Agency Definitions and Relationships
Twelve of the fifty state items — the second-largest area, and the one Virginia rewrote most recently. The 2025 Acts of Assembly chapters 479 and 495 took effect on 1 July 2025 and changed when a brokerage agreement must exist. 18VAC135-20 has not been conformed to those acts, so read Article 3 of Chapter 21 for anything they touched.
The Definitions That Decide Everything Else
Section 54.1-2130 defines the vocabulary. A "client" has entered a brokerage relationship; a "customer" has not but has ministerial acts performed for him, and the statute presumes customer status unless a brokerage relationship is entered. A "standard agent" owes the article's duties; a "limited service agent" owes what the brokerage agreement says, minus named standard-agent duties; an "independent contractor" is a licensee whose written agreement says so. A "dual agent or dual representative" has brokerage relationships with both sides; a "designated agent or representative" is assigned by a principal or supervising broker to one client where the firm represents another. "Showing property" is a 2025 addition: taking a prospect to a property, obtaining access, and taking the individual through it, "including entering a property to provide a live, virtual tour to a prospective buyer or tenant who is not physically present." A pre-recorded video or photo tour is outside it.
Brokerage Agreements: When, Written, and How Long
Subsection B of Section 54.1-2137 now requires a licensee to enter into a brokerage agreement with a prospective client before providing brokerage services, with one carve-out for preparing property-specific materials intended to win the relationship. Subdivision A 1 of Section 54.1-2132 and subdivision A 1 of Section 54.1-2134 require the agreement before showing property to a prospective buyer or tenant; the 2025 acts struck the old exemptions that had let a licensee show first. Subsection G of Section 54.1-2131 and subsection F of Section 54.1-2133 survive, so a licensee showing a seller or landlord client's own property under that client's brokerage agreement needs no agreement with the visitor. Subsection C requires the agreement to be in writing, to have a definite termination date — failing which it terminates 90 days after its date — and to state the fees and how they are paid, the services, other agreed terms, and any dual representation disclosures. Section 54.1-2136 requires the licensee, before the relationship begins, to advise the prospective client of the type of relationship proposed and of the broker's compensation and whether it will be shared.
Standard Agent Duties, and Duties to a Customer
Sections 54.1-2131 through 54.1-2135 set out the duties owed to sellers, buyers, landlords, tenants and property-management clients. The common core is performing under the agreement, promoting the client's interests, maintaining confidentiality of personal and financial information, exercising ordinary care, accounting in a timely manner for money and property, disclosing material facts about the property or transaction actually known, and complying with the article and fair housing law. Confidentiality survives the agreement under subsection D of Section 54.1-2137, along with the duty to account. Toward a customer, subsection B of each section requires honesty and no knowingly false information, and requires a seller's or landlord's licensee to disclose in writing all material adverse facts about the physical condition of the property actually known — defined to exclude matters beyond the boundaries, land use regulation and highways — with defective drywall named expressly.
Disclosure, Limited Service, Dual and Designated Representation
Subsection A of Section 54.1-2138 requires a licensee having a substantive discussion about a specific property with an unrepresented buyer or seller to disclose any brokerage relationship with another party, in writing, at the earliest practical time and never later than when specific real estate assistance is first provided; subsection D keeps copies for three years. Section 54.1-2138.1 permits limited service agency only under a written agreement listing the services the licensee will provide and the standard-agent duties the licensee will not. Section 54.1-2138.2 requires written disclosure where the licensee, the licensee's family, firm or an entity the licensee owns is a party to the transaction. Section 54.1-2139 permits dual agency only on the written consent of all parties after written disclosure of the consequences, given before it begins, and never inside the purchase agreement or lease. Section 54.1-2139.1 allows designated representatives, who are not dual agents, but makes the supervising broker a dual agent or representative.
Compensation, Liability and the Abrogated Common Law
Section 54.1-2140 states flatly that payment or the promise of compensation creates no brokerage relationship, and Section 54.1-2141 says using a common source information company creates none either. Inside the firm, subdivision A 2 of 18VAC135-20-280 lets a salesperson or associate broker accept compensation for licensed activity only from the licensee's own principal or supervising broker, absent that broker's prior written consent. Section 54.1-2142 keeps a client from being liable for a licensee's misrepresentation unless the client knew or should have known and failed to correct it, and provides that knowledge is not imputed between clients and licensees. Section 54.1-2142.1 protects a licensee who passes on false information that came from the client, a government entity or a licensed professional, absent actual knowledge or reckless disregard. Section 54.1-2144 abrogates the common law of agency to the extent it conflicts with the article, which is why the written agreement, not the handshake, is what creates the relationship.
State-specific details
State exam facts
- State regulator
- Virginia Real Estate Board (DPOR)
- Exam vendor
- PSI
- Prelicensing education
- Not less than 12 semester hours of real estate courses (Va. Code § 54.1-2105(B)(2)(b))
- Passing score
- 60 of 80 points national; 38 of 50 state
- Scored questions
- 125
- Time limit
- 160 minutes
Who regulates real estate brokers in Virginia?
The Virginia Real Estate Board, within the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR), licenses brokers and salespersons. Va. Code § 54.1-2104 gives the Board nine members — seven licensees of at least seven consecutive years and two citizen members — and § 54.1-2105 gives it the power to regulate. DPOR contracts with PSI to administer the licensing exams.
What experience do I need before the Virginia broker exam?
Under 18VAC135-20-35(C), a broker applicant must have been “actively engaged … as a real estate salesperson for a period of 36 of the 48 months immediately preceding application,” verified by the principal or supervising broker for whom the applicant worked. 18VAC135-20-10 defines “actively engaged” as active licensure performing licensed activity for an average of at least 40 hours per week. Va. Code § 54.1-2105(B)(2) adds a high school diploma or equivalent and not less than 12 semester hours of real estate instruction, which subsection D specifies must be in real estate brokerage, finance, appraisal, law and related Board-approved subjects.
How is the Virginia broker exam structured?
PSI candidate information bulletin 466 gives the broker exam a national portion of 75 items scored to 80 points in 105 minutes and a Virginia state portion of 50 items worth 50 points in 55 minutes — 125 items in 160 minutes together. Passing is published as points correct rather than a percentage: 60 of 80 on the national portion and 38 of 50 on the state portion, and you must pass both. If you are applying for a reciprocal license you need only pass the state portion.
Sources: https://www.dpor.virginia.gov/Boards/Real-Estate/Pre-License, https://test-takers.psiexams.com/api/content/bulletin/466, https://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/title18/agency135/chapter20/, https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title54.1/chapter21/
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