How to Pass the Delaware Real Estate
Exam in 2026

About 12 questions test how Delaware defines real property: land, improvements permanently affixed, and the rights conveyed with title. Expect fixture tests (intent, method of attachment, adaptation), the difference between real and personal property, legal descriptions, estates, and encumbrances such as liens and easements. Pitfall: candidates miss trade-fixture scenarios and confuse a fee-simple absolute with a defeasible estate created by a condition in the deed. Example: a retail tenant who installs custom shelving for the business may remove that trade fixture before the lease ends. Delaware's coastal and inland-bay parcels also raise riparian and access-easement issues. Click2CE drills classification, estate hierarchy, and encumbrance questions until the fixture tests become automatic, then layers in Delaware-specific scenarios the Pearson VUE exam tends to test.

About 12 questions cover Delaware agency. Delaware recognizes seller agency, buyer agency, dual agency, and designated agency with informed written consent, and requires the consumer information statement and agency disclosure to be provided. Fiduciary duties — loyalty, obedience, disclosure, confidentiality, accounting, and reasonable care — apply to clients, while honesty and disclosure of material defects are owed to all parties. Pitfall: candidates confuse a customer with a client and assume dual agency is permitted without written consent from both parties. Example: a brokerage may use designated agency so two affiliated licensees represent opposite parties while the firm acts as dual agent. Click2CE drills the Delaware disclosure timing and the duties owed under each relationship so the agency questions become predictable.

About 15 questions cover contract formation (offer, acceptance, consideration, capacity, legal purpose), purchase agreements, contingencies, and remedies. The statute of frauds requires real estate contracts to be in writing. Pitfall: candidates assume verbal modifications bind the parties and confuse a counteroffer (which rejects and replaces the original) with a simple inquiry. Earnest-money handling, contingency deadlines, and the difference between liquidated damages and specific performance are tested. Example: a seller who returns a buyer's offer with new terms has made a counteroffer, freeing the buyer to accept or walk. Delaware closings often involve attorney review, so contract contingencies and deadlines must be precise. Click2CE walks through formation, contingencies, and remedies with Delaware-specific scenarios.

About 12 questions cover mortgage instruments, qualification, government-backed loans (FHA, VA, USDA), and federal disclosure law (TILA, RESPA, TRID). Delaware primarily uses mortgages and is a judicial-foreclosure state — lenders generally must file a court action (including the historic scire facias process) to foreclose, which takes longer than a non-judicial power-of-sale. Pitfall: candidates assume a quick power-of-sale process and confuse front-end ratio (housing only) with back-end ratio (total debt). Example: a borrower with $6,000 monthly income and a 28% front-end limit qualifies for about $1,680 in PITI. Points are 1% of the loan each. Click2CE's AI Tutor walks through qualification ratios, points, and Delaware's judicial foreclosure timeline step by step.

About 8 questions test the federal Fair Housing Act and the Delaware Fair Housing Act, which adds protections beyond the federal classes — including marital status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, source of income, and creed. Federal classes are race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, and disability. Pitfall: candidates apply only federal classes and miss Delaware's broader list. Example: refusing a tenant because the rent will be paid through a housing voucher violates Delaware's source-of-income protection. Steering, blockbusting, and discriminatory advertising are heavily tested. Click2CE flags every Delaware addition and the advertising language that triggers violations so the prohibited-practice questions become predictable.

This is the largest section — about 18 questions on the Delaware Real Estate Commission (under the Division of Professional Regulation), license law, trust-account handling, the Real Estate Guaranty Fund, advertising rules, seller disclosure, and the realty transfer tax. Pitfall: commingling trust funds and missing required disclosures. Example: earnest money must be deposited into the broker's escrow account rather than an operating account, and Delaware's realty transfer tax is among the highest in the nation, typically split between buyer and seller unless the contract says otherwise. A Guaranty Fund claim may compensate consumers harmed by licensee misconduct after a judgment. Click2CE drills Commission rule citations and recent disciplinary trends until they are second nature.

About 14 calculation questions cover the three approaches to value (sales comparison, cost, income), CMA mechanics, commission splits, prorations, and transfer taxes. Memorize the T-formula (Part = Rate × Whole), GRM (price ÷ gross monthly rent), and cap rate (NOI ÷ value). Pitfall: mixing the 360-day banker's year with a 365-day calendar year and forgetting that Delaware's realty transfer tax applies to the sale price. Example: a property with $30,000 NOI sold at a 6% cap rate is worth $500,000; a transfer-tax problem multiplies the combined state-plus-county rate by the price. A licensee's CMA is not an appraisal — only licensed appraisers appraise. Click2CE's math worksheets show every step, including transfer-tax computations, so you learn the pattern.

About 6 questions cover the Delaware Residential Landlord-Tenant Code: security deposits, notice periods, habitability, and the eviction process. Delaware generally caps the security deposit at one month's rent for leases of a year or more and requires its return, with an itemized statement of deductions, within 20 days after the tenancy ends. Pitfall: candidates assume there is no deposit cap or miss the difference between an assignment and a sublease. Example: a landlord must provide proper written notice to terminate or to cure a lease violation before pursuing eviction in Justice of the Peace Court. Property managers generally need a broker's license. Click2CE covers the exact statutory deadlines the Commission expects on the exam.

About 8 questions cover the closing process, settlement statements (the Closing Disclosure and ALTA settlement statement), title insurance (owner's vs. lender's policies), and escrow. Delaware closings commonly involve a title company and an attorney, and the realty transfer tax is collected at closing. Pitfall: candidates forget the TRID three-business-day rule — the Closing Disclosure must reach the borrower three business days before consummation, and certain changes restart the clock. Example: switching from a fixed to an adjustable rate triggers a new three-day waiting period. Owner's title insurance protects the buyer against title defects; the lender's policy protects the loan amount. Click2CE walks through real settlement-statement line items and escrow procedures so the timing and math feel familiar.