fine to suspension or revocation.

Ohio's canons of ethics for the real estate industry are:

• a.Adopted by the National Association of Realtors and enforced by local boards
• b.Written into Revised Code Chapter 4735 by the General Assembly
• c.Optional guidance that no licensing examination in Ohio covers
• d.Adopted and published by the Ohio Real Estate Commission under a statutory duty✓

ORC 4735.03 opens the Commission's list of mandatory duties with division (A): "adopt canons of ethics for the real estate industry." ORC 4735.07(C) confirms both the publication and the examination, providing that a broker applicant shall be examined on "the canons of business ethics pertaining to them" and that "the commission from time to time shall promulgate such canons and cause them to be published in printed form." A national trade association publishes its own code for its own members, but that is a private document binding members rather than Ohio licensees. The General Assembly did not write the canons into the chapter; it delegated their content to the Commission, which is why they are adopted by rule rather than by statute. And they are not optional background reading that goes untested, since the broker examination expressly covers them.