Ohio Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

A legal difference between an Ohio real estate salesperson and a licensed broker is that only a broker may:

• a.Complete thirty hours of continuing education every three years
• b.Hold a license that is active rather than inactive or resigned
• c.Maintain the brokerage trust account and employ salespersons✓
• d.Show residential property to a prospective purchaser

The trust account and the brokerage itself belong to the broker. ORC 4735.18(A)(26) makes it a disciplinary matter for a broker to fail "to maintain at all times a special or trust bank account," ORC 4735.13(B) puts each salesperson's license in the possession of "the licensed broker with whom the salesperson is or is to be associated," and ORC 4735.21 bars a salesperson from collecting money "except in the name of and with the consent of the licensed real estate broker." Continuing education separates nobody: ORC 4735.141(A) imposes thirty hours every three years on "each person licensed under section 4735.07 or 4735.09," which is both tiers. Holding an active rather than inactive or resigned license is simply a status any licensee can be in, defined for both in ORC 4735.01(M) and (Y). And showing residential property to a purchaser is ordinary licensed activity at either tier, which is why the definition of a broker's acts in ORC 4735.01(A) is extended to salespersons by division (C).

Which person must hold an Ohio real estate license?

• a.An attorney at law selling a client's property in the performance of the attorney's duties
• b.A property manager who rents apartments to the public for an owner and is paid a fee✓
• c.An owner selling a building acquired on the owner's own account as an investment
• d.A court-appointed executor selling a decedent's home under the probate court's authority

ORC 4735.01(A)(5) puts within the definition of a real estate broker anyone who, for another and for a fee, "operates, manages, or rents, or offers or attempts to operate, manage, or rent, other than as custodian, caretaker, or janitor, any building or portions of buildings to the public as tenants" — so the paid property manager needs a license. The other three are named exemptions in ORC 4735.01(I)(1). Subdivision (I)(1)(d) exempts a person acting "as an attorney at law in the performance of the attorney's duties." Subdivision (I)(1)(b) exempts a person acting as "executor, administrator, trustee, assignee, commissioner" or similar "under authority or appointment of, or incident to a proceeding in, any court." And subdivision (I)(1)(a) exempts acts done with reference to real estate "owned by such person... or acquired on its own account in the regular course of, or as an incident to the management of the property and the investment in it," which is the owner selling an investment building.

An Ohio licensee misses the renewal filing deadline. What happens to the license?

• a.Revoked immediately, and the licensee must qualify for and sit the licensing examination again
• b.Suspended automatically, with a fifty per cent penalty to reactivate within twelve months✓
• c.Moved to resigned status, from which the licensee may reactivate at any time by paying the renewal fee
• d.Covered by a sixty-day grace period, after which the renewal fee doubles

ORC 4735.14(C) provides that the license of any broker, brokerage, or salesperson that fails to file a notice of renewal by the deadline "shall be suspended automatically without the taking of any action by the superintendent," and that "a suspended license may be reactivated within twelve months of the date of suspension, provided that the renewal fee plus a penalty fee of fifty per cent of the renewal fee is paid." Revocation is real but it is the second step, not the first: the same division makes revocation automatic only if the licensee does not reactivate inside that twelve-month window, and it is that revoked status, defined in ORC 4735.01(Q) as "void and not eligible for reactivation," that sends a person back to the examination. Resigned status is something a licensee chooses under ORC 4735.142, and it is permanent rather than a parking place. And nothing in the section creates a grace period or a doubled fee; the suspension bites on the deadline itself.

An Ohio salesperson enters the armed forces. What does the license law permit?

• a.Keeping the license active with no further renewal or education ever required
• b.Practicing independently, without a broker, while on active duty
• c.Depositing the license with the Ohio Real Estate Commission until discharge✓
• d.Transferring the license to an unlicensed spouse for the duration of the service

ORC 4735.13(G)(1) says that "if a real estate broker or salesperson enters the armed forces, the broker or salesperson may place the broker's or salesperson's license on deposit with the Ohio real estate commission," and that the licensee "shall not be required to renew the license until the renewal date that follows the date of discharge." The same division extends the continuing-education deadline by the length of active duty, and division (G)(2) gives a comparable extension to a licensee whose spouse's service took the licensee out of the state. Service does not loosen the affiliation rule: a salesperson practices only through a broker, which is why ORC 4735.13(B) keeps the license in the broker's possession. Nor does it end the obligations permanently, since the deposit only postpones renewal and education to the cycle after discharge. And a license is personal to the individual who qualified for it; ORC 4735.02(A) bars anyone not licensed from acting, so it cannot be handed to a spouse.

A newly licensed Ohio broker owes post-licensure instruction. How much, and by when?

• a.Ten hours, within twelve months of the date the license was issued✓
• b.Twenty hours, within twelve months of the date the license was issued
• c.Thirty hours, before the first renewal three years after licensure
• d.Ten hours, within thirty days of the first transaction the broker closes

ORC 4735.07(G)(1) requires a broker, "not earlier than the date of issue" but "not later than twelve months after the date of issue," to submit proof of "the completion of ten hours of instruction" in commission-approved schools or seminars; miss it and the broker's license is suspended automatically, and a further twelve months without proof revokes it. Twenty hours is the parallel figure for a salesperson under ORC 4735.09(J), not for a broker. Thirty hours is the continuing-education requirement under ORC 4735.141(A), which runs on the three-year renewal cycle and is a separate obligation from post-licensure instruction. And the deadline is fixed to the date of issue rather than to any transaction, which is what makes the automatic suspension in division (G)(1) self-executing.

What continuing education must an Ohio broker or management level licensee report each cycle?

• a.Thirty hours every year, including a three-hour principal broker course
• b.Nine hours every three years, whatever the licensee's age
• c.Thirty hours every three years, from which brokers and management level licensees are exempt
• d.Thirty hours every three years, including a three-hour principal broker course✓

ORC 4735.141(A) requires proof of "thirty hours of continuing education... on or before the licensee's birthday occurring three years after the licensee's date of initial licensure, and on or before the licensee's birthday every three years thereafter," and adds that "if the person is licensed as a broker or broker on deposit, or acts as a management level licensee, the continuing education shall include a three-hour course on the duties of a principal broker and other issues involved in operating a real estate brokerage." The cycle is three years, not one, which OAC 1301:5-1-22(A) confirms in providing that "all licenses issued shall be renewed on a three year renewal cycle." The nine-hour figure is real but narrow: the same section reduces the requirement to nine hours only for a licensee who is seventy years of age or older within the reporting period. And brokers are the opposite of exempt, since the three-hour principal broker course is required of them on top of the thirty hours everyone owes.