Delaware Runs Statutory Agency. The Exam Tests the Gap.

Delaware operates under Statutory Agency, not common law fiduciary principles, and the exam tests that distinction throughout the agency section.

The Delaware Real Estate Commission governs licensing in the state. Pearson VUE administers the exam: 40 state specific questions and 80 national questions, with a 75% minimum to pass. Delaware's statutory agency framework, the CIS delivery triggers, and the Coastal Zone Act's development prohibitions are the three areas where national prep diverges most sharply from what Delaware law actually requires. The exam tests precise statutory knowledge, not general agency principles.

Statutory Agency Law

Delaware's statutory agency system means that fiduciary duties don't attach automatically. A consumer must affirmatively elect them in writing. Candidates trained on common law agency walk into the exam expecting the opposite. The statute is more specific than that: until the written election happens, the broker owes only the duties defined by statute, nothing more.

Delaware defaults to "statutory agency" where duties are defined by statute, NOT as a fiduciary, students bomb this because they confuse it with common law agency, not realizing a consumer must affirmatively elect a written agreement to get fiduciary-level representation.

The DREC exam will test what statutory agency duties look like versus fiduciary duties, what a consumer must do to elect fiduciary-level representation, and what happens when no written election is made. Applying common law fiduciary principles to a Delaware agency scenario produces the wrong answer on every question where this distinction matters.

Delaware's statutory agency framework is distinct from its neighbors. Maryland uses its own Understanding Representation disclosure framework, and New Jersey requires the Consumer Information Statement. Both differ from how Delaware defines and discloses agency relationships on the state exam.

CIS (Consumer Information Statement)

The CIS has three delivery triggers in Delaware, and the rule is the "earliest of": the first trigger that fires is the one that matters. Candidates who learn only one trigger fail every CIS timing question. I don't make the rules. I just make sure you know them better than whoever's sitting next to you.

The CIS must be delivered at the earlier of the first scheduled appointment, first property showing, or offer submission, students fail because they mix up the three delivery triggers and don't understand what the CIS explains about statutory versus common law agency.

Memorize all three CIS delivery triggers and understand that the "earliest of" rule governs. The Pearson VUE exam will present a transaction timeline and ask when the CIS must have been delivered. The answer depends on which triggering event occurred first, not on when the broker felt it was appropriate.

Coastal Zone Act

The Coastal Zone Act is a 1971 flat prohibition, not a zoning ordinance with variances, not a permit system with flexibility for heavy industrial uses. Candidates who assume coastal development restrictions can be waived with the right permit will miss every question on this topic.

Delaware's 1971 Act flatly prohibits new heavy industrial development within the coastal zone and regulates manufacturing through a permit system, students miss how broadly the Act restricts commercial real estate development along Delaware's coast.

Know that the prohibition on new heavy industrial development in the coastal zone is absolute, understand which types of development require a permit versus which are outright banned, and be prepared to identify when a proposed commercial project crosses the line the 1971 Act draws. The DREC exam will present development scenarios and ask whether the Coastal Zone Act applies and what the legal consequence is. This is the kind of detail the exam loves, and most prep courses skip.