Maryland Real Estate Salesperson Exam — All Questions

Maryland requires licensees to present the 'Understanding Whom Real Estate Agents Represent' notice to a consumer:

• a.Within three days after a contract is ratified
• b.Only when the consumer is unrepresented
• c.At the first scheduled face-to-face contact regarding a specific property✓
• d.Only at the settlement table

Maryland licensees must provide the agency-representation disclosure notice at the first scheduled face-to-face contact with a consumer concerning a specific property. The notice explains the roles of seller's agent, buyer's agent, dual agent, and subagent so consumers understand who represents their interests before they discuss confidential information.

In Maryland, when one brokerage represents both the buyer and the seller in the same transaction, the broker typically acts as a dual agent and:

• a.Is prohibited from the transaction under all circumstances
• b.Must withdraw and refer both parties elsewhere
• c.May share each party's confidential information freely with the other
• d.Designates separate intra-company agents to represent the buyer and the seller after obtaining written consent✓

Maryland permits dual agency with the written consent of both parties. The broker acts as dual agent and may designate different affiliated (intra-company) agents to advocate for the buyer and the seller respectively. The dual agent may not reveal one party's confidential negotiating information, such as the top price a buyer will pay, to the other.

Maryland's statutory brokerage relationships apply to which property?

• a.Property improved by one to four single-family units✓
• b.Any real property offered for sale in the State
• c.Real property improved by one or two single-family units only
• d.Residential real property of any size, improved or not

The part also reaches unimproved real property zoned for residential use by the local zoning authority. Cite: Md. Bus. Occ. & Prof. 17-529(a).

Maryland's brokerage relationship provisions do not apply to a lease of what duration?

• a.30 days or less
• b.90 days or less
• c.One year or less
• d.125 days or less✓

The exclusion is written as a flat day count, so short-term and seasonal rentals fall outside the agency disclosure and dual agency machinery of Part III. Cite: Md. Bus. Occ. & Prof. 17-529(b).

Under what condition may a Maryland real estate broker act as a dual agent?

• a.With the oral consent of the seller alone
• b.Whenever both sides are represented by the same brokerage
• c.On the written informed consent of all parties✓
• d.Only in transactions the Commission has approved in advance

Dual agency is prohibited in Maryland except on that written informed consent, and the consent form must state, among other things, that the broker owes undivided loyalty to neither side and that the buyer or seller did not have to consent. Cite: Md. Bus. Occ. & Prof. 17-530.1(a), (b), (c).

Once dual agency is consented to in Maryland, what must the dual agent do?

• a.Personally advise both the seller and the buyer on price
• b.Assign an intra-company agent to each side✓
• c.Withdraw from representing the seller
• d.Refer one party to a broker at another firm

The two intra-company agents are affiliated licensees of the same broker, and each provides the client the same services an ordinary seller's or buyer's agent would, including advice on price and negotiation strategy. Cite: Md. Bus. Occ. & Prof. 17-530.1(b)(1)(ii), (v).

In a single Maryland transaction, may the same individual serve as both the dual agent and an intra-company agent?

• a.No; the statute bars the overlap both ways✓
• b.Yes, if the brokerage has fewer than five licensees
• c.Yes, with the written consent of both clients
• d.Yes, but only on the seller's side

The statute bars the overlap in both directions. Confidential information moves from the intra-company agent up to the dual agent, but the dual agent may not pass it to the other side or to the other side's intra-company agent. Cite: Md. Bus. Occ. & Prof. 17-530.1(b)(1)(iii), (vii).

When must a Maryland licensee make the written agency disclosure to a party with whom the broker has no written brokerage agreement?

• a.Before any telephone conversation takes place
• b.Before the party's offer is presented
• c.At the time the contract of sale is signed
• d.Not later than the first scheduled face-to-face contact✓

The written disclosure is the one Maryland calls Understanding Whom Real Estate Agents Represent, and the deadline is the first scheduled face-to-face contact with that seller, lessor, buyer or lessee. Cite: Md. Bus. Occ. & Prof. 17-530(b)(1).

A Maryland seller's agent holds a property open to the public. How does the agent satisfy the agency disclosure requirement?

• a.By obtaining each visitor's signature on the disclosure form
• b.By conspicuously displaying the Commission's notice✓
• c.By announcing the representation to each visitor on arrival
• d.The requirement does not apply at an open house

The statute lets a conspicuous notice to prospective buyers or lessees, prepared and provided by the Commission, stand in for individual written disclosure while the property is held open to the public. Cite: Md. Bus. Occ. & Prof. 17-530(b)(2).

If a Maryland buyer's agent's first contact with a seller is not face to face, what does the agent owe that seller?

• a.Nothing until the parties meet in person
• b.A mailed copy of the brokerage agreement
• c.Disclosure through the medium in which the contact occurs✓
• d.A written disclosure within three days of that first contact

The rule is symmetrical: a seller's agent whose first contact with a prospective buyer is not face to face must disclose through that same medium that the agent represents the seller. This obligation is in addition to the written disclosure. Cite: Md. Bus. Occ. & Prof. 17-530(a)(3).

May a Maryland client and licensee agree to waive the licensee's statutory duties of care, confidentiality and honest treatment?

• a.No; they may not be waived or modified✓
• b.Yes, if the waiver is signed by both parties
• c.Yes, in a transaction involving a commercial property
• d.Yes, if the client is represented by an attorney

The duties in the statute are in addition to other duties imposed by law and may not be waived or modified. Performing ministerial acts for a non-client neither breaches those duties nor forms a brokerage relationship, provided the client consented to ministerial acts in the brokerage agreement. Cite: Md. Bus. Occ. & Prof. 17-532(g), (h).

In Maryland, what does the payment of a commission to a broker establish about a brokerage relationship?

• a.It creates a brokerage relationship with the payer
• b.Nothing; who pays is not determinative of the relationship✓
• c.It makes the broker a subagent of the payer
• d.It creates a dual agency if both sides contribute

A brokerage relationship commences when a client enters into a brokerage agreement, not when money changes hands, and the payment or promise of payment neither creates nor determines the existence of one. Cite: Md. Bus. Occ. & Prof. 17-534(a), (e).