Utah Real Estate Sales Agent Exam — All Questions
12 questions
In Utah, when one brokerage represents both the buyer and the seller in the same transaction, the arrangement is known as:
- a.Subagency
- b.Universal agency
- c.Limited agency✓
- d.Open agency
Utah treats representation of both the buyer and the seller by one brokerage as limited agency, which requires the informed written consent of both parties. A limited agent must stay neutral on price and terms and may not disclose one party's confidential information to the other.
A Utah licensee who represents the seller as the seller's agent owes the seller:
- a.No duties once an offer is written
- b.Fiduciary duties including loyalty, confidentiality, and reasonable care✓
- c.The same undivided loyalty to the buyer as well
- d.Only a duty to find any buyer at any price
A Utah seller's agent owes the seller fiduciary duties including loyalty, confidentiality, obedience to lawful instructions, full disclosure, accounting, and reasonable care. To the buyer as the other party, the agent still owes honesty and must disclose known material defects.
Acting as a limited agent under Utah rules, a licensee owes each of the following to BOTH parties EXCEPT:
- a.Obedience to lawful instructions, consistent with neutrality
- b.Reasonable care and diligence throughout the deal
- c.Undivided loyalty to each party's best interest✓
- d.Holding safe money or property entrusted to the agent
A Utah limited agent acts as a neutral third party and owes only obedience consistent with that neutrality, reasonable care and diligence, safekeeping of money and property, and any duties the agency agreement adds. Loyalty, absolute confidentiality and full disclosure are precisely the duties both parties waive in writing. Cite: Utah Admin. Code R162-2f-401a(3)-(4).
A Utah seller tells her listing agent in confidence that the basement floods every spring and that she must sell before her divorce is final. The agent must:
- a.Keep both statements confidential until closing
- b.Disclose the flooding; keep the divorce confidential✓
- c.Disclose both, since buyers rely on the listing
- d.Disclose the divorce, and keep the flooding quiet
Utah's confidentiality duty stops the agent from revealing information that would weaken the principal's bargaining position, but it expressly does not cover a known material fact concerning a defect in the property or the client's ability to perform on the contract. Motivation to sell stays confidential; the recurring flooding does not. Cite: Utah Admin. Code R162-2f-401a(1)(d).
Before a Utah licensee may act as a limited agent, each party must sign an acknowledgment that the party waives the right to:
- a.Any claim against the Real Estate Education, Research, and Recovery Fund
- b.A separate agent later in the transaction
- c.Cancel the brokerage agreement without cause
- d.Undivided loyalty, absolute confidentiality, full disclosure✓
Prior informed consent to limited agency takes three written pieces: an explanation of what will be held confidential and what will be disclosed, a written acknowledgment from each party waiving undivided loyalty, absolute confidentiality and full disclosure, and a written acknowledgment that the licensee will act neutrally to advance both parties' interests. Cite: Utah Admin. Code R162-2f-401a(3).
Utah rules require a licensee who has already given a written agency disclosure to confirm that disclosure again:
- a.In the approved Real Estate Purchase Contract at signing✓
- b.Orally to the other agent before the offer is written
- c.In the brokerage's transaction file within ten days
- d.On a Division form filed with the Division after closing
Utah treats the disclosure and its confirmation as two steps. When the binding sales agreement is executed, the prior agency disclosure is confirmed in the agency confirmation paragraph of the currently approved Real Estate Purchase Contract, or in substantially similar language incorporated in or attached to the agreement; in a lease it is incorporated or attached. Cite: Utah Admin. Code R162-2f-401a(10)-(11).
A Utah licensee has listed a rental house she owns, and the buyer asks her to represent him as well. She may:
- a.Act as a limited agent with both parties' written consent
- b.Act as a limited agent if her broker approves in writing
- c.Act as a limited agent after disclosing that she owns it
- d.Not act as a limited agent, because she is a principal✓
Utah rules flatly bar a licensee from acting, or attempting to act, as a limited agent in any transaction in which the licensee is a principal, or in which an entity where the licensee is an officer, director, partner, member, manager, employee or stockholder is a principal. Written consent cannot cure it. Cite: Utah Admin. Code R162-2f-401b(1)(o).
A Utah licensee wants to show a property listed by another brokerage while acting as a sub-agent of the listing broker. Before showing it, the licensee must:
- a.Notify the seller and obtain the seller's consent
- b.File a sub-agency notice with the Division
- c.Get the listing brokerage's written consent to sub-agency✓
- d.Obtain the buyer's written consent to a dual commission
Sub-agency is never assumed in Utah. The licensee must notify the listing brokerage that sub-agency is requested, enter a written agreement with it consenting to the sub-agency and defining its scope, obtain any available property information, and then owe the seller the same fiduciary duties the listing agent owes. Cite: Utah Admin. Code R162-2f-401a(12).
A Utah seller's principal broker hands blank forms to an unrepresented buyer and negotiates terms with him directly. Under the Real Estate Licensing and Practices Act, this conduct:
- a.Creates an implied limited agency with the buyer
- b.Does not create an agency relationship with the buyer✓
- c.Requires a written agency disclosure to the buyer within 24 hours
- d.Is unlawful without the seller's written permission
The statute says a principal broker representing a seller does not create an agency relationship with an unrepresented buyer by contacting the buyer directly, providing blank forms, or negotiating the terms of the transaction. The broker still owes honesty and still must disclose known material defects. Cite: Utah Code 61-2f-308(5).
A Utah buyer's principal broker may contact a seller who is under an exclusive brokerage agreement if he has written authorization from the seller, but he may not:
- a.Ask the seller for that authorization✓
- b.Discuss the terms of the transaction
- c.Give the seller blank approved forms
- d.Negotiate the price with the seller
Utah lets a buyer's principal broker go around the listing broker only with written authorization from the seller's broker or from the seller, and once authorized he may discuss the transaction, supply blank forms and negotiate. The statute forbids soliciting that authorization from the seller. Cite: Utah Code 61-2f-308(3).
A Utah licensee telephones a for-sale-by-owner intending to buy the home for his own account. On that first call he must disclose:
- a.The price he is willing to pay for the home
- b.That he holds a Division license, active or not✓
- c.The name of the brokerage that employs him
- d.That he will record the conversation for his file
A licensee making an offer or solicitation to buy as a principal, directly or indirectly, must disclose in the initial contact that he holds a license with the Division, and must say so whether the license is active or inactive. His position as a principal is then confirmed in writing before any binding purchase or lease agreement. Cite: Utah Admin. Code R162-2f-401a(5)-(6).
A Utah sales agent learns that the buyer who just asked her to write an offer already has a signed representation agreement with another brokerage. She may not:
- a.Refer the buyer back to the other brokerage
- b.Tell her principal broker about the conflict
- c.Enter an agency agreement with that buyer✓
- d.Show the buyer a property that she has listed
Utah rules prohibit entering or attempting to enter a concurrent agency representation when the licensee knows or should know the principal already has an agency representation agreement with another licensee. The rules separately forbid subjecting a principal to paying a double commission without informed consent. Cite: Utah Admin. Code R162-2f-401b(1)(k).