New Hampshire Broker Law

What the New Hampshire portion actually is

The New Hampshire broker examination is delivered by PSI. Everything in this section is read out of PSI candidate information bulletin 6529, updated 7/1/2025, and out of the current Revised Statutes Annotated and the commission's administrative rules, the Rea 100 through Rea 700 series.

New Hampshire scores in points, and that changes how you read the table

Look at the national row. Seventy-five items are worth eighty points. That is not a typographical slip. The bulletin's footnote against the broker row reads: "National broker exams include questions that are scored up to two points." Some national scenario items score two instead of one, which is how 75 items produce an 80-point scale. The extra points live entirely in the national portion. The state row is 40 items and 40 points — one point per item, no exceptions — and you pass with 28 of 40.

Two consequences follow, and cheap guides get both wrong. First, do not convert the national row into a percentage of items. Fifty-six of eighty is 70 percent of the points, not of the 75 questions, and no item count corresponds to it. Second, the state portion is the one place where questions answered and points earned are the same number. Twenty-eight right passes; twelve wrong ends it. Ninety minutes for forty items is two minutes fifteen seconds an item — a citation test, not a speed test.

Note the salesperson row printed directly above, the most-copied wrong figure in New Hampshire prep material: the salesperson national portion is 80 items (80 points) and the salesperson combo is 120 items. The broker's is 75 and 115.

One outline serves both tiers — there is no brokers-only state area

The heading over the state content outline reads, in full capitals, "STATE PORTION CONTENT OUTLINE FOR SALESPERSONS AND BROKERS." No separate broker block exists anywhere in the document. The only BROKER ONLY markers in the entire bulletin sit in the general (national) portion, in area X — supervisory responsibilities, and two line items on reports and disbursements.

That is a real difference from the neighboring states this book also covers. Alaska, Connecticut, Montana and Oklahoma each carve out a block of state items only broker candidates see. New Hampshire carves out none. Your forty state items are the salesperson's forty — which makes the state portion not easy but misleading, because the broker-level material (supervision, trust accounting, the $25,000 bond, branch offices, cooperating with out-of-state brokers) is scattered through areas II, III and IV rather than quarantined where you can revise it as a unit.

The five areas, and their published item counts

Areas III and IV together are 22 of the 40 items — 55 percent of the New Hampshire portion. Conduct and agency, not licensing, are what this state tests: the whole of licensure is five items. The sections below are sized to these counts.

There is no standalone condominium area

Older New Hampshire blueprints in circulation give condominiums a standalone slot worth about 10 percent of the state portion. The 2025 outline gives that no support. The Condominium Act appears once, as subtopic V.C, one of ten lettered subtopics inside the ten-item Area V — roughly one item. Learn RSA 356-B:58; do not spend a tenth of your revision on a blueprint the vendor no longer publishes.

Area I's six letters are really four subtopics

The outline prints six letters under Area I. Read the punctuation:

A. Purpose of Commission-NH RSA 331-A:1 B. Duties and powers-NH RSA 331-A:5, 7, 8, 25; C. Adm. Rule Rea 102.01 D. Examination of records-NH RSA 331-A:30; E. Adm. Rule Rea 204.05 F. Disciplinary procedures-NH RSA 331-A:28, 29, 34, 35; Adm. Rule Rea 206.01

The trailing semicolons on B and D are the tell. Compare F, which puts its statute list and its rule citation on one line separated by exactly that semicolon. C is the continuation of B, and E is the continuation of D — artifacts of a two-column layout, not subtopics.

Area I really carries four subtopics: purpose; duties and powers; examination of records; disciplinary procedures. Do not hunt for a fifth and sixth. Rea 102.01 belongs with duties and powers; Rea 204.05 belongs with examination of records — where, as the next section explains, it no longer exists at all.

What the bulletin publishes, and where it is wrong

PSI's New Hampshire outline is unusual and genuinely useful in one respect: it cites a specific RSA section or Rea rule for nearly every subtopic, where most state outlines print headings and nothing else. It hands you a reading list — one that has not kept pace with the law. Eleven RSA 331-A sections the outline cites have been repealed, most in a single 2023 act, and two administrative rules it cites were repealed three and a half months before this July 2025 revision published. Two further citations are not stale but wrong. All of it is in "What changed recently."

The rule for this chapter: where the outline's citation is live, this chapter uses it; where it is dead, this chapter names the live section and says so. Nothing here is presented as the vendor's citation when it is ours.

The regulator. The New Hampshire Real Estate Commission sits inside the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification (OPLC). That is why RSA 310 now supplies renewal, complaint, hearing and sanction procedure for this board, and why so much of RSA 331-A reads as though pieces had been cut out of it. They have.

Area I — Real Estate Commission (3 items, 7.5%)

Four subtopics: purpose; duties and powers; examination of records; disciplinary procedures.

A. Purpose

RSA 331-A:1 is one quotable sentence: "It is the policy of this state to regulate the practice of real estate brokers and salespersons in order to ensure that they meet and maintain minimum standards which promote public understanding and confidence in the business of real estate brokerage." Minimum standards and public confidence. Not price — nothing in RSA 331-A sets or caps a commission, and Rea 404.04(b)(4) treats the professional fee as a contract term. Not supply — RSA 331-A:10 sets individual thresholds, and no provision ties the number of licensees to housing demand.

B. Duties and powers

RSA 331-A:5, I creates the commission and makes administering the chapter its duty. Paragraph II fixes the five seats: "(a) Two licensed real estate brokers. (b) One licensed real estate salesperson. (c) One lawyer. (d) One public member," appointed by the governor with the approval of council. Paragraph IV requires the public member to be someone who is not and never was in the profession and has had no material financial interest in real estate services for the five years before appointment. Paragraph V: six years' state residency before appointment, five-year terms, no more than two consecutive full terms. Paragraph VIII: at least four regular meetings a year, with former members appointable as alternates, case by case, when a sitting quorum cannot hear a matter. Rea 102.01 restates the five-member figure.

RSA 331-A:25 is the live rulemaking list — licensee conduct, examinations, application forms, accreditation of programs of study, continuing education, the ethics code, supervision of salespersons, instructor accreditation. RSA 331-A:7 survives only in part: paragraphs I, II and IV through VI are repealed, leaving the duty to publish information on the scope of the examination and suggested courses of study, and the duty to notify licensees of proposed rulemaking and of pertinent changes in New Hampshire law. RSA 331-A:8, which the outline also cites, has not existed since 2015.

C and D. Examination of records; disciplinary procedures

The outline sends both to sections repealed on September 1, 2023. What actually governs:

RSA 310:9 — complaints and investigations. Allegations of professional misconduct must be brought within 5 years of when the office reasonably could have discovered the act or omission, with exceptions for conduct producing a criminal conviction or out-of-state discipline and for a pattern that only becomes apparent later.

RSA 310:10, :11 and :12 — proceedings and sanctions. On a finding of misconduct, RSA 310:12, I-a allows reprimand, suspension, revocation, probation, and "administrative fines in amounts established by the board which shall not exceed $3,000 per offense, or, in the case of continuing offenses, $300 for each day that the violation continues, whichever is greater." RSA 310:12, V adds a separate exposure: the office's reasonable cost of investigation and prosecution, capped at $10,000, on top of any fine.

The grounds have not moved. What you can be disciplined for is still RSA 331-A:26, and that is Area III. What moved into RSA 310 is the machinery.

The trap. A candidate who memorized "$3,000 per offense" from the old RSA 331-A:28 gets the fine right for the wrong reason and then misses the citation. If the stem asks which chapter supplies the sanction, the answer is RSA 310.

Area II — Licensure (5 items, 12.5%)

Seven lettered subtopics: activities requiring a license; licensing procedures; eligibility; bonds; renewal; change of status; continuing education.

A. Activities requiring a license, and the nine exemptions

RSA 331-A:2, III defines a broker by conduct, opening with the words that decide most questions: "any person acting for another on commission or for other compensation." The listed acts run from (a) selling, exchanging, purchasing, renting or leasing, through (c) negotiating, (d) listing, (e) dealing in options, (f) collecting rent, (g) holding oneself out as in the business, (h) assisting or directing in the procuring of prospects, (i) assisting or directing in the negotiation of a transaction, and (j) charging an advance fee. Subparagraphs (h) and (i) catch people: a paid referral of buyers is licensed activity, and so is negotiating price for someone else whatever else you are licensed to do.

RSA 331-A:4 exempts nine classes, and the list is closed: an unlicensed owner dealing with the owner's own property; an unlicensed prospective purchaser or tenant; an attorney-in-fact; an attorney at law in the performance of duties as an attorney; a licensed auctioneer; a public official; a fiduciary or person acting under court order, a will or a recorded power of sale; a manufactured housing park operator selling park homes; a corporate site-search consultant paid under written contract rather than per transaction; and a condominium unit owners' association renting units for 30 days or less through its own on-site office.

The trap. "Unlicensed assistant" is not on that list, and describing the pay as a bonus, a finder's fee or a share of savings does not put it there. RSA 331-A:26, XXIV forbids paying valuable consideration to anyone not licensed under the chapter, and Rea 101.01(i) defines valuable consideration as anything worth more than $100.

B and C. Licensing procedures and broker eligibility

RSA 331-A:10, II raises the bar above the salesperson's in three measurable ways, and these are broker items:

• Education. "Proof of completion of 60 hours of approved study which shall have been completed prior to the date of the applicant's examination" — against 40 hours for a salesperson under RSA 331-A:10, I(b).
• Experience, II(c). Full-time employment by an active principal broker for at least one year within 5 years of application; or at least 2,000 part-time hours as a licensed salesperson in this state within 5 years; or proof of equivalent experience.
• Transactions, II(g). "Evidence of at least 6 separate real estate transactions in which the applicant was actively involved and was compensated," or equivalent experience.

II(h) adds the criminal records check under RSA 331-A:10-a, which runs through the Division of State Police before the application is filed.

The trap. The 2,000 hours must be as a licensed salesperson in this state. Out-of-state hours do not count on route (c)(2); they are an argument for route (c)(3), which is discretionary and evidenced, not automatic.

D. Bonds — a broker-only obligation

RSA 331-A:14: "No principal or managing broker's license shall be issued or renewed until the applicant gives to the commission a surety bond in any form approved by the commission in a sum of not less than $25,000." It is payable to the state for the benefit of any aggrieved person and conditioned on faithful accounting for entrusted funds. The commission may revoke the license whenever the bond ceases to be in full force.

Who is covered is the tested point. RSA 331-A:10, II(f) applies the bond to a broker "acting as a principal broker or a managing broker, but excluding associate brokers or a corporation, partnership, limited liability company, or association." It attaches to the individuals carrying supervisory responsibility — not to associate brokers, and not to the entity. Rea 404.02(b) requires evidence of the bond on transfer and on a change of broker status, running concurrently with the dates of licensure.

E and F. Renewal, lapse and change of status

All three sections the outline cites here — RSA 331-A:19 for renewal, RSA 331-A:17 and :18 for status change — were repealed on September 1, 2023. RSA 310:8 is the live section.

• II. Licenses issued by the office are valid for 2 years from issuance.
• III. A license expires when the completed renewal application, fee and supporting documents have not been filed by the expiration date, and the holder may not practice. "Expired licenses shall lapse one year from expiration." After that you cannot renew — only reinstate, by fresh application meeting current eligibility requirements.
• IV. The office must give notice at least 2 months before expiration, and "failure to receive notice shall not relieve any licensee of the obligation to renew."

RSA 331-A:12-b, added by 2024, 357:2 effective October 1, 2024, supplies inactive status: surrender the license for inactive placement, still renew biennially and meet continuing education, but maintain no place of business and — if a principal or managing broker — no surety bond. Paragraph III applies inactive status automatically to a licensee disaffiliated from the broker of record.

Rea 404.02 is the reporting rule. Changes of resident address, mailing address, email, telephone, work location, legal name or trade name go to the commission "no later than 10 days after the change." When a salesperson, associate broker or managing broker changes affiliation, the principal broker must notify the commission in writing no later than 5 business days after the change.

G. Continuing education

Rea 403.01(a): every active and inactive renewal applicant completes "a minimum 3-hour continuing education core course." Rea 403.01(b): applicants renewing on active status, and inactive licensees going active, complete "an additional 12 hours of continuing education elective courses." Fifteen hours in a two-year period, and the split matters more than the sum; RSA 331-A:25, IX is the authority for it. Rea 403.01(c) and (d) add the post-licensing rule: a salesperson's first renewal spends the 12 elective hours on designated courses, one from each of the four topics in Rea 302.03 — purchase and sale agreements, ethical behavior, disclosure forms, and agency.