Mixed topics: national and Illinois
Six Illinois real estate exam scenarios with explained answers
Practice choosing the action or calculation that fits the facts. These six original questions cover selected national and Illinois topics. Each includes the controlling source, the reason every alternative works or fails, and a changed fact that tests the same boundary.
Last reviewed:
Choose from the stated facts
Read the situation and make a choice before opening its explanation. The question supplies the facts needed for the issue it asks about. Avoid adding an agreement, exemption, authority or payment that is absent.
Illinois II.I: Handling of monies
1. Conflicting demands for earnest money
An Illinois sponsoring broker holds earnest money after a purchase contract falls through. Buyer and seller send conflicting written demands for the entire deposit. There is no joint release or controlling court order. The seller insists that the buyer clearly breached. What should the broker do with the disputed funds now?
- Release everything to the seller after deciding the breach argument.
- Continue holding the disputed funds in escrow pending an authorized resolution.
- Divide the deposit equally because both parties claim it.
- Follow a contract's unilateral-disbursement clause despite the known dispute.
Check the answer: Conflicting demands for earnest money
B is correct. B fits the custody issue: the broker knows of a contested disbursement and lacks an authorized disposition. A makes the escrow holder the judge of the contract dispute. C invents permission to split the money. D ignores actual knowledge of the controversy; a unilateral clause does not remove the disputed-funds restriction in these facts. Holding the deposit does not decide who ultimately deserves it.
Change the facts: Change the facts to a valid written direction from all required parties resolving the disbursement, with no conflicting order or other legal bar. The broker may then follow that authorized direction under the applicable rules; the original reason for continuing to hold no longer exists.
Source: Rule 1450.750(h), disputed escrow and authorized resolution
Illinois II.D: Brokerage agreements
2. Marketing before the seller signs
A consumer asks an Illinois broker to market a home for sale. The seller has only given oral approval. No written brokerage agreement exists. The broker plans to publish the property on the firm's website today and obtain the agreement before the first showing tomorrow. Under the current seller-side rule, what must change?
- Nothing, because the agreement is needed only before a showing.
- Nothing, because website marketing is outside the agreement rule.
- Collect the brokerage fee today to replace the writing.
- Enter the written brokerage agreement before marketing or listing the property.
Check the answer: Marketing before the seller signs
D is correct. D follows the seller-side timing in Rule 1450.770(g). A delays the agreement until after marketing has begun. Signing tomorrow does not make today's earlier publication comply with the before-marketing requirement. B treats the proposed property marketing as an exception the stated rule does not supply. C substitutes payment for the required agreement. This question concerns the seller path; buyer and tenant timing has its own provisions.
Change the facts: If the required written agreement is properly entered before today's marketing, this particular timing defect is removed. The agreement's contents, authority and advertising requirements still need to be satisfied; the change does not approve every proposed advertisement.
Source: Rule 1450.770(g), seller agreement before marketing or listing
Illinois IV.D: Property disclosure report
3. A renovated house called new
An investor rehabilitates an occupied, 100-year-old Illinois single-family house, then offers it for sale. Nobody has lived there since the renovation. Assume the transaction is otherwise covered by the Residential Real Property Disclosure Act and no other exemption applies. Does the never-occupied new-construction exemption excuse the seller?
- No. Rehabilitation of existing residential property is excluded from that exemption.
- Yes. Vacancy after renovation makes the building newly constructed.
- Yes. Any investor's transfer is exempt.
- Yes. A buyer's planned inspection automatically removes the seller's duty.
Check the answer: A renovated house called new
A is correct. A applies Section 15(9), which distinguishes new construction from rehabilitation. B changes the meaning of construction history into recent occupancy. C invents an investor exemption. D substitutes an inspection plan for the statutory exemption conditions. The stem expressly removes the need to decide whether another listed exemption applies.
Change the facts: Change the history to genuinely newly constructed residential property that has never been occupied. Section 15(9)'s exemption can then fit that seller transfer. That does not erase every other applicable disclosure law or excuse false statements.
Source: 765 ILCS 77/15(9), new construction excludes rehabilitation
National IV.A and XI.B: Financing and Calculations
4. The extra price in a financing problem
A home sells for $310,000. The buyer obtains a $250,000 loan with a charge of two discount points. The problem asks only for the dollar points charge. What is that amount?
- $6,200
- $600
- $5,000
- $50,000
Check the answer: The extra price in a financing problem
C is correct. C is $250,000 × 0.02 = $5,000. A uses the sale price as the base. B takes 1 percent of the $60,000 price-minus-loan difference, rather than two points on the loan. D uses 20 percent instead of 2 percent. The points charge does not by itself establish the reduction in the interest rate.
Change the facts: Change only the loan to $310,000 while retaining two points. The charge becomes $6,200, so A is correct under the new facts. Changing only the property price while keeping the original loan would leave C unchanged.
Source: CFPB points guidance: one point is 1 percent of the loan
Illinois I.D: Sponsorship and eligibility
6. The unfinished sponsor change
An Illinois broker's sponsorship terminates at 10 a.m. The broker has not established valid sponsorship with another firm. At 10:30 a.m., a buyer asks the broker to show a house and negotiate an offer. The broker points to the 24-hour Division-notification period as a reason to continue. Which answer fits the rule?
- Continue licensed work until the 24-hour notification period ends.
- Continue because an earlier exam pass keeps sponsorship active.
- Continue under the former firm's name until an online listing changes.
- Do not perform the requested licensed activities while sponsorship is terminated and valid new sponsorship has not been established.
Check the answer: The unfinished sponsor change
D is correct. D follows Rule 1450.115(c): termination automatically changes the license to inactive, and licensed activity is prohibited until valid new sponsorship exists. A turns a reporting period into a practice grace period. B confuses a past exam result with current sponsorship. C treats a display or name as continuing authority. The rule's effect is tied to actual termination, not a later screen update.
Change the facts: Assume valid new sponsorship has been established, the broker is otherwise eligible and active, and the new firm has authorized the work under the required client arrangements. The termination gap no longer supplies this prohibition. The new authority does not retroactively authorize work performed during the gap.
Source: Rule 1450.115(c), status after termination of sponsorship
A mixed set has no single-area percentage
The PSI Illinois booklet dated June 24, 2026 supplies the public broker outline used for these topic labels. The six-question set is a selection, not a miniature exam with PSI's full distribution.
| Questions | Public outline connection | Decision practiced |
|---|---|---|
| 1 and 2 | Illinois License Act: monies and brokerage agreements | Custody authority and seller agreement timing |
| 3 | Illinois Disclosures: property disclosure report | New construction versus rehabilitation |
| 4 | National Financing and Real Estate Calculations | Points base and percentage conversion |
| 5 | Additional Illinois laws: Human Rights Act | Tenant rent share in a supplied income test |
| 6 | Illinois Licensing Requirements: sponsorship | Immediate status versus notification timing |
The booklet edition date is not a claim that every law took effect that day. In particular, the current seller-agreement timing is from Rule 1450.770(g), amended July 13, 2026. A source predating that amendment can describe an earlier version.
Use the complete broker outline to check the areas this small set does not test. No fixed number of actual PSI scenario questions is established by these exercises.
Explain the fact that changed the answer
For a missed or guessed answer, identify the decisive fact: conflicting demands, marketing before a writing, rehabilitation rather than new construction, the loan amount, the tenant's rent share, or an actual termination. Then explain why your alternative fails on that fact.
Try the changed version without relying on the old letter. A correct choice can become wrong when the base, event or authority changes. Conversely, a harmless change to the property price does not change a charge calculated only on an unchanged loan.
The failed-portion guide explains how to keep national and Illinois results separate when planning a retake. For another broader set, the free practice questions offer a different exercise; a practice result is still not an official PSI decision.
Mixed scenario practice questions
Are these official PSI questions?
No. They are original educational scenarios based on the public outline and the adjacent primary sources. They do not reproduce live PSI items, demonstrate PSI difficulty or predict a passing result.
Which exam topic does this practice page cover?
It mixes selected national financing and calculation concepts with Illinois licensing, License Act, additional-law and disclosure topics. It has no single-area weight. Six questions do not provide the full topic distribution of either exam portion.
Why explain the wrong options?
Each alternative shows a different error in the base, role, timing, authority or claimed exemption. Identify that error, then check whether a changed fact would alter the answer. A remembered answer letter supplies little information about that distinction.
Does a high score here prove exam readiness?
No. This small set is instructional and has not been calibrated against PSI outcomes. Use the explanations to choose what to revisit, then try unfamiliar work across the current national and Illinois outlines.
Practice another decision with changed facts
If you want more original questions and explanations, you can download Pass Illinois. Use the feedback to find the rule or calculation you need to revisit. The app is optional preparation; it does not provide transaction advice, replace required education or guarantee a passing result.