Pass Your South Dakota Real Estate Exam the First Time

SD focuses heavily on the "Agency Disclosure" form and the specific penalties for failing to provide it on time.

Questions

142

90 NAT / 52 STATE

To Pass

75%

PASS BOTH PORTIONS INDEPENDENTLY

Time Limit

4.5 Hrs

270 TOTAL MINUTES

Provider

PSI

SDREC

Pass your South Dakota Broker Associate or Responsible Broker License

South Dakota has some of the lowest license exam volume in the country and almost no study resources built specifically for this state.

National prep courses treat South Dakota as a generic western state and skip the specific disclosure rules, adverse possession standards, and agency requirements that the SDREC exam draws from directly. AI language models trained on national content cannot cover state specific requirements accurately, and candidates who rely on generic materials are preparing for an exam that does not exist.

The License Professor is written by licensed South Dakota professionals who know the PSI state portion’s content. Every question on South Dakota disclosure obligations, adverse possession rules, and broker supervision requirements is drawn from South Dakota law.

South Dakota Sample Exams

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Broker Associate

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

Responsible Broker

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

Three Topics that Trip Up South Dakota Students Most

Agency Disclosure (Mandatory)

South Dakota mandates written agency disclosure before any contract is signed — miss the timing rule and you will lose easy points on the state portion.

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Adverse Possession Rules

South Dakota requires 20 years of open, continuous, and hostile possession (or 10 years with color of title plus tax payments) — the exam tests the difference between those two statutory periods.

Seller Disclosure Conditions

Sellers must provide the Property Condition Disclosure Statement before the buyer makes a written offer, but the long list of exemptions (court orders, foreclosures, fiduciary transfers) is where most students get tangled.

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

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South Dakota Real Estate Practice Questions

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

1. A property sells for $285,000 with a 6% total commission. The listing and selling brokers split 50/50. The selling agent receives 65% of her broker's share. How much does the selling agent earn?

  1. A.$11,115.00
  2. B.$8,550.00
  3. C.$5,557.50
  4. D.$17,100.00
Explanation: Split the money in the order it moves: $285,000 at 6% is $17,100, the two brokers split that to $8,550 each, and the selling agent takes 65% of her broker's half, or $5,557.50. That order is also the legal one, because SDCL 36-21A-124 has the affiliated broker compensate the licensee, so an agent's share always comes out of her own brokerage's side. The $11,115 figure tempts because it applies her 65% to the whole commission and skips the broker-to-broker split that happens first. In practice the closing pays the two brokerages, and each brokerage then pays its own agents.

2. In South Dakota, when is a seller exempt from providing a Property Condition Disclosure Statement for residential property?

  1. A.Buyer waived the right to receive disclosure in writing
  2. B.Seller never lived in the property and owned it less than one year
  3. C.Property transferred by court-appointed executor settling an estate
  4. D.Property is a rental that generated income for the past five years
Explanation: SDCL 43-4-43(3) exempts transfers by a fiduciary in the course of administering a decedent's estate, so an executor selling estate property does not owe the property condition disclosure statement that 43-4-38 otherwise requires before a written offer. A buyer waiver tempts because buyers waive inspections and contingencies all the time, but the 43-4-43 exemption list contains no waiver and 43-4-38 says the seller shall furnish the statement. In practice an executor often never lived in the house and knows little about it, which is why estate buyers lean on their own inspection.

3. A member of the public files a complaint against a South Dakota real estate licensee under SDCL chapter 36-1C. Which statement about the procedure is correct?

  1. A.The complaint must be filed within three years of the conduct complained of.
  2. B.The licensee has twenty business days to respond, and no deadline limits when the complaint itself may be filed.
  3. C.The licensee has twenty business days to respond, and complaints are barred two years after the conduct.
  4. D.Only the Commission itself, not a member of the public, may initiate a complaint.
Explanation: SDCL 36-1C-2 lets any person file a written complaint against a real estate licensee with no filing deadline, and 36-1C-3 gives the licensee twenty business days after service to respond, extendable for good cause. The answers with a two- or three-year bar tempt because some states do cut off stale complaints, West Virginia at two years for example, but neither chapter 36-1C nor the licensing chapter 36-21A sets any time limit. In practice the deadline that bites is yours, since 36-1C-3 makes failing to respond grounds for discipline on its own.
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South Dakota Real Estate Exam Structure: What to Expect

South Dakota's Broker Associate exam combines 90 national questions and 52 South Dakota-specific questions — 142 scored questions total — in 270 minutes.

Question breakdown

National portion: 90 questions, 150 minutes, 100 points possible, 75% passing

Contracts (19%) and Agency (13%) are the largest national categories.

State portion: 52 questions, 120 minutes, 52 points, 75% passing

  • Duties and Powers of the Real Estate Commission (4 items)
  • Licensing Requirements (6 items)
  • Statutory Requirements Governing the Activities of Licensees (42 items) — 81% of the state exam

Cost structure

  • Pre-licensing (116 hours): $400-$800
  • Exam (combo): $98
  • License application: $50
  • Background check: ~$40
  • Total: $588-$988

Retake rules

Retake only the failed portion — $98 per attempt, whether retaking one portion or both.

Topics Covered on the South Dakota Real Estate Exam

National Exam Topics (90 questions, by weight)

  1. Property Ownership (10%)
  2. Land Use Controls (5%)
  3. Valuation (8%)
  4. Financing (9%)
  5. Contracts (19%) — the largest national category
  6. Agency (13%)
  7. Property Disclosures (7%)
  8. Property Management (5%)
  9. Transfer of Title (6%)
  10. Practice of Real Estate (12%)
  11. Real Estate Calculations (6%)

South Dakota State Exam Topics (52 questions)

  1. Duties and Powers of the Real Estate Commission (4 items)
  2. Licensing Requirements (6 items)
  3. Statutory Requirements Governing the Activities of Licensees (42 items) — 81% of the state exam, the single most concentrated category found across any state in this sprint

Why this list matters

No other state reconciled this sprint concentrates its state exam this heavily into one category. Master Statutory Requirements Governing the Activities of Licensees and you've covered the overwhelming majority of South Dakota's state-specific content.

What this list doesn't tell you

Despite being one named category, "Statutory Requirements" spans a genuinely wide range — agency, disclosure, trust accounts, advertising, and license law violations. Study each sub-area individually, not as one undifferentiated block.

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