Missouri Real Estate Salesperson Exam — Study Guide

State-portion supplement to the national real-estate salesperson manuscript

How to use this chapter. The national chapters in this book teach the concepts every U.S. salesperson exam tests — agency, contracts, financing, valuation, federal fair housing, and the math. This chapter layers the Missouri rules on top of that foundation, because the Missouri salesperson exam is split into a national portion and a state portion, and the state portion is where most repeat test-takers lose points. This is a licensing subject (a "your-money-or-your-life" topic), so numbers change. Pre-license hours, continuing-education hours, application and exam fees, and renewal dates are set by statute and by Missouri Real Estate Commission (MREC) rule and are amended from time to time. Read the flags in this chapter literally. A figure that carries a dated citation was read from that named source — a statute on revisor.mo.gov, a Commission rule in 20 CSR 2250, or an MREC/PSI page — on the date shown, and nothing more than that: it can still be amended after that date. A figure that still carries a bracketed verify-current flag was not confirmed from a primary source and must be checked with the Commission (pr.mo.gov, Division of Professional Registration) before you rely on it for money, deadlines, or your license. Nothing here is legal advice.

1. Who regulates real estate in Missouri

Real estate licensing in Missouri is administered by the Missouri Real Estate Commission (MREC). The Commission sits inside the Division of Professional Registration, which is part of the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance. It consists of seven members appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the senate, serving five-year terms; all but one — the voting public member — must have had at least ten years' experience as a real estate broker (§339.120.1 RSMo; checked 2026-09-05). The MREC is the body that issues, renews, suspends, and revokes salesperson and broker licenses, approves pre-license and continuing-education schools and courses, and investigates complaints against licensees.

Two bodies of authority control what you can and cannot do:

• The license law — Chapter 339 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo Ch. 339). This is the statute the legislature passed. It defines who must be licensed, what conduct can cost you a license, and the framework for Missouri agency relationships.
• The Commission's rules — Title 20, Division 2250 of the Code of State Regulations (20 CSR 2250). These are the administrative rules the MREC adopts to fill in the statute's details: application specifics, escrow-account handling, advertising, education, and so on.

On the exam, remember the division of labor: the statute (Ch. 339) is the "what," the CSR rules (20 CSR 2250) are the "how." When a question asks where a specific procedural rule lives (for example, trust-account record-keeping), the answer is the Commission's rules; when it asks about the underlying legal duty or a definition, it is usually the statute.

Missouri distinguishes among several license types. The two you must keep straight for the salesperson exam are:

• Salesperson — a licensee who must at all times be affiliated with and act under the supervision of a licensed broker. A salesperson cannot operate independently, cannot hold escrow money in their own name, and cannot be paid a commission by anyone other than their affiliated broker.
• Broker — a licensee who may operate independently, hold escrow funds, and supervise salespersons. Missouri also licenses broker-salespersons (people who hold a broker's license but choose to work under another broker) and broker-officers/associate brokers in entity settings.

2. Becoming a Missouri salesperson

2.1 The basic eligibility bar

To be licensed as a Missouri salesperson you must be at least eighteen (18) years of age (§339.040.3 RSMo; checked 2026-09-05). Every applicant for an original Missouri real estate license must also provide acceptable proof of having submitted fingerprints to the Missouri State Highway Patrol's approved vendor for both a Missouri Highway Patrol and an FBI fingerprint background check, with the fingerprint fees paid by the applicant (20 CSR 2250-3.010(3); checked 2026-09-05); §339.015 RSMo, added in 2025, is the statutory authority for the Commission to require those submissions. A prior conviction does not automatically bar licensure — but any material misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission on an application or renewal is itself a ground for discipline (§339.100.2(25) RSMo; checked 2026-09-05), and a plea or finding of guilt to certain enumerated offences requires that a license be revoked or refused outright (§339.100.5 RSMo).

2.2 The two-course education sequence — this is heavily tested

Missouri's pre-license education is unusual and it is a favorite exam target because candidates from other states get it wrong. Missouri requires two separate courses, taken in a specific relationship to the exam:

1. The salesperson pre-examination course — an approved forty-eight (48) hour “Salesperson Pre-Examination Course” taken at a school accredited by the Commission. You must complete it on or before the examination date, and the completion certificate must be received before you attempt the examination (20 CSR 2250-3.010(4)(A)1. and (9); 20 CSR 2250-6.060(1); checked 2026-09-05).

1. The 24-hour Missouri Real Estate Practice (MREP) course — an approved twenty-four (24) hour “Missouri Real Estate Practice Course”, which must be completed after the 48-hour pre-examination course and before you submit your application for licensure (20 CSR 2250-3.010(4)(A)3.; 20 CSR 2250-6.060(2); checked 2026-09-05). Trap: a great many study guides — and earlier printings of this chapter — teach that MREP must be taken after you pass the exam. That is not the rule. The Commission's own candidate handbook says in terms: “MREP course can be taken before or after exam date.” What is fixed is that MREP follows the pre-exam course and precedes the application (Missouri Real Estate Candidate Handbook, PSI for the MREC, p. 1; checked 2026-09-05).

The exam tests the sequence, so learn the two fixed points rather than a folk mnemonic: 48-hour course → examination, and 48-hour course → 24-hour MREP course → application. The completed application must reach the Commission within six months of the completion date of the 48-hour pre-examination course; after six months the credit for the course and the examination expires and both must be repeated (20 CSR 2250-3.010(8); Missouri Real Estate Candidate Handbook, PSI for the MREC, p. 1; checked 2026-09-05).

Anchor to remember: “48 before the exam — 24 before the application.” The 48-hour qualifying course comes before the examination; the 24-hour Missouri Real Estate Practice course comes after that course and before you apply, and may be sat either before or after the examination itself (20 CSR 2250-3.010(4)(A); checked 2026-09-05).

2.3 The examination

The license examination is administered for the MREC by its contracted testing service, currently PSI Services LLC, and is delivered in two portions — a national portion and a Missouri state portion. You must pass both. For the salesperson examination the national portion is 100 scored items, passing score 70%, 150 minutes, and the state portion is 40 scored items, passing score 75%, 120 minutes (Missouri Real Estate Candidate Handbook, PSI for the MREC, Examination Summary Table, p. 11; checked 2026-09-05). A further 5 to 10 unscored “experimental” questions may be added; they are not scored but do consume examination time. The examination fee is $52 — $52 whether you sit one portion or both, and $52 again for a retake (MREC Examination Fees page; same handbook, p. 2; checked 2026-09-05). Registration fees are non-refundable and expire one year after you register. Note the detail candidates get wrong: the two portions have different passing scores — 70% national, 75% state.

2.4 Applying and affiliating with a broker

A Missouri salesperson license is not active until the licensee is affiliated with a licensed broker. The broker holds and controls the license. Practically:

• You submit your application to the MREC (with proof of the required education and passing exam scores) within six months of the completion date of the 48-hour pre-examination course (20 CSR 2250-3.010(8); checked 2026-09-05). The license application fee is $100 for a salesperson (broker-type applications are $150), payable to the Missouri Real Estate Commission and non-refundable (MREC “Application for Real Estate License”, form licenseAPP7-25; checked 2026-09-05).
• Your license is issued through and held under a specific broker. If you leave that broker, your license goes inactive until you affiliate with a new broker and the MREC records the transfer. You may not practice — or be paid a commission — while inactive/unaffiliated.
• A salesperson may lawfully be compensated only by their affiliated broker. Accepting a commission or valuable consideration “from any person except the broker with whom associated at the time the commission or valuable consideration was earned” is an express ground for discipline (§339.100.2(12) RSMo; checked 2026-09-05). Recent change: since 28 August 2025, §339.150.4 RSMo lets a broker pay compensation directly to a business entity owned by the licensee and formed to receive that licensee's earned compensation — and that entity need not itself be licensed — provided the entity is owned solely by the licensee, by the licensee and a spouse on the terms set out, or by licensees all associated with the same broker (§339.150.4–.5 RSMo, A.L. 2025 H.B. 596; checked 2026-09-05). The money still originates with the broker; what changed is the permitted payee.

2.5 Renewal and continuing education (CE)

Missouri licenses renew on a two-year (biennial) cycle, and the expiry date is not the same for every license type: a salesperson (or inactive-salesperson) license expires September 30 of each even-numbered year, while a broker-type license expires June 30 of each even-numbered year (20 CSR 2250-4.020(1)(A)–(B); checked 2026-09-05). Trap: multi-state guides routinely give “June 30 of even years” as the Missouri renewal date — that is the broker date; a salesperson's is September 30. The Commission's own renewal calendar lists “June 30, 2026 — Broker Licenses expire” and “September 30, 2026 — Salesperson Licenses expire” (MREC Continuing Education Requirements/Renewal Deadlines page; checked 2026-09-05). Within each two-year period an active licensee must complete a minimum of 12 hours of MREC-approved real estate instruction as a condition precedent to renewal, of which at least 3 hours must be the Commission-designated “core” course (20 CSR 2250-10.100(1) and (3); §339.040.8 RSMo; checked 2026-09-05). A renewal license will not be issued until the license of the broker you are associated with has been renewed (20 CSR 2250-4.020(3)).

Two CE points the exam likes:

• CE is a condition of renewal — fail to complete it and your renewal is not valid; practicing on a lapsed license is unlicensed activity.
• The core portion carries required Commission-designated content (law/rule updates, escrow, agency, fair housing themes). Electives can be almost any approved real-estate topic.

Two more rules worth carrying into the exam: hours in excess of 12 do not carry forward to a later renewal period, and no course shorter than 3 hours counts at all (20 CSR 2250-10.100(7)(F) and (8); checked 2026-09-05). Recent change: the MREC has designated Fair Housing as the mandatory core topic for the 2026–2028 renewal period — a licensee who takes only one core course in that period must make it a Fair Housing course (MREC Continuing Education Requirements/Renewal Deadlines page; checked 2026-09-05).

3. Missouri agency law and the Broker Disclosure Form

Missouri's agency rules are set out in the Missouri Real Estate Agency Act, found within Chapter 339 at RSMo 339.710 through 339.855, plus the Commission's agency rules at 20 CSR 2250-8.090 to 8.097. Cite it carefully: the operative sections still say “sections 339.710 to 339.860,” but §339.860 itself was repealed by S.B. 613 Revision in 2007, and the Revisor's own footnote on §339.040, §339.120 and §339.710 says so; the live sections end at §339.855 (revisor.mo.gov, Chapter 339 section index and the footnote to §339.710; checked 2026-09-05). This is the single most heavily tested state-portion topic. Learn it cold.

3.1 The relationships Missouri recognizes

Missouri is a statutory-brokerage state, meaning the brokerage relationships are defined by statute rather than left to common law. The recognized relationships include:

• Seller's agent (listing agent) — represents the seller with full fiduciary-type duties.
• Buyer's agent — represents the buyer.
• Landlord's agent / tenant's agent — the leasing analogues.
• Subagent — an agent who works for the client through the client's agent (subagency must be authorized in writing).
• Designated agent — the broker names ("designates") individual licensees within the firm to represent different clients, so one firm can represent both sides through different designated agents.
• Dual agent — a single licensee (or the firm) represents both buyer and seller in the same transaction, with limited duties to both.
• Transaction broker — Missouri expressly recognizes transaction brokerage. A transaction broker assists one or more parties without being the advocate/agent of any of them. The transaction broker facilitates the deal, performs ministerial acts, and owes a reduced, statutorily defined set of duties (honesty, accounting, reasonable skill and care, disclosing adverse material facts they know) but does not owe undivided loyalty to either side. This is a frequent exam contrast: an agent advocates; a transaction broker facilitates.

Missouri's transaction-broker default — this is statutory, not folklore. A “transaction broker” includes any licensee who “assists one or more parties to a transaction and who has not entered into a specific written agency agreement to represent one or more of the parties” (§339.710(23)(b) RSMo; checked 2026-09-05). So where no written agency agreement exists, the licensee is a transaction broker by definition. Subdivision (23)(c) adds the other default: a licensee who ends up assisting both parties, alone or through affiliates, “shall be deemed to be a transaction broker and not a dual agent,” provided notice of the assumption of transaction-broker status is given to buyer and seller immediately upon the default and confirmed in writing before the contract is executed (§339.710(23)(c) RSMo; checked 2026-09-05). Trap: older materials cite this as §339.710(19) — the subdivision was renumbered in the 2010 amendment, and the Commission's rule 20 CSR 2250-8.095 still carries the stale “339.710(19)(c)” cross-reference.

3.2 The Broker Disclosure Form — Missouri's required agency disclosure

Missouri requires licensees to give consumers a written Broker Disclosure Form (sometimes called the "agency disclosure" or "broker disclosure form"). Its purpose is to tell a consumer, before confidential information changes hands, whom the licensee represents (or that the licensee is acting as a transaction broker and represents no one).

The tested points:

• Timing. The Broker Disclosure Form must be provided at the earliest practical opportunity — in the standard formulation, before the licensee receives any confidential information from the consumer, and in any event before the consumer discloses anything that could be used against them. Do not wait until contract; disclosure comes at the first substantive contact/first practical opportunity.
• It is a disclosure, not a contract. Signing the Broker Disclosure Form does not create an agency relationship and does not obligate the consumer to work with the licensee. Agency itself is created by a separate written agreement (listing agreement, buyer-agency agreement, etc.). The exam contrasts these: the disclosure form informs; the agency agreement engages.
• Content. It identifies the possible brokerage relationships (seller's/landlord's agent, buyer's/tenant's agent, subagent, dual agent, designated agent, transaction broker) and states which one currently applies to this consumer.

Sourced timing. The statute requires that, in a residential real estate transaction, “at the earliest practicable opportunity during or following the first substantial contact” with a seller, landlord, buyer or tenant who has not already entered into a written agreement for services, the licensee “shall provide that person with a written copy of the current broker disclosure form which has been prescribed by the commission” (§339.770.1 RSMo; checked 2026-09-05). The Commission's rule adds the outer limit: “In any event, a licensee shall provide the party … the Broker Disclosure Form upon obtaining any personal or financial information or before the signing of a brokerage service agreement, whichever occurs first” (20 CSR 2250-8.097(1); checked 2026-09-05). Two refinements the exam uses: the duty is stated for residential transactions, and no further disclosure is required to a person who has already entered into a written agreement for services with a designated broker (§339.770.2 RSMo). Separately, the brokerage relationship must be confirmed in writing by each party on or before that party's first signature to the real estate contract (20 CSR 2250-8.096(1); checked 2026-09-05).

3.3 Written consent for dual and designated agency

Missouri protects consumers by requiring written, informed consent before the higher-risk relationships take effect:

• Dual agency — because one licensee representing both parties creates an inherent conflict, “a licensee may act as a dual agent only with the consent of all parties to the transaction,” and that consent is presumed by a written agreement under §339.780 (§339.750.1 RSMo; checked 2026-09-05). A dual agent is a limited agent for both sides and may not disclose, without the consent of the party it belongs to, that a buyer will pay more or a seller take less, either party's motivating factors, or a party's willingness to accept different financing terms (§339.750.2 and .4 RSMo).
• Designated agency — the broker's written office policy and the clients' consent govern how licensees are designated to opposite sides, and confidential information must be walled between the designated agents. Recent change: §339.780 was amended effective 28 August 2025; as it now reads, a designated broker acting as a single agent for a buyer or tenant must enter into the written agency agreement before engaging in any act enumerated in §339.010 other than the ministerial acts defined in §339.710 (§339.780.3 RSMo, A.L. 2025 H.B. 595 & 343 merged with H.B. 596; checked 2026-09-05).

The safest exam heuristic: any time one brokerage ends up on both sides of a deal, Missouri wants written consent and confidentiality walls.

3.4 Duties that survive the relationship

Certain duties survive, and the statute names exactly two. After termination, expiration, completion or performance of the brokerage agreement a broker and affiliated licensee “owe no further duty or obligation except the duties of: (1) accounting in a timely manner for all money and property related to, and received during, the relationship; and (2) treating as confidential information provided by the client during the course of the relationship that may reasonably be expected to have a negative impact on the client's real estate activity” (§339.790.2 RSMo; checked 2026-09-05). Confidentiality lifts only on the client's written consent, where disclosure is required by law, where the information has become public other than through the brokerage, or where disclosure is needed to defend the licensee against a wrongful-conduct claim (§339.790.2(2)(a)–(d)). Confidential client information does not become fair game just because the deal is done.