Licensee Practice
This is the largest area on the Utah broker state portion, worth 33 to 35 of the 90 items. The outline prints eight subtopics, of which two are numbered further: the role of the broker, split into supervision and trust accounts, and agency, split into types of agency and exclusive brokerage agreements.
Standards of Practice and Improper Practice
Rule R162-2f-401a sets the affirmative duties. Subsection (1) lists the fiduciary duties owed to a principal — loyalty, obedience, full disclosure, confidentiality, reasonable care and diligence, holding money and property safe, and any duty the agency agreement adds — and carves two exceptions out of confidentiality for a known material fact about a defect in the property or the client's ability to perform. Subsection (5) requires a licensee acting as a principal to disclose the license in the initial contact, active or inactive, and Subsection (6) puts the disclosure in writing before a binding agreement. Subsection (8) requires the source of any square footage used in marketing a residential property to be disclosed in the listing agreement and to the buyer. Rule R162-2f-401b then lists prohibited conduct, including taking a net listing, using a double contract, paying a finder's fee to an unlicensed person beyond a $250 gift for an unsolicited referral, and altering the Real Estate Purchase Contract to make a counteroffer. Rule R162-2f-401h requires the brokerage name exactly as it appears on division records in every advertisement, and applies the same rule to a team or group. Rule R162-2f-401g limits an unlicensed personal assistant to clerical and logistical work with no negotiating and no solicitation.
The Role of the Broker: Supervision and Trust Accounts
This is the subtopic that separates the broker exam from the sales agent exam. Section 61-2f-206(2) requires the principal broker to register each branch office, Subsection (6) lets the broker designate a branch broker who must exercise active and reasonable supervision of it, and Rule R162-2f-401c(3) defines that supervision as written policies, rules and procedures plus systems to review transactions, documents, recordkeeping, trust funds, and advertising. Rule R162-2f-401c(6) excuses a broker from a failure-to-supervise finding only where all six of its conditions hold, and Section 61-2f-406 makes a violation by an affiliated sales agent or associate broker cause for revocation, suspension, or probation of the principal broker's license or a fine of up to $5,000 per violation. On the money side, Rule R162-2f-401c(1)(h)(i) requires a client's money in a real estate transaction to reach a trust account within three business days. Rule R162-2f-403a makes the real estate trust account non-interest-bearing unless the parties agree in writing and the interest goes to a qualifying Utah affordable-housing charity, caps the broker's own funds in it at $1,000, requires monthly reconciliation against both the bank records and the client records, and on a disputed deposit allows only two routes: interplead the funds, or refer the parties to mediation within 15 days where no suit has been filed and the contract requires mediation.
Forms, Commissions, Affiliation, and Agency
Section 61-2f-306(1) lets a licensee fill out only the legal forms approved by the commission and the attorney general and those provided by statute; Subsection (2)(a) lets a principal broker, or a branch or associate broker the principal broker designates, complete closing documents; and Subsection (2)(c) allows any attorney's form where no approved form covers the transaction. Section 61-2f-305(1) bars a sales agent or associate broker from taking compensation for licensed work from anyone but the affiliated principal broker, with the narrow title-agent instrument exception in Subsection (2). Section 61-2f-302 forbids affiliating with more than one principal broker at a time and lets a client designate which affiliated licensees will also represent it, and Section 61-2f-304(2) stops a terminated licensee from acting at all until affiliated anew. On agency, Rule R162-2f-401a(3) requires informed consent to limited agency in writing, with each party acknowledging a waiver of undivided loyalty, absolute confidentiality, and full disclosure; Subsection (4) leaves the limited agent as a neutral third party owing obedience, reasonable care and diligence, and the safe holding of money; Rule R162-2f-401b(1)(o) forbids limited agency where the licensee or an entity the licensee runs is a principal; and Section 61-2f-308(2)(a) sets out what a principal broker under an exclusive brokerage agreement must do with offers, counteroffers, notices, and contingencies.
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State-specific details
State exam facts
- State regulator
- Utah Division of Real Estate (Dept. of Commerce)
- Exam vendor
- Pearson VUE
- Prelicensing education
- 120 hours (30-hour Utah Law + 45-hour Broker Principles + 45-hour Broker Practices)
- Passing score
- Scaled score of 75 on each portion (not a percentage)
- Scored questions
- 170
- Time limit
- 240 minutes
Who regulates real estate brokers in Utah?
The Utah Division of Real Estate, within the Department of Commerce, licenses brokers, associate brokers and sales agents under the Real Estate Licensing and Practices Act (Utah Code Title 61, Chapter 2f) and the R162-2f rules. The Division contracts with Pearson VUE to deliver the licensing exams.
What experience do I need before the Utah broker exam?
Utah Code § 61-2f-203(1)(f) requires three years' full-time experience as a sales agent or the equivalent. Rule R162-2f-202b(1)(f) defines the equivalent and adds a second test: within the five years before you apply, either three years of full-time licensed active experience, or two years of it plus one year of full-time professional real estate experience from the rule's Appendix 3 table, AND at least 60 documented experience points, submitted in a package of 60 to 80 points, with at least half of the Table 1 and Table 2 points from Utah properties. The education is 120 hours of approved broker prelicensing (45 Broker Principles, 45 Broker Practices, 30 Utah Law).
How is the Utah broker exam structured?
170 scored questions in two separately scored portions: an 80-question national/general portion and a 90-question Utah state portion, taken in one 4-hour session, plus 5 unidentified pretest items on the national portion and 5 to 10 on the state portion. The Utah broker state portion is nearly twice the 50-item salesperson state portion, so salesperson material does not cover it. You must pass both portions; if you pass one and fail the other, Rule R162-2f-202b(5) gives you six months from the passed component to retake and pass the failed one.
What score do I need to pass the Utah broker exam?
A scaled score of 75 on the general portion and 75 on the state portion. The Pearson VUE candidate handbook is explicit that this is a scaled score and that the number reported to you "is neither the number of questions you answered correctly nor the percentage of questions you answered correctly" — so 75 is not 75%. Salesperson candidates are held to 70 on each portion.
What does the Utah broker state portion actually test?
Pearson VUE's Utah broker outline (document #094502, state outline effective July 15, 2016) divides the 90 state items into eight areas, each published as a range: Definitions (5-7), Licensing (15-17), Licensee Practice (33-35), Disciplinary Action (9-11), Real Estate Recovery Fund (2-3), Additional Utah State Topics (8-10), Property Management (4-6) and Closing Statements (6-8). Licensee Practice alone is about a third of the state exam, and its heaviest subtopic is the role of the broker — supervision and trust accounts.
Sources: https://realestate.utah.gov, https://www.pearsonvue.com/content/dam/VUE/vue/en/documents/publications/094502.pdf, https://www.pearsonvue.com/content/dam/VUE/vue/en/documents/publications/094500.pdf, https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title61/Chapter2F/61-2f.html, https://adminrules.utah.gov/public/rule/R162-2f/Current%20Rules
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