Oregon State-Specific Chapter

State supplement to the national real-estate study manuscript. This chapter covers the Oregon law that the national chapters do not: the licensing authority, the license structure, agency and disclosure rules, trust-account and discipline law, transfer-tax and recording rules, and Oregon's own fair-housing protections. Where a figure can change (a fee, an hour count, an exam pass score), it is flagged "verify current with the Oregon Real Estate Agency." Rules that are stable and knowable — whether a recovery fund exists, what the entry license is called, whether Oregon charges a transfer tax — are stated plainly.

1. The licensing authority: the Oregon Real Estate Agency

Real estate licensing in Oregon is administered by the Oregon Real Estate Agency (REA) — a stand-alone state agency, not a board tucked inside a larger department. It is headed by the Real Estate Commissioner, who is appointed by the Governor. The Commissioner issues and renews licenses, approves pre-license and continuing-education providers, writes administrative rules, investigates complaints, and imposes discipline.

The two bodies of law you are tested on both trace back to the REA:

• Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) Chapter 696 — the Real Estate and Escrow Activities statute passed by the Legislature. This is the "law."
• Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) Chapter 863 — the rules the Agency adopts to carry out Chapter 696. This is the "rule."

An advisory group, the Real Estate Board, advises the Commissioner on policy and rulemaking, but the Board does not itself issue licenses or run the Agency — the Commissioner does. On the exam, when a question asks "who regulates real estate licensees in Oregon," the answer is the Oregon Real Estate Agency / the Real Estate Commissioner, not a "commission" or a "department of state."

A vocabulary point that trips up candidates who studied in other states: Oregon does not license "salespersons" and "brokers" the way most states do. Read the next section carefully, because the entry-license name is different here.

2. License structure and the entry-license name

Oregon's entry-level real estate license is called the "Broker" license.

This is the single most important state-specific fact in this chapter. In most states the entry license is called a "salesperson" and the supervising license is called a "broker." Oregon does not use "salesperson" at all. A newly licensed person in Oregon is a Broker. The supervising, higher license is the Principal Broker.

So the Oregon ladder is:

A Broker in Oregon holds an active license only while it is associated with, and supervised by, a Principal Broker who acts as the "managing" or supervising broker of the firm. A Broker cannot open a brokerage, cannot hold client funds independently, and cannot supervise other licensees. In practice, a Broker in Oregon does the same client-facing work (listing, showing, writing offers) that a "salesperson" does in other states — the title is just different.

The Principal Broker is Oregon's equivalent of what other states call a "broker" or "managing broker." A principal broker may own or manage a real estate business, supervise brokers, and maintain the firm's clients' trust account.

Oregon also issues a distinct Property Manager license for those who manage rental property for owners but do not sell real estate. It is its own license type with its own education path and is not a step on the sales ladder.

Do not answer "salesperson" on an Oregon exam. The entry license is the Broker.

3. Getting and keeping the license (pre-license, exam, post-license, CE)

Pre-license education

To qualify for the entry-level Broker license, a candidate must complete Oregon's required broker pre-license course of study — commonly 150 hours — from an Agency-approved real estate school, and then pass the state licensing examination. (Verify the current required hour count with the Oregon Real Estate Agency.)

To qualify directly for the Principal Broker license, a candidate completes the same broker pre-license course of study plus an additional Brokerage Administration and Sales Supervision (BASS) course — commonly 40 hours — and must have qualifying active experience. (Verify the current BASS hour count and the experience requirement with the Agency.)

The licensing examination

Oregon contracts with a third-party testing vendor (PSI) to deliver the licensing exam. The exam has a national/general portion and an Oregon state-law portion, and the candidate must pass both. The specific passing score, the number of questions, the time allowed, and the exam fee can all change — verify the current exam format, passing score, and fee with the Oregon Real Estate Agency (or its testing vendor). Never memorize a specific pass percentage for a real exam; confirm it.

After passing, the candidate applies for the license, submits fingerprints for a background check, and pays the license fee. (Verify the current application and license fees, and the fingerprint/background-check fee, with the Agency.)

Post-license education (first renewal)

Oregon requires first-time brokers to complete a post-license course before their first renewal. This is the Broker Advanced Practices course — historically a 27-hour course — which, together with the required Law and Rule Required Course (LARRC), satisfies the licensee's first active renewal education. (The Advanced Practices hour count has been adjusted recently; verify the current post-license course and its hour count with the Oregon Real Estate Agency.)

Continuing education (later renewals)

Oregon licenses renew on a two-year cycle. To renew an active license, a licensee must complete continuing education — commonly 30 hours per two-year period — including the required Law and Rule Required Course (LARRC), and only courses taken within the two years before renewal count. (Verify the current total CE hours, the LARRC hour count, and the renewal cycle with the Agency.)

The stable, knowable rules here — that Oregon has a pre-license education requirement, has a state exam, requires a post-license course before the first renewal, and requires continuing education on a recurring cycle — are all affirmatively true. It is only the numbers (150, 40, 27, 30, the fees, the pass score) that you must confirm are current before relying on them.

4. Broker affiliation and supervision

A Broker's license in Oregon is only active while it is registered to and supervised by a Principal Broker. The Principal Broker who supervises the firm is responsible for the professional conduct of the brokers associated with the firm, for the firm's records, and for the firm's clients' trust account.

Key affiliation rules:

• A Broker may not accept compensation for professional real estate activity from anyone except the Principal Broker who supervises them. A broker cannot be paid directly by a buyer, seller, or another firm.
• A Broker may not hold or deposit client funds in their own name; earnest money and other client funds flow through the Principal Broker's clients' trust account.
• When a broker changes firms, the license must be transferred to the new supervising Principal Broker; the license does not float free between firms.
• A Principal Broker who manages a firm is the person the Agency holds accountable for supervision failures — inadequate supervision of associated brokers is itself a disciplinable act.

This supervision structure is why the entry/advanced distinction matters so much in Oregon: the entire compliance chain runs from the Agency, to the Principal Broker, to the Broker.

5. Oregon agency law and the required agency disclosure

Oregon's agency law lives in ORS 696.800 to 696.855 and the related administrative rules. Oregon uses a statutory agency framework: the duties a licensee owes are defined by statute (the "affirmative duties"), not left entirely to common law.

Affirmative duties

Under Oregon law a licensee who represents a client owes that client statutory affirmative duties — to deal honestly and in good faith, to present all written offers and notices in a timely manner, to account for money and property received, to be available to the client, to disclose material facts the licensee knows, and to maintain confidential information. Oregon licensees also owe all parties (client or not) a baseline duty of honesty and disclosure of known material defects.

The Initial Agency Disclosure Pamphlet — the required disclosure and its timing

Oregon's required agency-relationship disclosure is the Initial Agency Disclosure Pamphlet, published by the Oregon Real Estate Agency.

Timing (a stable rule, stated affirmatively): a broker or principal broker must give a copy of the Initial Agency Disclosure Pamphlet to a consumer at "first contact" — the first in-person meeting to discuss a specific property or the consumer's real estate needs — with each buyer and seller the licensee intends to represent. The pamphlet explains the difference between representing the seller, representing the buyer, and representing both, and it lays out the licensee's affirmative duties. It is delivered before the agency relationship is documented, so the consumer understands whom the licensee works for.

The Initial Agency Disclosure Pamphlet is educational — it is not itself the listing agreement or the representation agreement. The actual representation is created by a separate signed agreement (a listing agreement for a seller, a buyer-representation agreement for a buyer).

Dual agency in Oregon = "Disclosed Limited Agency"

Oregon permits dual representation, but it calls it Disclosed Limited Agency, and it requires a separate signed Disclosed Limited Agency Agreement, in addition to the listing/representation agreement.

Two situations are distinguished:

• One licensee representing both buyer and seller. A single broker or principal broker who represents both sides becomes a Disclosed Limited Agent for both, and may do so only with the informed written consent of both parties. As a limited agent, the licensee's duties are curtailed — for example, the licensee may not disclose to one party confidential negotiating information about the other (such as the highest price a buyer will pay or the lowest a seller will take) without permission.
• Different licensees in the same firm representing opposite parties (designated agency). When two brokers in the same firm represent the buyer and the seller in the same transaction, Oregon's structure places the Principal Broker in the role of Disclosed Limited Agent for both sides, while each associated broker continues to represent their own client. This is Oregon's form of designated agency — it lets the firm handle both sides without collapsing both brokers into a single conflicted agent.

Oregon does not recognize a no-agency "transaction broker" role the way some states do. A licensee working with a consumer is generally either that consumer's agent or a disclosed limited agent — the affirmative duties framework governs either way.

6. Property-condition disclosure (and federal lead)

Oregon's Seller's Property Disclosure Statement

Oregon is a mandatory-disclosure state for residential sellers, not a pure caveat-emptor state. Under ORS 105.462 to 105.490, a seller of residential real property (generally one-to-four-unit dwellings, with statutory exemptions) must deliver to the buyer a completed Seller's Property Disclosure Statement on the statutory form.

The stable rules of this form, stated affirmatively:

• The seller completes it based on the seller's actual knowledge of the property at the time of disclosure. It is a disclosure of what the seller knows — not a warranty and not an inspection.
• The statute gives the buyer a right to revoke the offer/agreement. If the seller delivers the disclosure statement, the buyer has a short statutory window — commonly five business days after delivery — to revoke in writing. If the seller refuses to provide the disclosure statement (rather than properly delivering a completed one or a permitted disclaimer), the buyer's right to revoke can extend up until closing. (Verify the current revocation window in ORS 105.475 with counsel or the current statute; the five-business-day figure is the traditional period.)
• Certain transfers are exempt (for example, some transfers by court order, between co-owners, or by a fiduciary who never occupied the property), and in some cases a seller may deliver a disclaimer instead. The exemptions are statutory.

So: the existence of a mandatory statutory seller disclosure form, and the existence of a buyer revocation right, are affirmative Oregon rules. The exact length of the revocation window is the only genuinely "verify" number here.

Federal lead-based paint disclosure

Independent of Oregon law, the federal Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act (Title X) applies in Oregon. For housing built before 1978, the seller (or landlord) must give the buyer (or tenant) the EPA lead-hazard pamphlet, disclose known lead-based paint and hazards, provide any records, and — for sales — allow the buyer a 10-day period to conduct a lead inspection (waivable by agreement). This is federal and applies in every state, Oregon included.