California Real Estate Exam: 10 Agency & Disclosure Questions (2026 Practice)
Episode 2 of the Quibank California Real Estate series drills the exam's most heavily tested cluster: laws of agency and disclosure. Ten real practice questions with answers and one-line explanations — fiduciary duties (ACOLD), agent types, ostensible authority, ratification, California's Disclose-E
Transcript
Agency and Disclosure is the heart of the California Reel estate exam. Here are 10 questions you must be able to answer. Try each one before I give the answer. Question 1.
A listing agent owes the seller fiduciary duties, remembered by the acronym ACOLD what are they? Accountability, Care, Abedience, Loyalty and Disclosure. Question 2. An owner hires a property manager to lease, maintain and collect rent for years.
What kind of agent is that? A general agent, one who handles an ongoing series of acts. A special agent, by contrast, handles just one transaction. Question 3.
A principal's own words and conduct lead a third party to reasonably believe someone is their agent, though no authority was actually granted. What is that? Estensible or apparent authority. Question 4.
Someone signs a contract for an owner without authority and the owner later learns of it and accepts the benefits. How was that agency created? By ratification. Question 5.
California's agency disclosure has three steps in a set order. What are they? Disclose, then elect, then confirm. Question 6.
As a disclosed dual agent, the seller privately tells you the lowest price she will accept. Can you tell the buyer? No, a dual agent may never reveal either side's bottom line price. Question 7.
An agent secretly represents both the buyer and the seller without disclosing it. When that is discovered, what happens? Forfeiture of commission plus possible rescission of the deal and discipline. Question 8.
On a 1 to 4 unit home, California law requires the listing broker to do what before the sale, conduct a reasonably competent and diligent visual inspection of the accessible areas, and disclose what they find. This comes from the Easton case. Question 9. Does a home sold at a foreclosure, a trustee's sale, need a transfer disclosure statement?
No, foreclosure and trustee sales are exempt. Question 10. An agent tells homeowners that minority families are moving in and they should sell now before values drop. What illegal practice is that?
Blockbusting, also called panic peddling. Quick recap. Fiduciary duties are a COLD disclosure goes, disclose, elect, confirm. A dual agent never reveals a bottom line price.
And a foreclosure sale is exempt from the disclosure statement. Drill the full California question bank, free at dot com. English, Chinese and Spanish with no sign up.