New Mexico Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

A New Mexico associate broker may perform brokerage activity:

• a.Only while associated with and supervised by a qualifying broker✓
• b.Only after four years of college
• c.As soon as the exam is passed, with no further steps
• d.Only after registering with the county clerk

A New Mexico associate broker may perform brokerage activity only while associated with and supervised by a qualifying broker. The license is inactive for practice until the associate broker is placed under a qualifying broker, and must re-associate with another qualifying broker before continuing after leaving a firm.

Before applying to take the New Mexico broker's examination, a first-time candidate must document 90 hours of pre-licensing instruction. Those 90 hours consist of:

• a.A 60-hour principles course and a 30-hour law course
• b.Any 90 hours drawn from the commission's approved course catalogue
• c.Three 30-hour courses: real estate principles and practice, real estate law, and broker basics✓
• d.A 45-hour principles course and a 45-hour contracts course

The statute names the three courses and fixes each at 30 commission-approved hours: real estate principles and practice, real estate law, and broker basics. The commission's rule adds that the courses must have been completed within the three years before the examination application. Cite: NMSA 1978 Section 61-29-9(B)(1); 16.61.3.9(B)(1) NMAC.

A New Mexico exam candidate passes the national portion but fails the state portion. Under the commission's rule, the candidate must pass both portions with a minimum score of 75:

• a.No later than 90 calendar days after the first attempt✓
• b.Within two years of completing the pre-licensing courses
• c.Before the end of the calendar year
• d.Within 30 days of the first attempt

A candidate who does not pass both portions with a score of at least 75 within 90 calendar days of the first sitting must retake and pass both portions. The 90 days run from the first attempt, not from the failed portion. Cite: 16.61.3.9(B)(8) NMAC.

A candidate passes both portions of the New Mexico broker's examination on March 1. If the candidate has still not applied for an associate broker's license by the following March 1, the candidate must:

• a.Pay a late application fee and apply
• b.Repeat only the state portion of the examination
• c.Repeat the commission-approved 30-hour broker basics course
• d.Retake and pass both portions of the examination✓

An individual has six months from passing to apply for the associate broker's license. Missing that deadline means retaking both portions of the examination, not merely paying a fee or repeating coursework. Cite: 16.61.3.9(C)(1) and (C)(2) NMAC.

An actively licensed Arizona broker applies to take the New Mexico examination and asks for waivers. Absent a written license recognition agreement, which requirement can never be waived?

• a.The national portion of the broker's examination prescribed by the commission
• b.The commission-approved 30-hour broker basics course✓
• c.The real estate law course
• d.The real estate principles and practice course

An out-of-state licensee may be excused from the principles and practice course, the law course, and the national examination portion on a certified license history. Only an applicant from a jurisdiction holding a written license recognition agreement with the commission may skip broker basics. Cite: 16.61.3.9(B)(2) and (B)(3) NMAC.

A New Mexico associate broker with two years of active experience upgrades to a qualifying broker's license. That broker may not:

• a.Register a trade name with the commission
• b.Hold a trust account for the brokerage
• c.List and sell property for others
• d.Supervise other affiliated brokers until reaching four years of active licensure✓

Two years of active associate broker experience in the preceding 60 months qualifies a person for a qualifying broker's license, but the statute separately bars supervision of other brokers until the licensee has held an active license for at least four years. Licensees holding an active or inactive qualifying broker's license on January 1, 2018 are exempt. Cite: NMSA 1978 Section 61-29-9(C) and (D).

New Mexico measures a qualifying broker candidate's transactional experience in points. The rule requires:

• a.100 points, with at least one transaction each of the four prior years✓
• b.50 points, with no requirement of a transaction in any particular year
• c.200 points accumulated over any period, with no annual minimum required
• d.100 points, which may include transactions in property the applicant owns

The candidate must document 100 points with at least one transaction accomplished during each of the four years before filing. Transactions involving property the applicant owns do not count. The commission may waive up to 30 points and the per-year requirement for documented hardship. Cite: 16.61.3.10(F) NMAC.

Under the New Mexico qualifying broker point schedule, one side of a residential sale transaction is worth:

• a.Three points
• b.Five points✓
• c.Eight points
• d.Ten points

Each sale or lease has two sides and both earn points. A residential sale side is worth five points; a residential lot sale is three, a commercial improved sale is eight, and a farm or ranch of 100 acres or more is ten. Cite: 16.61.3.10(F)(3)(a) NMAC.

Among the education a New Mexico qualifying broker candidate must document is attendance at a commission meeting or hearing. The requirement is at least:

• a.One hour, in person only
• b.A full day, twice in the licensing cycle
• c.Three hours, or until the meeting goes into executive session or ends✓
• d.Six hours, which may be satisfied by reviewing the published minutes of a meeting

The candidate must attend one commission meeting, rule hearing, or disciplinary hearing for at least three hours, or until the commission goes into executive session or the proceeding ends, whichever comes first. Attendance may be live or by live or recorded distance broadcast but must be documented by signing in and out. Cite: 16.61.3.11(D) NMAC.

The statutory floor for continuing education that every New Mexico licensee must complete as a condition of license renewal is:

• a.12 hours each year
• b.15 classroom hours every three years
• c.24 classroom hours during each two-year period
• d.30 classroom hours every three years✓

The Real Estate Licensing Law directs the commission to require a minimum of 30 classroom hours of commission-approved instruction every three years, matching the three-year license cycle. Cite: NMSA 1978 Section 61-29-4.1.