Pass Your Alabama Real Estate Exam the First Time

AL is a "Caveat Emptor" (Buyer Beware) state. Students often confuse this with the "Full Disclosure" rules taught in national prep.

Questions

120

80 NAT / 40 STATE

To Pass

70%

~84 / 120 TO PASS

Time Limit

3.5 Hrs

210 TOTAL MINUTES

Provider

Pearson VUE

AREC

Pass your Alabama Salesperson or Broker License

Alabama is one of the only states still operating under Caveat Emptor, and every candidate trained on national materials walks in expecting rules that do not apply here.

Courses built for a national audience teach seller disclosure as the default. Alabama takes a different approach, and the gap between what candidates expect and what AREC actually enforces is wide enough to fail entire sections. AI generated question banks were built for states with mandatory disclosure regimes. The content that defines Alabama exam performance was never part of those banks because those banks were not written by people who practice in this state.

The License Professor is built by licensed Alabama professionals who know what AREC tests. Every question on AREC regulations, trust accounting rules, and brokerage procedures is drawn from Alabama law and Commission rule, not from a shared national bank.

Alabama Sample Exams

Experience the real study interface — no account required.

Salesperson

Individuals new to real estate who want to start their career helping clients buy and sell property

Broker

Experienced professionals who want to operate independently or run their own brokerage

Three Topics that Trip Up Alabama Students Most

Caveat Emptor Rule

Alabama is one of only a handful of states that still follows "buyer beware" for used homes, meaning sellers have almost no duty to disclose defects — students bomb this because they confuse the three narrow exceptions (fiduciary duty, health/safety threats, direct buyer inquiry) with the full-disclosure rules taught in national prep.

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Violations & Disciplinary Actions

Violations is 15 of the 40 state questions per AREC's content outline — more than a third of the state portion — yet most prep courses barely touch it because it isn't a single memorable rule like caveat emptor. Students lose points on misrepresentation, improper advertising, and trust-account commingling scenarios they never practiced.

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RECAD Disclosures

The Real Estate Consumers Agency and Disclosure Act requires both a Brokerage Services Disclosure form AND an Agency Disclosure Office Policy, and the exam tests exact timing and signature requirements that trip up students who lump all Alabama disclosure forms together.

Read the full breakdown →

The Alabama Real Estate License Professor includes specialized deep dives for each of these.

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Alabama Real Estate Practice Questions

Sample questions from the Alabama real estate exam — with answers and explanations.

1. Buyer Marcus and seller Ms. Chen are both working with the same real estate firm on the same transaction. To avoid a firm-wide dual agency conflict, the broker designates salesperson Kevin to represent Marcus and a different salesperson, Renee, to represent Ms. Chen. What is this arrangement called?

  1. A.Subagency
  2. B.Designated agency
  3. C.Facilitation
  4. D.Implied dual agency
Explanation: Designated agency allows a broker to appoint one licensee within the firm to represent the buyer and a different licensee to represent the seller in the same transaction, so each consumer has an advocate rather than the firm acting as an undifferentiated dual agent. Subagency refers to a different arrangement where a cooperating licensee represents the listing broker's client rather than the buyer. Facilitation describes a non-agency relationship, and there is no recognized concept of "implied" dual agency created automatically by firm affiliation alone.

2. How long must an Alabama broker retain transaction records and documentation after a real estate transaction closes?

  1. A.1 year from closing date
  2. B.2 years from closing date
  3. C.3 years from closing date
  4. D.5 years from closing date
Explanation: Alabama law requires brokers to maintain all transaction records, including contracts, agreements, and correspondence, for at least three years from the date of closing or from the date of the listing if no closing occurs.

3. A lender denies loans to applicants in zip codes where minorities predominate. This practice is:

  1. A.Legitimate risk assessment
  2. B.Allowed under Alabama banking regulations
  3. C.Redlining and illegal under Fair Housing Act
  4. D.A permissible geographic pricing strategy
Explanation: Redlining—denying credit based on neighborhood characteristics correlated with protected classes—violates the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Zip code-based denials targeting minority areas constitute illegal discrimination regardless of stated rationale.
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More on Alabama Licensing

Deeper reading on the topics that matter most for Alabama candidates.

Alabama Real Estate Exam Structure: What to Expect

The Alabama Salesperson exam combines 80 general questions and 40 state-specific questions — 120 scored questions total, plus 10-15 unscored pretest items — in 210 minutes (3.5 hours). Pearson VUE reports one overall scaled score covering both portions combined, not a separate pass/fail threshold per portion — a scaled score of 70 or higher on the combined exam is a pass.

Question breakdown

General portion: 80 questions

Standard Pearson VUE national content.

Alabama portion: 40 questions

Topics:

  • Violations & Disciplinary Actions (15 questions) — the largest single category
  • Licensing Requirements (7 questions)
  • Broker Licenses, Company Licenses, and Place of Business (5 questions)
  • RECAD (3 questions)
  • License Status, Recovery Fund, Trust Funds, Estimated Closing Statement (10 questions combined)

The Broker exam uses this same 120-question, 3.5-hour structure and 70-point passing threshold as the Salesperson exam — if you've reviewed the breakdown above, you already know what to expect.

Time management

210 minutes for 120 scored questions = 105 seconds per question. Generous.

Cost structure

  • Pre-licensing (60 hours): $300-$600
  • Exam: $73
  • License: $30
  • Background check: ~$40
  • Total: $443-$743

Retake rules

Retakes allowed within your 6-month exam authorization window (unlimited attempts). $73 per attempt. A passing result is valid for 90 days when applying for your license.

Topics Covered on the Alabama Real Estate Exam

National Exam Topics (80 questions)

  1. Property Ownership — Estates, deeds, easements
  2. Land Use Controls — Zoning, government powers
  3. Valuation — Three approaches, CMA
  4. Financing — Mortgages, FHA/VA, RESPA, TILA
  5. Agency Principles — National agency framework
  6. Disclosures — Federal disclosures including lead paint
  7. Contracts — Listing agreements, purchase contracts
  8. Leasing — Lease provisions, landlord-tenant law

Alabama State Exam Topics (40 questions)

  1. Violations & Disciplinary Actions — Misrepresentation, advertising rules, failure to disclose, commingling — by far the largest state-portion category
  2. Alabama Licensing Requirements — Title 34 Chapter 27, AREC rules, qualifications, renewal, CE
  3. Broker Licenses, Company Licenses, and Place of Business — Qualifying broker rules, branch offices
  4. RECAD — Brokerage Services Disclosure, Agency Disclosure Office Policy, single agency vs. transaction brokerage
  5. License Status, Recovery Fund, Trust Funds, Estimated Closing Statement — smaller but scored categories

Why this list matters

Per AREC's official content outline (effective February 1, 2026), Violations Which May Result in Disciplinary Actions is 15 of the 40 state questions — more than a third of the state portion, and the largest single category by far. Licensing Requirements is next at 7. RECAD, despite the attention it gets in national prep courses, is only 3.

Source: AL state content outline #093301, effective 2026-02-01.

What this list doesn't tell you

Pearson VUE writes scenario-based questions. Practice questions, not just topic review.

Alabama Exam FAQ

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