Washington Real Estate Practice Exam.
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Answer: D
An easement appurtenant is tied to the land itself, involving a dominant and servient estate, and it runs with the title to future owners of the benefited parcel, unlike an easement in gross which benefits a specific person or entity rather than a parcel of land. A license is a revocable personal permission that does not run with the land, and an encroachment is an unauthorized physical intrusion onto another's land rather than a granted right of use.

Answer: B
Ownership of land can be divided vertically so that subsurface mineral rights are severed from the surface estate and conveyed separately, allowing different parties to hold each interest independently. This is not a life estate, which is tied to a person's lifetime, nor a leasehold, which is a temporary tenancy interest, nor a lien, which is a financial claim securing a debt rather than a division of ownership rights.

Answer: C
A life estate automatically ends when the life tenant dies, and the remainder interest, already vested in the remainderman at the time of the original conveyance, becomes fully possessory immediately without probate. The life tenant's heirs receive nothing because a life estate is not inheritable, and no leasehold or probate step intervenes since the future interest was created when the deed was originally executed.

Answer: A
An encroachment is an unauthorized physical extension of a structure or improvement onto an adjoining owner's land, such as a fence built over the boundary line. It differs from a prescriptive easement, which is a use right acquired over time through open and continuous use requiring a separate legal claim process, a deed restriction, which is a private limitation written into a deed, and a lien, which is a financial claim against the property rather than a physical intrusion.

Answer: B
A fiduciary's duty of loyalty and confidentiality requires the agent to keep the client's confidential information, such as a minimum acceptable price, from the other party absent the client's informed consent. Disclosing it breaches loyalty rather than the duty of accounting, which concerns handling money and documents, the duty of reasonable care, which concerns competent service, or any duty owed to the buyer, since the buyer is a customer rather than the agent's client in this single-agency relationship.

Answer: B
One point equals 1% of the loan amount, so four points equal 4% of $210,000, which is $8,400. The $2,100 figure reflects only one point, $840 results from a misplaced decimal treating each point as a tenth of a percent, and $84,000 mistakenly treats the points as 40% of the loan rather than 4%.

Answer: A
A seller's agent owes fiduciary duties, including full disclosure of material information affecting the seller's interests, exclusively to the seller, so sharing relevant negotiating information the agent lawfully learned is consistent with loyalty and disclosure to the client. It is not a duty of accounting, which involves records or funds handling, or obedience, which involves following lawful instructions, and since the buyer is a customer rather than a client of this single agent, no duty of confidentiality is owed to the buyer here.

Answer: C
When a broker fails to perform the marketing and diligence duties promised under a listing agreement, the seller may terminate for the broker's breach of contract rather than needing mutual consent. This differs from termination by operation of law, such as death, destruction of the property, or bankruptcy, and it is not baseless because the broker's own nonperformance provides the legal grounds for ending the agreement.

Answer: D
A subagent is a cooperating broker who, through the MLS offer of cooperation and without a separate buyer representation agreement, owes fiduciary duties to the listing broker's client, the seller, even while working directly with the buyer. This differs from a dual agent, who represents both parties directly, a transaction broker, a non-fiduciary facilitator role, and a designated buyer's agent, who owes duties specifically to the buyer as their own client.

Answer: B
The TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule, known as TRID, combined disclosure requirements from the Truth in Lending Act and RESPA and requires lenders to deliver the Closing Disclosure at least three business days before consummation of the loan. The Fair Housing Act addresses discrimination in housing transactions, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits credit discrimination, and the Sherman Antitrust Act targets anticompetitive conduct, none of which govern the timing of closing cost disclosures.

Answer: C
Without a signed agency agreement or clear conduct establishing representation, a person working with an agent is generally treated as a customer owed basic fairness and honesty but not full fiduciary duties, which arise only once an actual agency relationship is created. The relationship does not default to dual agency, designated agency, or fiduciary status simply because the agent and buyer have interacted informally.

Answer: C
A valid contract requires consideration, something of value exchanged between the parties such as the promise to pay the purchase price in exchange for the promise to convey title, along with offer, acceptance, capacity, and legal purpose. A broker's signature is not required for contract validity, recording affects notice to third parties rather than contract formation, and earnest money is customary but not a fixed percentage nor a strict legal requirement for a valid contract.

Answer: D
A financing contingency is a condition that protects the buyer; when the condition fails through no fault of the buyer and the buyer cancels within the stated period, the contract terminates without breach and earnest money is typically returned rather than forfeited to the seller. The contract does not remain binding once a properly invoked contingency releases the buyer, and no breach occurs because the buyer acted within the contingency's own terms.

Answer: C
Because real property is considered legally unique, courts may grant specific performance, compelling the breaching seller to complete the conveyance as originally agreed, when monetary damages would not adequately compensate the buyer. Liquidated damages are a pre-agreed dollar remedy that would not force the sale forward, rescission would unwind the deal rather than compel it, and a mechanic's lien is a contractor's remedy for unpaid labor or materials, unrelated to enforcing a sale contract.

Answer: A
An offer can generally be revoked by the offeror at any time before the other party communicates valid acceptance, because no contract exists until there is mutual assent between the parties. The buyer's prior signature does not lock in the offer, the seller cannot bind the buyer to a revoked offer, and revocation does not transform into a counteroffer, which is a distinct rejection-and-new-offer act typically initiated by the recipient of the original offer.

Answer: B
Proration divides shared expenses like property taxes between buyer and seller based on their respective periods of ownership within the tax year, ensuring a seller who prepaid the full amount is credited for the portion covering the time after closing. Amortization concerns the gradual repayment of loan principal and interest, subordination concerns the priority ranking of liens, and novation is the substitution of one contracting party or obligation for another, none of which describe splitting a prepaid expense at closing.

Answer: C
An adjustable-rate mortgage carries an initial fixed-rate period followed by periodic rate adjustments tied to a market index, exactly as described. A balloon mortgage instead has level payments followed by one large lump-sum payment at maturity, a graduated payment mortgage starts with low payments that increase on a set schedule regardless of market rates, and a wraparound mortgage wraps a new loan around an existing one, unrelated to rate adjustment structure.

Answer: D
PITI stands for principal, interest, taxes, and insurance, so the total is $1,400 plus $300 plus $150, which equals $1,850. The $1,700 figure omits the insurance escrow, $1,400 reflects principal and interest only, and $1,550 omits the tax escrow, each representing a partial sum rather than the full PITI figure.

Answer: B
VA loans are guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for eligible veterans and service members and typically require no down payment or private mortgage insurance. FHA loans are insured by a federal agency but generally require a down payment and mortgage insurance premiums, conventional loans are not government-backed at all, and USDA loans target rural properties under different eligibility criteria than veteran status.

Answer: D
Capitalization rate equals net operating income divided by value: $36,000 divided by $800,000 equals 0.045, or 4.5 percent. The 22.2% figure results from inverting the division, treating value divided by income instead, while 45% and 800% do not correspond to any correct calculation of these figures and reflect arithmetic or decimal-placement errors.

Answer: D
A comparative market analysis is an informal pricing opinion licensees routinely prepare using comparable sales data to help a seller set a listing price, and it is distinct from a formal appraisal, which only a licensed or certified appraiser may perform under applicable appraisal standards. It is not a federally mandated broker price opinion, since such opinions are used mainly in lending-related contexts rather than as a general listing tool required by federal law, nor is it an assessed value report, which comes from a county tax assessor for taxation purposes.

Answer: D
The age-life method calculates depreciation as effective age divided by total economic life: 40 divided by 60 is approximately 66.7 percent. The 33.3% figure reflects the remaining-life percentage rather than the depreciated percentage, and 20% and 40% do not correctly apply the ratio of age to total economic life.

Answer: D
Highest and best use identifies the legally permissible, physically possible, financially feasible, and maximally productive use of a site, which is exactly the multifamily-redevelopment analysis described. Conformity concerns value effects of similar surrounding uses, substitution underlies the comparable-sales method by capping what a buyer will pay relative to alternatives, and contribution measures how much a specific improvement adds to overall value, none of which describe identifying the optimal use of the land itself.

Answer: C
The federal lead-based paint disclosure rule applies specifically to housing constructed before 1978, when lead-based residential paint was still commonly used, requiring known-hazard disclosure and the EPA pamphlet before a purchase contract or lease is signed. It does not apply to all residential sales regardless of age, is unrelated to lead pipes or new construction, and is not limited to properties in historic districts.

Answer: C
Mixing client trust funds, such as earnest money, with the brokerage's own operating funds is commingling, a serious violation of trust accounting obligations because client funds must be kept separately identifiable and used only for their intended purpose. This is neither a permissible shortcut nor a required practice, and because it undermines client fund protection, it is treated as a significant violation rather than a trivial paperwork issue.

Answer: C
Agreements among competing brokerages to fix commission rates rather than setting them independently constitute illegal price fixing under antitrust law, because commission rates are meant to be individually negotiable between each brokerage and its own clients. This is not merely a minor MLS matter, is not a required or standardized practice, and disclosing the agreement to clients does not make an otherwise illegal horizontal price-fixing arrangement lawful.

Answer: D
Regardless of how a particular jurisdiction treats disclosure of a death on a property, a licensee's overarching ethical obligation is to be honest and not knowingly misrepresent or omit material facts within the bounds of applicable law. Volunteering unverified rumors could itself be a misrepresentation, refusing to answer any history question at all is not a defensible general practice, and conditioning an honest answer on the buyer submitting a full-price offer would be a serious ethical breach unrelated to disclosure obligations.

Answer: C
Blockbusting is the illegal practice of inducing property owners to sell by suggesting that the entry of protected-class members into a neighborhood will cause undesirable changes such as declining property values, and it is prohibited under fair housing law. Steering involves directing homebuyers toward or away from certain neighborhoods based on protected class, redlining involves lenders denying services to entire areas based on demographics, and puffery is exaggerated but non-deceptive advertising language, none of which match pressuring an owner to sell through fear-based racial suggestions.

Answer: D
Redlining is the illegal practice of a lender denying or limiting services, such as mortgages, to an entire geographic area based on the racial or ethnic composition of its residents rather than individual applicant qualifications. Blockbusting involves pressuring owners to sell based on fear of demographic change, steering involves directing buyers toward or away from areas, and commingling is a trust-account violation unrelated to lending discrimination.

Answer: A
Disability, sometimes termed handicap, is one of the seven protected classes under the federal Fair Housing Act, alongside race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and familial status. Political affiliation, marital status, and source of income are not protected classes under the federal Fair Housing Act itself, though some states and localities separately protect additional categories such as these.

Answer: B
Washington rule requires a licensee to follow the authorized vendor's procedures for resubmitting fingerprints within 21 calendar days of a rejected submission. The other timeframes do not reflect the actual resubmission window and would leave the licensee out of compliance if relied upon.

Answer: A
The Washington Real Estate Commission is composed of 7 members who help oversee licensing policy and practice standards for real estate brokers in the state. The other totals do not reflect the commission's actual composition and would misstate its size to a candidate researching how state oversight of the profession is structured.

Answer: C
Members of the Washington Real Estate Commission serve 6-year terms, a structure designed to provide continuity in the oversight of licensing standards for the profession. The other durations do not match Washington's actual commission term structure and would misstate how long a member serves before reappointment or replacement is considered.

Answer: C
Washington requires that managing broker coursework be completed within 3 years prior to applying for the managing broker's examination, and since her qualifying 90-clock-hour program was completed four years ago, it falls outside that recency window and would need to be refreshed before she can apply. There is a recency requirement, which rules out treating the coursework as permanently valid, and the required hour total is 90 hours, not 120.

Answer: A
Washington requires fingerprint-based background checks for every active license renewal on a 6-year cycle, ensuring licensees are periodically rescreened over the course of their career rather than only at the outset. It is not a one-time initial requirement, and the cycle is neither 2 years nor 10 years under this rule.

Answer: A
Washington requires an applicant to apply for licensure within 1 year of passing their final exam, so the candidate must submit her application within that year despite the delay caused by moving. There is a firm deadline, which rules out treating the results as indefinitely valid, and it is neither the shorter 90-day nor 6-month windows sometimes confused with other timing rules in the licensing process.

Answer: A
Washington requires candidates to apply for and complete their required broker exams within 2 years of completing their real estate education courses, giving a multi-year window rather than a matter of months. Six months and 1 year understate the actual window, and 5 years overstates it.

Answer: A
Under Washington rule, exam approval expires 2 years from the date the required courses were completed, and once that approval lapses without the candidate completing her exams, she generally must satisfy the education requirements again before she can test. Approval does not renew automatically at no cost, does not last indefinitely, and there is no automatic additional grace year built into this expiration rule.

Answer: D
Washington requires both the national and state portions to be passed within 6 months of each other, or the candidate must retake both exams. Since roughly nine months elapsed between January and October, she would fall outside that window and need to retest both portions rather than only the slower one, and the timing rule means scores are not simply combined nor is passing either portion sufficient on its own indefinitely.

Answer: B
Washington rule provides that a passing score for a portion of the examination is valid for a period of six months, so the candidate's already-passed state-portion score could become stale and unusable if she delays retesting the national portion beyond that window. The score is not permanently valid nor valid only for the same testing day, and it is also not immediately voided just because the other portion was failed on the first attempt.

Answer: D
Washington's prelicense education requirement for a broker license is built from two required courses: Real Estate Fundamentals, covering broad foundational concepts, followed by Real Estate Practices, which builds on that foundation with applied practice topics. Real Estate Law, Real Estate Finance, and Real Estate Ethics are not the names of Washington's two required prelicense courses under this framework, so none of them is the course she still needs.

Answer: D
Washington defines the entry-level real estate broker license as someone who performs brokerage services on behalf of a firm under the supervision of a managing broker, so the newly licensed broker cannot operate independently and must work under a managing broker's oversight. Supervision is not provided directly by the Department of Licensing director, is not optional at this license level, and has nothing to do with appraiser licensure, which is a separate profession.

Answer: A
The federal Fair Housing Act protects familial status, which covers households with children under 18, so steering families with children away from certain units and toward others based on that status is prohibited discrimination. This scenario does not involve the applicants' national origin, disability, or religion, which are separate protected classes under the same law.

Answer: B
Designated agency occurs when a brokerage firm assigns different licensees within the same company to represent the seller and the buyer separately, so each designated agent owes full fiduciary duties only to their own client. This differs from dual agency, where one licensee alone attempts to represent both parties at once, from subagency, where a cooperating broker owes duties to the listing broker's client rather than their own customer, and from single agency, which involves representing only one side of a transaction.

Answer: B
A quitclaim deed conveys only the grantor's current interest in the property, if any, without any warranty of clear title or promise against defects, making it common for clearing clouds on title or transfers between family members. A general or special warranty deed both include express title warranties, differing only in the period covered, and a grant deed typically implies at least limited warranties, unlike a quitclaim.

Answer: B
Fee simple absolute is the most complete form of ownership, giving the holder rights to surface, airspace, and subsurface subject only to public limitations like zoning and eminent domain; a leasehold is a temporary tenant interest, a life estate ends at a measuring life, and an easement in gross is a personal right of use held by an individual or company, not full ownership of the land.

Answer: C
The defining feature of joint tenancy with right of survivorship is that a deceased owner's interest passes automatically and immediately to the surviving joint tenant, outside of probate; this is why co-owners who want their heirs to inherit their share instead typically choose tenancy in common. The deceased partner's interest does not pass to a spouse or heirs under this form of title, and the survivorship feature is exactly what prevents the remaining interest from becoming a tenancy in common at death.

Answer: A
Accretion is the gradual, natural buildup of soil along a waterway, and title to that newly formed land generally belongs to the adjoining riparian owner because the boundary shifts with the water's edge. Ownership is not determined by who files suit first, and while public trust or navigability doctrines can govern the waterway itself, the accreted upland soil still vests in the riparian owner rather than the state or federal government.

Answer: D
A signed buyer representation agreement is a contract creating an agency relationship with duties and often exclusivity obligations, so working with another brokerage without properly terminating it can constitute a breach of that agreement. Agency is not simply revocable at will once a binding representation contract exists, and switching brokers does not create a subagency or trigger dual agency, which involves one firm representing both sides of the same deal.

Answer: C
Because the managing broker's fiduciary duty of confidentiality runs to the seller, information about the seller's private motivation to sell is not a required property disclosure and must not be shared without the seller's authorization, regardless of promises from the other side. Buyer's agents are entitled to material facts about the property's condition, not a seller's personal negotiating posture, and reframing the disclosure as opinion does not cure an unauthorized breach of confidentiality.

Answer: B
Recording a deed places it in the public record, giving constructive notice to future buyers, lenders, and creditors of the current owner's interest and protecting the buyer's priority against later claims. Recording does not itself transfer title, which passes upon valid delivery and acceptance of the deed, nor does it relate to appraisal requirements or tax proration, which are separate closing functions.

Answer: D
An owner's title insurance policy protects against covered title defects that existed before the policy was issued, such as an undischarged lien from a prior owner, and typically obligates the insurer to defend against the claim or compensate the insured buyer for resulting losses. It does not exclude pre-existing defects, since that is precisely what it covers, and title insurance neither voids a completed sale nor shifts the cost of a new survey onto the seller.

Answer: D
The statute of frauds requires contracts for the sale of an interest in real property to be in writing and signed to be enforceable, so a purely verbal agreement for land is generally unenforceable regardless of custom or intent. The exchange of earnest money alone does not satisfy the writing requirement, and the agreement is not merely voidable by one party; it fails to meet the threshold for enforceability at all absent limited exceptions such as partial performance.

Answer: A
LTV is calculated by dividing the loan amount by the property's value; the loan here is $340,000 minus the $85,000 down payment, or $255,000, and $255,000 divided by $340,000 equals 0.75, or 75 percent. Twenty-five percent is simply the down payment percentage, not the LTV, and sixty percent and ninety percent do not correspond to any correct division of these figures, reflecting a miscalculated down payment share or a reversed ratio.

Answer: A
The sales comparison approach estimates value by analyzing recent sales of comparable properties and adjusting for differences in features, condition, and location, and it is the primary method used for owner-occupied residential appraisals. The cost approach instead estimates land value plus depreciated construction cost, the income capitalization approach values property based on its income-producing potential, and the gross rent multiplier is a simplified income-based screening tool, not the method described here.

Answer: D
The principle of substitution holds that a buyer will not pay more for a property than the cost of acquiring an equally desirable and available substitute, which caps value at the price of comparable alternatives. It does not mean buyers always favor larger homes, and while every parcel of land is technically unique, substitutable improved properties with similar utility still constrain each other's market value rather than existing free of price influence from comparables.

Answer: D
Licensees generally have a duty to disclose known material facts that affect a property's value or desirability, including latent defects like a history of flooding, regardless of whether a buyer happens to ask the right question or whether the defect is visible during a walk-through. Waiting until after mutual acceptance would deprive the buyer of information needed to make an informed decision before committing, and the seller's own disclosure duty does not relieve a knowing licensee of a separate honesty obligation.

Answer: A
A blind ad is an advertisement that fails to identify the licensed brokerage responsible for it, which most licensing authorities prohibit because consumers are entitled to know they are dealing with a licensed real estate firm. It is unrelated to a comparative market analysis, which is a pricing tool, a net listing, which is a compensation arrangement generally discouraged or restricted, or puffery, which is exaggerated but non-fraudulent sales language, none of which describe omitting the brokerage's identity from an ad.

Answer: C
The duty of obedience requires an agent to follow the client's lawful instructions, including marketing at the price the seller has chosen, even if the agent personally believes a different price might be achievable, so long as the instruction is lawful and the agent is not concealing material facts from the seller. An agent may not unilaterally override or raise the client's chosen price without consent, and ordinary listing duties do not require a formal independent appraisal before every showing.

Answer: D
The Fair Housing Act requires landlords and their property managers to permit tenants with disabilities to make reasonable modifications to the premises at the tenant's own expense, subject to reasonable conditions such as restoring the unit at move-out if appropriate. A landlord generally may not simply deny such a request outright, and while restoration conditions can apply, charging an approval fee or demanding a full building upgrade are not the standard legal framework for handling a modification request.

Answer: A
Even under narrow owner-occupied exemptions that may relax certain selection provisions for very small owner-occupied dwellings, the Fair Housing Act's prohibition on discriminatory advertising that expresses a preference, limitation, or discrimination based on a protected class continues to apply in virtually all circumstances. Choosing tenants for lawful, non-protected reasons like general demeanor, charging rent based on lease length, and requiring a credit check are ordinary lawful landlord practices unrelated to the exemption's limits.