101PD

California Broker · 40 hours

California Real Estate Broker Exam Prep — California Exam Prep, 40 hours

California Real Estate Broker Exam Prep covers broker supervision, finance, agency, valuation, and exam practice. Delivery, credential, and regulatory-credit eligibility are stated on the course page.

Professional training or exam-preparation material. No CE/MCLE/CPE credit hours are issued.

Course at a glance

Level
Beginner
Estimated time
40 hours
Prerequisite
No prior 101PD course is required. Check any separate exam, employer, or role eligibility before relying on this training.

Skills you will practice

  • Explain and apply §1.1 Real vs. personal property; fixtures.
  • Explain and apply §1.2 Freehold estates.
  • Explain and apply §1.3 Co-ownership and vesting.
  • Explain and apply §1.4 Encumbrances — easements, liens, restrictions, homestead.
  • Explain and apply §1.5 Land use — police power, subdivisions, takings.

Learning objectives

  • Explain and apply §1.1 Real vs. personal property; fixtures.
  • Explain and apply §1.2 Freehold estates.
  • Explain and apply §1.3 Co-ownership and vesting.
  • Explain and apply §1.4 Encumbrances — easements, liens, restrictions, homestead.
  • Explain and apply §1.5 Land use — police power, subdivisions, takings.

Assessment and timing

Knowledge check plus 2 final exam versions.

Passing score: 70%.

Final timing: 1 minute per question.

Hands-on practice

Applied course exercises

Use the course rules in practical scenarios and exercises drawn from the published syllabus.

  • §1.1 Real vs personal property — the broker's edge cases
  • §1.9 Chapter clinic
  • A. Decision clinic — ten broker-level calls
  • §1.10 Applied case files — ownership and land use, walked to the answer
  • §1.13 Legal descriptions workshop — the three systems, with worked math
  • §2.10 Chapter clinic — decisions, drills, and self-check

Full syllabus

Chapter 1 — Property Ownership and Land Use Controls (High-Yield Outline)

  • §1.1 Real vs. personal property; fixtures
  • §1.2 Freehold estates
  • §1.3 Co-ownership and vesting
  • §1.4 Encumbrances — easements, liens, restrictions, homestead
  • §1.5 Land use — police power, subdivisions, takings
  • §1.6 Water, mineral, air
  • §1.7 Legal descriptions
  • §1.8 Common-interest developments (Davis-Stirling)
  • §1.9 Chapter 1 numbers and trap pairs
  • §1.10 Rapid self-test — chapter 1 (answers inline)

Chapter 1 — Property Ownership and Land Use Controls and Regulations

  • §1.1 Real vs personal property — the broker's edge cases
  • §1.2 Estates — the freehold ladder with the litigation notes
  • §1.3 Vesting — the broker's counseling table (and its limits)
  • §1.4 Encumbrances — money and non-money
  • §1.5 The homestead — modern numbers, broker duties
  • §1.6 Subdivision law — the broker's statute pair
  • §1.7 Public land-use controls — the police-power stack
  • §1.8 Water, mineral, air — the resource rights
  • §1.9 Chapter clinic
  • A. Decision clinic — ten broker-level calls
  • B. Rapid drill — 16 one-liners
  • C. Number bank
  • D. Self-check Q&A
  • §1.10 Applied case files — ownership and land use, walked to the answer
  • §1.11 Statute reading room — the sections brokers get tested on
  • §1.12 Forty-item recall sweep — chapter 1
  • §1.13 Legal descriptions workshop — the three systems, with worked math
  • §1.14 Common-interest developments — Davis-Stirling in working depth

Chapter 2 — Laws of Agency and Fiduciary Duties (High-Yield Outline)

  • §2.1 Agency creation and the statutory cast
  • §2.2 Duties — fiduciary to principal, honest dealing to all
  • §2.3 Disclosure sequence — disclose, elect, confirm
  • §2.4 Dual agency
  • §2.5 Buyer representation — AB 2992 (2025)
  • §2.6 Compensation and listing types
  • §2.7 Supervision — Reg. 2725/2726 and the personnel statutes
  • §2.8 Offices, names, entities
  • §2.9 Termination and the discipline map
  • §2.10 Chapter 2 numbers and trap pairs
  • §2.11 Rapid self-test — chapter 2 (answers inline)

Chapter 2 — Laws of Agency and Fiduciary Duties: the Broker as Principal and Supervisor

  • §2.1 The agency relationship at broker depth
  • §2.2 The fiduciary bundle and the duties to third parties
  • §2.3 Agency disclosure mechanics — §2079.13–.17 sequencing
  • §2.4 Dual agency — consent, forbidden disclosures, and discipline
  • §2.5 AB 2992 buyer-representation agreements (2025 rules)
  • §2.6 Compensation: negotiability, procuring cause, referral fees, and finder's fees
  • §2.7 The responsible broker's supervision system — 10 CCR 2725
  • §2.8 Offices, names, teams, and the broker-officer
  • §2.9 Termination of agency and post-termination duties
  • §2.10 Chapter clinic — decisions, drills, and self-check
  • §2.11 Applied case files — agency failures and the broker who answers for them
  • §2.12 Statute reading room — agency's operative texts
  • §2.13 Trap-pair table — agency edition
  • §2.14 Thirty-item recall sweep — chapter 2
  • §2.15 The supervision self-audit — fifty checks a responsible broker runs quarterly

Chapter 3 — Property Valuation and Financial Analysis (High-Yield Outline)

  • §3.1 Value concepts and principles
  • §3.2 Sales-comparison approach
  • §3.3 Cost approach and depreciation
  • §3.4 Income approach
  • §3.5 Multipliers and investor metrics
  • §3.6 Reconciliation and reports
  • §3.7 Appraisal regulation
  • §3.8 Property-tax math
  • §3.9 Chapter 3 numbers and trap pairs
  • §3.10 Worked math bench — chapter 3
  • §3.11 Formula box — every valuation equation on one page

Chapter 3 — Property Valuation and Financial Analysis

  • §3.1 Value foundations
  • §3.2 Sales-comparison approach
  • §3.3 Cost approach and depreciation math
  • §3.4 Income approach — capitalization
  • §3.5 Investment and financial analysis for brokers
  • §3.6 Reconciliation and the appraisal report
  • §3.7 Appraisal regulation — USPAP, FIRREA, BREA
  • §3.8 Chapter clinic — decisions, drills, and self-check
  • §3.9 The broker's math workbook — valuation problems worked end to end
  • §3.10 Statute and standards reading room — appraisal regulation
  • §3.11 Trap-pair table — valuation edition
  • §3.12 Thirty-item recall sweep — chapter 3
  • §3.13 Property-tax and assessment mathematics — the broker's mill-rate bench
  • §3.14 Residential income analysis — a broker's underwriting file, end to end
  • §3.15 Valuation vocabulary bank — the forty terms that decide close calls

Chapter 4 — Financing (High-Yield Outline)

  • §4.1 Instruments and parties
  • §4.2 Non-judicial foreclosure timeline
  • §4.3 Anti-deficiency
  • §4.4 Junior financing, priority, clauses
  • §4.5 Seller financing and Article 7
  • §4.6 Federal consumer law — TRID, TILA, RESPA
  • §4.7 Programs and mortgage insurance
  • §4.8 Usury and California overlays
  • §4.9 Chapter 4 numbers and trap pairs
  • §4.10 Worked math bench — chapter 4
  • §4.11 Clause and instrument glossary — one-line definitions

Chapter 4 — Financing

  • §4.1 Instruments: note, trust deed, and the parties
  • §4.2 The non-judicial foreclosure timeline
  • §4.3 Anti-deficiency doctrine
  • §4.4 Junior financing, subordination, and priority
  • §4.5 Seller financing and statutory disclosures
  • §4.6 Institutional lending, TRID, and government programs
  • §4.7 Financing math drills
  • §4.8 Chapter clinic — decisions and self-check
  • §4.9 Applied case files — financing structured, defaulted, and litigated
  • §4.10 Statute reading room — financing's tested texts
  • §4.11 Trap-pair table and finance vocabulary bank
  • §4.12 Twenty-six-item recall sweep — chapter 4
  • §4.13 Amortization workshop — payment anatomy without a financial calculator
  • §4.14 Loan-program decision matrix — placing the borrower the exam describes
  • §4.15 California lending overlays — the state-law layer above the federal floor

Chapter 5 — Transfer of Property (High-Yield Outline)

  • §5.1 Deeds
  • §5.2 Recording and priority
  • §5.3 Mechanic's liens
  • §5.4 Title insurance
  • §5.5 Escrow
  • §5.6 Probate and court-supervised sales
  • §5.7 Transfer taxes and reassessment
  • §5.8 Prorations and closing math
  • §5.9 Chapter 5 numbers and trap pairs
  • §5.10 Rapid self-test — chapter 5 (answers inline)

Chapter 5 — Transfer of Property

  • §5.1 Deeds — validity, types, and delivery
  • §5.2 Acknowledgment, recording, and priority
  • §5.3 Title insurance
  • §5.4 Escrow — law and practice at broker level
  • §5.5 Probate, trust, and court-supervised sales
  • §5.6 Transfer taxes and property-tax reassessment overlays
  • §5.7 Chapter clinic — decisions and self-check
  • §5.8 Applied case files — transfer gone right and wrong
  • §5.9 Statute reading room — recording, title, and tax texts
  • §5.10 Trap-pair table and title vocabulary bank
  • §5.11 Twenty-four-item recall sweep — chapter 5
  • §5.12 Prorations workshop — the closing statement, line by line
  • §5.13 Vesting and transfer-choice counseling file — five clients, five answers

Chapter 6 — Practice of Real Estate and Mandated Disclosures (High-Yield Outline)

  • §6.1 Trust funds and the deposit clock
  • §6.2 Trust-account rules
  • §6.3 Records and reconciliation
  • §6.4 Advance fees, PRLS, property management
  • §6.5 Advertising and license identification
  • §6.6 The residential disclosure stack (1–4 units)
  • §6.7 Fair housing
  • §6.8 Licensing, discipline, Recovery Account
  • §6.9 Business opportunities and mobilehomes
  • §6.10 Chapter 6 numbers and trap pairs
  • §6.11 Rapid self-test — chapter 6 (answers inline)
  • §6.12 Disclosure-timing master table (broker's file checklist)

Chapter 6 — Practice of Real Estate and Mandated Disclosures: Brokerage Operations, Trust Funds, Supervision

  • §6.1 Trust funds — identification and the deposit clock
  • §6.2 The trust account — architecture and the $200 rule
  • §6.3 Trust-fund records and reconciliation
  • §6.4 Advance fees and property management operations
  • §6.5 Advertising, solicitation, and license identification
  • §6.6 The disclosure stack for 1–4 unit residential sales
  • §6.7 Fair housing at broker depth
  • §6.8 Licensing, renewal, discipline, and the Recovery Account
  • §6.9 Business opportunities, mobilehomes, and adjacent regulated sales
  • §6.10 Chapter clinic — decisions, drills, and self-check
  • §6.11 Applied case files — the DRE audit and the disclosure lawsuit
  • §6.12 Statute reading room — operations texts brokers quote
  • §6.13 The broker's office manual — a 2725 blueprint the exam rewards
  • §6.14 Forty-item recall sweep — chapter 6
  • §6.15 Risk management — the brokerage as a defendable enterprise
  • §6.16 Property management economics — the management contract as a profit center
  • §6.17 The broker's disclosure-timing master table
  • §6.18 Chapter 6 vocabulary bank — operations terms the distractors are built from

Chapter 7 — Contracts (High-Yield Outline)

  • §7.1 Formation and the Statute of Frauds
  • §7.2 Classification and genuine assent
  • §7.3 Discharge and remedies
  • §7.4 The purchase agreement and contingencies
  • §7.5 Options and rights of first refusal
  • §7.6 Leases and landlord-tenant
  • §7.7 Chapter 7 numbers and trap pairs
  • §7.8 Rapid self-test — chapter 7 (answers inline)
  • §7.9 Limitations, notices, and deadlines grid — contracts and beyond

Chapter 7 — Contracts

  • §7.1 Formation — the four essentials plus the writing
  • §7.2 Classification and status vocabulary
  • §7.3 Performance, discharge, and remedies
  • §7.4 The purchase agreement in operation
  • §7.5 Options and rights of first refusal
  • §7.6 Leases as contracts and conveyances
  • §7.7 Chapter clinic — decisions, drills, and self-check
  • §7.8 Applied case files — contracts litigated from formation to remedy
  • §7.9 Statute reading room — contract texts the DRE quotes
  • §7.10 Trap-pair table and contract vocabulary bank
  • §7.11 Thirty-item recall sweep — chapter 7
  • §7.12 Cross-chapter mixed self-test — forty items in exam order (answers follow)
  • §7.13 Exam-day protocol — how the 200-question day is actually won
  • §7.14 Master number appendix — every figure in this course, one table

Sample from Part I

Chapter 1 — Property Ownership and Land Use Controls (High-Yield Outline) Cram companion: 15% of the exam (~30 Q). Every § below is a citation anchor for the question pool. Practice material — not official exams; not affiliated with the DRE. §1.1 Real vs. personal property; fixtures Real = land + affixed + appurtenant + immovable by law; personal (chattel) = everything else; crops: fructus naturales real, industriales (emblements) personal to the cultivator. Fixture test MARIA — Method, Adaptability, Relationship (buyer over seller, tenant over landlord), Intention (objective, controls), Agreement (contract overrides all). Trade fixtures: tenant's business installs, removable by term end with repair. Manufactured home on permanent foundation + recorded HCD form 433A = real property. Severance turns real to personal (harvested crop); annexation the reverse. §1.2 Freehold estates Fee simple absolute = maximum interest. Fee simple defeasible: determinable ("so long as" — automatic possibility of reverter) vs. condition subsequent ("but if" — power of termination, election needed). Life estate: measured by a life (pur autre vie = another's); life tenant owes no WASTE, pays taxes/interest; reversion returns to grantor, remainder to third party (vested vs. contingent). Estate ≠ possession date: estates in possession vs. future interests. §1.3 Co-ownership and vesting Joint tenancy: four unities (Time, Title, Interest, Possession), equal shares, RIGHT OF SURVIVORSHIP, no probate, no will control; severed by conveyance (§683.2 unilateral deed must RECORD before death). Tenancy in common: unity of possession only, unequal shares fine, inheritable. Community property: acquired during marriage; equal management; BOTH spouses sign realty instruments (Fam. Code §1102); wills pass half. CP with right of survivorship (§682.1): survivorship + full double step-up. Separate property: pre-marriage, gift, bequest + their rents. Partnership/LLC/corporate title; tenancy in partnership. Partition action ends co-ownership. Probate-avoidance vesting: trust, CPWROS, TOD deed (ch5). §1.4 Encumbrances — easements, liens, restrictions, homestead Easement appurtenant (dominant/servient, runs with land) vs. in gross (no dominant tenement). Creation: express grant/reservation, implication, NECESSITY (landlocked; ends with necessity), PRESCRIPTION (open, notorious, hostile, continuous 5 years — no taxes, no exclusivity). Termination: merger, express release, abandonment (intent + conduct), prescription against use. License = revocable personal permission, no interest. Encroachment: 3-yr limitations. CC&Rs/equitable servitudes: enforced by injunction; created in declarations. Liens: specific (TD, mechanic's, taxes, attachment on parcel) vs. general (judgment 10 yrs renewable, IRS); priority by recording except taxes first, mechanic's relate-back. Homestead: automatic $300k–$600k (county median-indexed); declared adds 6-month proceeds protection; never beats consensual/PM liens, mechanic's, taxes. §1.5 Land use — police power, subdivisions, takings Police power (no compensation): general plan, zoning (R/C/M/A), setbacks, height, density; nonconforming use grandfathered (no enlargement; amortization). Variance = hardship relief (no self-created hardship); conditional use permit = compatible exception; rezoning = legislative; spot zoning attacked. Building codes + certificate of occupancy. Eminent domain (compensation): public use, just compensation = FMV; inverse condemnation when regulation or damage takes without filing. ADU/JADU: ministerial 60-day approval, JADU ≤500 sq ft; SB 9 duplex/lot-split ministerial for urban single-family. Subdivision Map Act: final map 5+ lots, parcel map 2–4, local control, no sales pre-recordation.

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California Real Estate Broker Exam Prep

Course FAQ

What will California Real Estate Broker Exam Prep cover?

The planned syllabus covers broker supervision, finance, agency, valuation, and exam practice with California-specific explanations and practical applications.

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Enrollment opens only after the content status is PUBLISHED. Drafting pages offer a waitlist instead.

Publicly verifiable completion

After passing, the certificate PDF includes a unique certificate number, a random secure verification code, a record fingerprint, and a scannable QR link. The online record confirms the 101PD completion and preserves the distinction between training and regulator-approved credit.

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