Oregon Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions
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A real estate licensee owes a client duties of loyalty, obedience, confidentiality, disclosure, accounting, and reasonable care. These are collectively known as:
- a.Statutory rights
- b.Ministerial duties
- c.General obligations
- d.Fiduciary duties✓
An agent owes fiduciary duties to the principal (client): loyalty, obedience, confidentiality, disclosure, accounting, and reasonable care and diligence. These arise from the position of trust in an agency relationship. Ministerial duties are routine, non-advisory tasks performed for a customer. The other choices are not the recognized term for this bundle of client duties.
A licensee represents both the buyer and the seller in the same transaction with the informed written consent of both. This relationship is called:
- a.Dual agency✓
- b.Single agency
- c.Designated subagency
- d.A general agency
Dual agency occurs when one licensee (or brokerage) represents both parties in the same transaction, and it is permitted only with the informed written consent of both because of the inherent conflict of interest. Single agency is representing only one party. Subagency extends the listing broker's agency to another broker. A general agency covers a broad range of acts, unrelated to representing both sides at once.
In a typical seller-listing arrangement, when is the listing broker generally considered to have earned the commission?
- a.Only after the deed is recorded
- b.As soon as the listing agreement is signed
- c.When the broker produces a ready, willing, and able buyer who meets the seller's terms✓
- d.Only if the buyer obtains financing
Under the common-law rule, a broker earns the commission by producing a buyer who is ready, willing, and able to purchase on the seller's stated terms (or terms the seller accepts). Signing the listing alone does not earn a commission; it only creates the agency. Recording the deed and the buyer's financing are closing events, and although most agreements tie actual payment to closing, the commission is legally 'earned' when the qualified buyer is produced.
A buyer's agent learns that the buyer is willing to pay far more than the asking price. To whom does the agent owe the duty of confidentiality regarding this information?
- a.The seller
- b.The buyer✓
- c.The listing broker
- d.Both the buyer and the seller equally
As the buyer's agent, the licensee owes fiduciary duties, including confidentiality, to the buyer (the principal). Disclosing the buyer's top price to the seller or listing broker would breach loyalty and confidentiality and harm the client's negotiating position. The duty runs to the principal, not to the other party in the transaction.