Georgia Real Estate Exam Terms, by Content Area

Real Estate Education, Research and Recovery FundGA

It protects the public, not the licensee. The licensee remains liable to repay the fund, and their licence is affected.

Inactive licenseGA

Inactive does not mean expired or lapsed. The licence exists and is activated by filing a Sponsoring Broker Statement.

BRRETAGA

Nearly every BRRETA question reduces to one prior question: is there a written brokerage engagement? If not, the person is a customer whatever the agent has been doing for them.

ClientGA

Length of relationship, number of viewings and volume of texts create no client relationship. Only the written engagement does.

CustomerGA

Honesty to a customer never requires disclosing a client's confidential information, such as the lowest price the seller would accept.

Designated agencyGA

Confidential information does not travel between designated agents. Sharing a firm is not sharing confidences, and questions test exactly that.

Dual agencyGA

Both words matter. Oral consent fails, and consent given without understanding fails. Options offering verbal agreement are there to be picked.

Due diligence periodGA

It gives the buyer a right to leave, not a right to compel repairs. Options offering a repair obligation are wrong.

Trust accountGA

Mixing trust funds with operating funds is commingling and is a disciplinary matter regardless of intent or of whether anyone lost money.

Security deedGA

Answer options routinely offer mortgage, deed of trust and security deed together. Only one is the Georgia instrument, and national study material trains the wrong reflex.

Title theoryGA

Questions ask who holds title during the loan term. In a lien theory state the answer is the borrower. In Georgia it is the lender.

Transfer taxGA

It follows the price. The intangible recording tax follows the loan. Stems give you both numbers precisely so you can apply the wrong one.

Intangible recording taxGA

Using the sale price instead of the loan amount. This is the single most reliable Georgia math trap on the exam.

Assessment ratioGA

Applying millage to the full market value. Skip the ratio and every figure after it is wrong, including the answer that appears in the options.

Specific performance

Offered alongside liquidated damages and rescission. The distinguishing idea is that money is an inadequate substitute for land.

Counteroffer

Candidates treat a small change as an acceptance with a tweak. Any change kills the original offer entirely.

Puffing

It becomes misrepresentation the moment it states something factual and untrue. The line is opinion versus fact, not enthusiasm versus restraint.

Steering

Distinguished from blockbusting, which induces panic selling, and redlining, which is a refusal of credit by geography.

Encroachment

Distinguished from an easement, which is a right to use land, and a licence, which is revocable permission. Physical intrusion means encroachment.

Loan-to-value ratio

Dividing the down payment by the price. LTV is always loan over value, and the down payment is simply what remains.

Discount point

Taking one percent of the sale price rather than the loan. Points always follow the loan.

Capitalisation rate

Using gross rent instead of net operating income. The word net is doing all the work in the definition.

Escheat

Confused with eminent domain, which is a taking for public use with compensation, and with intestate succession, which applies when heirs do exist.

Eminent domain

Eminent domain is the power and condemnation is the process. Questions offer both and expect you to know which word was asked for.

Nonconforming use

Confused with a variance, which is permission granted after the fact because of a hardship. Grandfathered means nonconforming.