South Dakota Broker Associate Exam — All Questions

A written agency agreement in which a South Dakota broker represents a seller must contain which of the following?

• a.The buyer's lender and the loan program the buyer intends to use
• b.The broker's errors and omissions carrier and policy number
• c.The date of authorization and the expiration date of the agreement✓
• d.The seller's estimated net proceeds at three different sale prices

SDCL 36-21A-130 lists what a seller or lessor agency agreement must contain: "the proper legal description, the price and terms, the date of authorization, the expiration date, the type of agency relationship established, compensation to be paid, authorization to cooperate with or compensate other brokers, and the signatures of all parties." The same paragraph requires the licensee who obtains the agreement to give the person signing a copy. The buyer's financing is not a term of a listing at all, since no buyer exists when the listing is signed. The broker's insurance is a condition of licensure under SDCL 36-21A-119, not a contract term. A seller's net sheet is a customary courtesy, not a statutory element. ARSD 20:69:17:01 adds that the agreement must be on a form substantially the same as the commission's prescribed form.

Which South Dakota agreement may include a provision for automatic renewal at expiration?

• a.A seller's listing agreement that allows written cancellation on agreeable terms
• b.A buyer agency agreement that allows written cancellation on agreeable terms
• c.A property management agreement that allows written cancellation on agreeable terms✓
• d.A limited agency agreement that allows written cancellation on agreeable terms

SDCL 36-21A-130 draws the line explicitly: "An agency agreement between a broker and a buyer, seller, or lessee may not include a provision for automatic renewal of the agreement at expiration. A property management agreement may include a provision for automatic renewal at expiration if it contains a provision for written cancellation on terms agreeable to all parties to the agreement." The three wrong options are all agency agreements with a buyer, a seller or a lessee, so the cancellation language cannot save them; the prohibition is absolute for that class of contract. The reason for the split is practical. A listing is a finite marketing engagement with an end date the client should have to renew deliberately, while property management is an ongoing service where a lapse would leave an owner's building unmanaged.

Which act takes a South Dakota licensee past the informative initial acts of SDCL 36-21A-128 and into substantive contact?

• a.Setting an appointment for a consumer to view a property
• b.Answering a walk-in consumer's question about services offered
• c.Discussing a buyer's specific financial qualifications✓
• d.Accompanying a home inspector on a visit to a listed property

SDCL 36-21A-129 defines substantive contact as "any performance beyond initial acts described in section 36-21A-128" and names two examples: discussion of "Any specific financial qualifications of the buyer" or of "The selling or buying motives or objectives of the seller or buyer, in which the consumer may divulge any confidential personal or financial information." Each of the other three options is on the SDCL 36-21A-128 list of nine informative acts that expressly do not rise to representation, along with answering phone inquiries about price or availability, hosting an open house, referring a person to another broker, and giving a one-time showing of a single property. The distinction is not academic: SDCL 36-21A-147 makes first substantive contact the moment the written relationship disclosure comes due.

Which of the following does SDCL 36-21A-127 expressly exclude from the definition of confidential information?

• a.The lowest price the seller has said the seller would accept
• b.The client's reason for needing to move by a particular date
• c.Information the client gave the licensee in confidence
• d.Material facts about the physical condition of the property✓

SDCL 36-21A-127 defines confidential information as anything given to the licensee in confidence or that the licensee knows a reasonable individual would want kept confidential, then closes with a carve-out: "The term, confidential information, does not include material facts about the physical condition of the property." That sentence is what stops a seller from using confidentiality to bury a defect, and it works with SDCL 36-21A-125, which makes material defects in the property adverse material facts that must be disclosed even to a customer. The seller's reservation price and the client's motives are squarely confidential and are separately protected for limited agents by SDCL 36-21A-141. Information given in confidence is the definition's opening clause. The section also releases confidentiality where the client authorizes disclosure in writing, where the law requires it, or where the information has become public knowledge.

Under SDCL 36-21A-143, what does a South Dakota subagent owe the other broker's client?

• a.Only the duty to present offers and to account for money received
• b.The same obligations the client's own broker owes the client✓
• c.Only the duties a transaction broker owes to a customer
• d.No duties at all, since the subagent's agreement is with the other broker

SDCL 36-21A-143 defines subagency as any situation in which a responsible broker or the licensees associated with that broker act for another broker's client "with written permission of the client," and states the consequence in one sentence: "The subagent owes the same obligations and responsibilities to the client as does the client's broker." Subagency therefore carries the full client duties of SDCL 36-21A-132 or 36-21A-136, not the reduced package a transaction broker owes a customer under SDCL 36-21A-144. The idea that no duty is owed because the paperwork runs through the other brokerage is exactly the error the section forecloses. Note also that subagency does not arise by default in South Dakota; the client's written permission is a condition of it existing at all.

Which duties survive after a South Dakota agency or brokerage agreement has ended?

• a.Accounting for money and property, and continuing to market the property
• b.Accounting for money and property, and keeping information confidential✓
• c.Keeping information confidential, and presenting any offers received later
• d.No duty survives, because the agreement has terminated or been performed

SDCL 36-21A-150 provides that after termination, expiration, completion or performance of the agreement, no broker or associated licensee owes any further duty "except for the following duties: (1) Accounting for all moneys and property related to and received during the engagement; and (2) Keeping confidential all information received during the course of the engagement." The confidentiality duty is why a licensee cannot tell a new buyer what the previous seller would have taken. Marketing and offer presentation are affirmative services tied to a live engagement and stop with it. The blanket answer that nothing survives ignores the two carve-outs. The section opens with "Unless otherwise provided in the agreement or by law," so parties may agree to more, but never to less than the two listed duties.