A first complaint of housing discrimination against a licensee is filed with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. When may the State Real Estate Commission proceed against the licensee if that commission has not acted?Answer: After 90 days. Source: 63 P.S. 455.604(a)(22)
The Commission pays a claim from the Real Estate Recovery Fund against a broker. What happens to the broker's license?Answer: It is suspended automatically until the broker repays the fund in full with interest. Source: 63 P.S. 455.803(f)
Five members of the Commission must be licensed real estate brokers. How long must each have been engaged in the real estate business in Pennsylvania immediately before appointment?Answer: Not less than ten years. Source: 63 P.S. 455.202(a)
How long is the term of office of a member of the State Real Estate Commission?Answer: Five years. Source: 63 P.S. 455.202(b)
What is the most the Real Estate Recovery Fund will pay on any one claim?Answer: $20,000. Source: 63 P.S. 455.803(d)
Show all 50 questions (45 more)
Licensure 8
A broker has let the license sit inactive for five years without renewing. What must the broker do before a license is reissued?Answer: Pass the examination for the license again. Source: 63 P.S. 455.501(b)
A broker's license is revoked. Unless Commonwealth Court orders otherwise, how soon may the Commission reinstate it?Answer: Not within five years of the revocation. Source: 63 P.S. 455.501(c)
An associate broker moves from one licensed broker to another. By when must the Commission be notified in writing?Answer: No later than 10 days after the intended date of change. Source: 63 P.S. 455.603(a)
An owner of an apartment building employs an unlicensed person to manage it. Under the exclusion in section 304(10), which of these may that employee do?Answer: Show apartments and tell prospects the rent and the building rules. Source: 63 P.S. 455.304(10)
How long must a broker applicant have been engaged as a licensed real estate salesperson, unless the Commission accepts equivalent education or experience?Answer: At least three years. Source: 63 P.S. 455.511(4)
How many hours of continuing education must a broker with a standard license complete in each two-year license period?Answer: 14 hours. Source: 63 P.S. 455.404.1(b)
How many hours of real estate instruction must an applicant complete before taking the broker's license examination?Answer: 240 hours. Source: 63 P.S. 455.511(3)
What does the act call a broker who is employed by another broker?Answer: An associate broker. Source: 63 P.S. 455.201
Agency and disclosure 12
A broker designates one licensee as the seller's designated agent and another as the buyer's. What is the broker's own position in that transaction?Answer: A dual agent. Source: 63 P.S. 455.606.5(a)
A listing broker pays part of the commission to another broker who helped market and sell the property. What does that payment alone do?Answer: It creates no agency relationship with the other broker. Source: 63 P.S. 455.606.1(d)
A property is under an existing contract for sale. How may the seller waive the licensee's duty to present further written offers?Answer: In writing, in the manner the Commission prescribes by regulation. Source: 63 P.S. 455.606.1(a)(3)
An initial interview takes place by telephone and the licensee gives the oral disclosure. By when must the written disclosure form follow?Answer: By the first in-person meeting or the first showing, whichever is earlier. Source: 63 P.S. 455.608(d)
For which transaction do the initial interview disclosures of section 608 not apply?Answer: A sale of commercial property where neither party is an individual. Source: 63 P.S. 455.608(f)
What does a broker need before extending or delegating the broker's agency relationship with a principal to another broker?Answer: The written consent of the principal. Source: 63 P.S. 455.606.1(c)
What must the Consumer Notice tell sellers and buyers about an agency relationship with a broker?Answer: That it is not presumed and exists only as set forth in a written agreement. Source: 63 P.S. 455.608(a)(2)
What must the written consent to dual agency include besides the agreement of both parties?Answer: A statement of the terms of compensation. Source: 63 P.S. 455.606.4(a)
When must a buyer's broker tell the listing broker that the broker has been engaged as a buyer's agent?Answer: At first contact. Source: 63 P.S. 455.606.3
When must a licensee give a consumer who wants to buy or sell the Consumer Notice?Answer: At the initial interview, the first substantive talk about real estate needs. Source: 63 P.S. 455.608(a)
Which agreement with a broker may be oral, if the consumer is given a written memorandum stating its terms?Answer: An open listing agreement. Source: 63 P.S. 455.606.1(b)
Which of these may a transaction licensee not disclose?Answer: That the seller will accept a price less than the asking price. Source: 63 P.S. 455.606.6
Regulations governing the activities of licensees 13
A broker advertises the firm's sales volume. Which transactions may the figure count?Answer: Only closed transactions. Source: 49 Pa. Code 35.307(a)
A broker wants to buy, through a relative, a house listed with the broker's own office. What does the act require?Answer: Written disclosure to the owner of the broker's intention or true position. Source: 63 P.S. 455.604(a)(13)
A broker's firm also owns a title company. What may the broker not do?Answer: Require a consumer to use the title company. Source: 49 Pa. Code 35.283(d)
A licensee pleads guilty to a misdemeanor. Within how long must the licensee notify the Commission?Answer: Within 30 days of the plea. Source: 49 Pa. Code 35.290(a)
A salesperson charges a fee for a comparative market analysis. To whom is the fee paid?Answer: To the broker. Source: 63 P.S. 455.608.3(c)
A salesperson is selling her own house. When does she not have to say in advertisements that she is a real estate licensee?Answer: When the property is listed with a real estate company. Source: 49 Pa. Code 35.304
A salesperson with the required education wants to prepare a broker price opinion. What else does the act require?Answer: An active license for the three preceding years, and the signature of the broker or a designated associate broker. Source: 63 P.S. 455.608.6(j)
Besides licensed employees and other real estate brokers, to whom may a broker lawfully pay a commission?Answer: A qualified association owned solely by licensees affiliated with the broker. Source: 63 P.S. 455.604(c)
From whom may a salesperson accept a commission for an act that requires a license?Answer: Only the licensed broker with whom the salesperson is affiliated. Source: 63 P.S. 455.604(a)(12)
What must an advertisement by a salesperson or associate broker contain besides the licensee's own name?Answer: The employing broker's business name and telephone number, in equal size. Source: 49 Pa. Code 35.305(c)
What must the broker certify in the sworn statement that goes in with a salesperson's license application?Answer: That the broker will actively supervise and train the applicant. Source: 63 P.S. 455.522(b)
When must a licensee furnish a copy of a listing, sale or lease contract to those who sign it?Answer: At the time of execution, without being asked. Source: 63 P.S. 455.604(a)(9)
Which of these may an exclusive listing agreement contain?Answer: A listing period of one year. Source: 49 Pa. Code 35.332(c)
Miscellaneous 6
A broker manages rental property for a lessor. Where must the rents the broker receives be deposited?Answer: In a rental management account separate from the broker's escrow and general business accounts. Source: 63 P.S. 455.608.5(i)
An agreement of sale for a parcel zoned for commercial use leaves out the zoning classification. What is the effect?Answer: The agreement is voidable at the option of the buyer, and deposits are returned without court action. Source: 63 P.S. 455.608.2(3)
By when must the buyer receive the seller's signed and dated property disclosure statement?Answer: Before the seller and buyer sign an agreement of transfer. Source: 68 Pa.C.S. 7303
Until when may a purchaser cancel the purchase of a time share?Answer: Midnight of the fifth day after signing the purchase contract. Source: 63 P.S. 455.609
Which of these does section 604(a)(22) of the act list as a violation tied to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act?Answer: Accepting a listing on the understanding that illegal discrimination is to be practiced. Source: 63 P.S. 455.604(a)(22)
Within what time must an action for damages under the Real Estate Seller Disclosure Law be commenced?Answer: Within two years after final settlement. Source: 68 Pa.C.S. 7311(b)
Brokerage management 6
A broker with a sole proprietorship dies. What happens to the unexpired listing agreements?Answer: They may be promoted by the appointed broker and expire automatically 90 days after the death. Source: 49 Pa. Code 35.252
A broker's office is in the broker's private residence. What does the regulation require?Answer: An entrance to the office separate from the entrance to the residence. Source: 49 Pa. Code 35.242(b)
A buyer's deposit check comes with an offer. What lets the broker hold the check undeposited until the offer is accepted?Answer: The written permission of both the buyer and the seller. Source: 49 Pa. Code 35.324(b)
Buyer and seller both claim a deposit the broker holds in escrow, and settlement of the dispute looks remote without legal action. What may the broker do?Answer: After 30 days' notice to the parties, petition the county court to interplead the claimants. Source: 49 Pa. Code 35.327
By when must a broker deposit money belonging to another into an escrow account?Answer: By the end of the next business day following its receipt. Source: 63 P.S. 455.608.5(e)
How many routine inspections of a broker's office may the Commission make in a year?Answer: No more than four. Source: 49 Pa. Code 35.246(a)
This unofficial PA real estate broker exam study guide is a practice test: 50 of our own questions on the Pennsylvania state part, in the broker outline's proportions. It is not affiliated with the Pennsylvania State Real Estate Commission.
Read the full guide
PA broker exam study guide, section by section
The content outline in the Candidate Handbook, effective March 16, 2026, gives the broker's state part 40 scored questions: Real Estate Commission 4, licensure 6, agency and disclosure 10, regulations governing the activities of licensees 10, miscellaneous 5, brokerage management 5.
The broker-only lines of the outline
Three lines are marked broker only: types of licenses, eligibility for a license, and office requirements and inspections. That means the 240 hours and three years of section 511, the associate broker, the separate entrance of a home office and the limit of four routine inspections a year.
Where the law is published
The act is Act 9 of 1980 on the General Assembly's site, and the regulations are 49 Pa. Code Chapter 35.
Money belonging to another goes into escrow by the end of the next business day after receipt (49 Pa. Code 35.324).
An exclusive listing may not run past one year or renew automatically (49 Pa. Code 35.332).
A broker who designates agents for both sides of a sale is still a dual agent (section 606.5 of the act).
Questions and answers
How many questions are on the PA broker exam?
The Candidate Handbook lists 80 national questions in 150 minutes and 40 Pennsylvania questions in 60 minutes, each with 5 to 10 unscored pretest questions. The timed test on this page asks 40 in 60 minutes.
What score do you need to pass the Pennsylvania broker exam?
The handbook's table gives a minimum passing score of 75 for each part, on a scale of 0 to 100 that it says is not the percent of questions answered correctly. So this page counts right answers and names no pass mark.
Who can take the PA broker exam?
Section 511 of the act asks that you be at least 21 and a high school graduate, with 240 hours of real estate instruction and three years as a licensed salesperson, or qualifications the Commission deems equivalent.
Are these the real PA broker exam questions?
No. Each was written for this page from the act and the regulations, and the real exam is closed. No Pennsylvania broker or attorney has reviewed the bank. The national part is not here, and real estate math has its own page.