Michigan Land Division Act Controls Every Parcel Split

Michigan's approach to land division, residential leases, and agency disclosure reflects a regulatory framework that is specific to this state and is not covered accurately by any national prep course.

Land division, tenant protection, and licensing structure each have Michigan-specific rules that no national prep course gets right. The PSI exam tests all three.

The LARA governs real estate licensing in Michigan. The PSI exam tests 35 state specific questions alongside 80 national questions, with a minimum passing score of 70%. All three topics below appear with regularity in the state portion and are where well-prepared Michigan candidates separate themselves.

Land Division Act

Michigan's Act 288 has acreage tiers, redivision waiting periods, and parcel limits that combine in ways no other state replicates. Candidates who memorize the general concept rather than Michigan's specific sliding scale get these questions wrong. The exam doesn't reward overthinking here: know the acreage tiers, know the parcel limits, know the waiting period.

Michigan's Act 288 governs how parcels can be split without platting, and the 10 year redivision rules with sliding scale parcel limits (based on acreage tiers up to 10 parcels) are an exam landmine most students memorize wrong.

The exam will test the county approval requirement, the specific acreage thresholds that determine how many parcels are allowed, and the 10-year waiting period before a parcel can be divided again.

Truth in Renting Act

Michigan's 1978 Truth in Renting Act divides lease clauses into three categories: required, prohibited, and permitted. Candidates who study "landlord-tenant law" generically can't answer questions that ask which category a specific clause falls into. I know, I know, another prohibited clause list. But this one actually matters on the exam because Michigan tests specific clause types, not just the concept.

This 1978 act specifies which clauses are prohibited and which are mandatory in residential leases, exam questions test whether a given lease provision is legally void under Michigan law, and students routinely confuse what is required versus banned.

The exam will test whether a specific lease provision is void under the Act, which means you need to know the prohibited list, not just the concept that some clauses are unenforceable.

Be ready to distinguish what the Act mandates from what it bans, because the PSI exam frames questions around specific clause types and asks whether they are valid, void, or required under Michigan law.

Rental disclosure laws vary significantly in the Midwest. The Wisconsin exam tests WB approved forms for lease transactions, and Indiana covers landlord obligations under its own rental statutes. Neither state has an equivalent to Michigan's Truth in Renting Act disclosure requirements.

Occupational Code Article 25

Michigan's licensing tiers under Article 25 don't map neatly onto the salesperson/broker framework used in most other states, and candidates who assume they do consistently misidentify which license category applies in a given scenario.

Article 25 defines the licensing structure for brokers, associate brokers, and salespersons, exam takers consistently mix up which entity types can hold broker licenses versus which are limited to individuals only.

Know the difference between a broker, an associate broker, and a salesperson under Article 25, and know which entity types (corporations, LLCs, partnerships) are eligible for each tier.

Michigan is one of the few states with a distinct "associate broker" designation, and the LARA exam tests the rights and restrictions of that license category in ways that have no national-prep equivalent.