Virginia Real Estate Salesperson Exam Study Guide

Virginia sets one of the lightest prelicense requirements in the country — 60 hours across 9 courses — while still testing both a state and a national portion. Agency is where that gap bites hardest, because the duties are principle-based rather than list-based and reward understanding over memorisation.

Everything follows from one question: is this person a client or a customer? A client has an agency relationship, created when a principal authorizes an agent to act on their behalf, and is owed the full fiduciary set. A customer is owed three things only — honesty, fair dealing, and disclosure of material defects. Confuse the two and an otherwise sound answer becomes wrong.

For clients, the duties are remembered as OLD CAR: obedience, loyalty, disclosure, confidentiality, accounting, reasonable care. Two of them generate most exam questions. Loyalty means the principal's interests come ahead of the agent's own, which is what makes an undisclosed personal stake fatal. Accounting means entrusted funds are safeguarded and never mixed with the agent's own money — commingling is a violation whether or not anything is lost.

Two timing rules complete the picture. Agency ends by completion, expiration, mutual agreement or revocation — but confidentiality does not end with it. What you learned while representing a client stays protected afterwards, so a former client's motivation cannot be used against them later. And dual agency, representing both sides at once, is permitted only where both parties have given informed written consent; neither silence nor a verbal nod suffices.

Most listing and contract questions reduce to one of three decisions. Ask them in order and the answer usually falls out.

Who gets paid? Identify the listing type first. If it is exclusive right to sell, the broker is paid no matter who produces the buyer — including the seller. If it is exclusive agency, a seller who finds their own buyer owes nothing. If it is open, only the broker who actually procured the buyer collects, which is why several brokers can work the same property.

Is there still an offer on the table? A counteroffer rejects the original outright. Candidates lose marks by assuming the first offer survives a change in terms and can be accepted later; it cannot. Once altered, the original is gone.

Is the contract even enforceable? Four elements: competent parties, mutual assent, lawful object, consideration. Missing one and nothing else in the question matters. Earnest money is not one of them — it is a good-faith deposit held in the broker's trust account, evidence of intent rather than a validity requirement. Contingencies let a buyer exit without breaching when a stated condition fails, and a time is of the essence clause converts a soft deadline into a hard one.

Deed questions test one thing: how much the grantor is on the hook for. Rank the three types by that and the distractors stop working.

A quitclaim deed promises nothing. It transfers whatever interest the grantor holds, which may be none at all, and is why it appears in divorce settlements and boundary clean-ups rather than arm's-length sales. A special warranty deed narrows the promise to the grantor's own period of ownership — anything wrong from before is the buyer's problem. A general warranty deed carries the widest promise, reaching defects from any point in the property's history.

Validity is separate from warranty, and delivery is the element that trips people. Competent parties, words of conveyance, an adequate description and delivery are all required; a deed that is drafted, signed and never delivered conveys nothing at all.

Then separate three ideas that questions deliberately blur. Marketable title is the standard a buyer can insist on — free from reasonable doubt or serious defect. Recording is not what makes a deed valid; it gives constructive notice to the world and settles priority against later claims. Title insurance is neither of those: it pays out on covered defects that recording never prevented.

Finance items usually hinge on a term rather than a calculation, so identify what is being asked before reaching for numbers.

Start with the security instrument. A mortgage or deed of trust pledges the property against the loan, and whether the borrower retains title depends on the state's theory — lien theory leaves title with the borrower and gives the lender a lien; title theory does not. Amortization then determines how each payment splits, weighted toward interest early on.

Loan type is the next fork. Conventional means not government-backed; FHA means insured. A fixed rate holds for the term; an adjustable rate tracks an index. Two figures attach to these: discount points are prepaid interest bought at closing to lower the note rate, and private mortgage insurance attaches to conventional loans when the down payment falls below the threshold.

Finally the clause that catches assumption questions. A due-on-sale clause entitles the lender to demand the balance when the property changes hands, which is precisely why a buyer cannot simply inherit a seller's favourable old loan without the lender agreeing.

Fair housing questions are usually testing whether you know which statute governs, because the exemptions differ.

The Fair Housing Act, enacted as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, covers seven protected classes: race, colour, religion, national origin, sex, disability and familial status — the last protecting households with children under eighteen. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 is the older and blunter instrument: it bars all racial discrimination in property transactions, and the exemptions available under the 1968 Act do not touch it. So a scenario involving race is answered under 1866 even where an exemption might otherwise seem available.

Three practices are named and tested by name. Steering directs buyers toward or away from areas by protected class. Blockbusting drives sales by suggesting who is moving into a neighbourhood. Redlining refuses loans or insurance by area composition rather than by applicant.

Two traps recur. Advertising that signals a preference or limitation violates the Act regardless of how kindly it was meant, so intent is not a defence. And the Mrs. Murphy exemption is narrower than candidates expect: owner-occupied buildings of four or fewer units, and it does not reach advertising.

Exam arithmetic is simple; the marks are lost in the setup. Four setups cover most of what you will see.

Commission. Sale price multiplied by the rate, then split — brokerage to brokerage first, then broker to agent. Applying both splits at once is the standard error.

Loan to value. Loan amount divided by the lesser of appraised value or sale price. Questions supply both numbers precisely so that using the wrong one produces a plausible wrong answer.

Value from income. Net operating income divided by the capitalization rate. The same relationship rearranges, so a question giving value and income is asking for the rate. The gross rent multiplier is the cruder cousin: sale price divided by monthly rent.

Proration. Split shared costs — taxes, rent, interest — at closing. Check first whether the question uses a 360-day banker's year with 30-day months or actual days, because the two give different answers. Then check direction: prepaid expenses mean the buyer reimburses the seller for the unused part; expenses in arrears mean the seller credits the buyer.