Ontario RE Essentials Exam common mistakes
Ontario RE Essentials Exam · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Calling every person in the transaction a 'client' and asserting fiduciary duties toward a buyer the brokerage has never signed an agreement with.
Everyday industry speech and older study material still use 'customer', so candidates carry a pre-TRESA mental model into questions about duty of care, loyalty and full disclosure.
What to do instead
Before answering, establish who signed what: seller client under a listing agreement, buyer client under a buyer representation agreement, otherwise a self-represented party. Honesty, fairness and disclosure of material facts apply to everyone; fiduciary duties (loyalty, obedience, full disclosure, confidentiality, accounting) attach only to clients.
Treating multiple representation and designated representation as interchangeable, or assuming a brokerage can act for both sides because 'the clients don't mind'.
Both concepts involve one brokerage and two opposing clients, and the words are used loosely in office conversation, so the consent and disclosure requirements blur together.
What to do instead
Multiple representation means the brokerage itself represents two or more clients in the same trade; designated representation means the brokerage assigns different salespersons to represent each client. Both require disclosure and the written, informed consent of every client, obtained before the trade. Learn which one the question is describing before choosing an answer.
Leaving a buyer's deposit cheque with the seller or the salesperson, or parking it in the brokerage's operating account until closing.
Deposits feel like a private arrangement between the two parties, and the offer itself does not explain the trust rules, so candidates answer from intuition about 'holding' money.
What to do instead
Money received on behalf of a client is trust money: deposit it promptly into the brokerage's trust account, issue a receipt, record the entry, and reconcile the account as the regulation requires. Interest is paid out only where the account is interest-bearing and there is written direction on who receives it.
Calculating every date in the agreement of purchase and sale the same way, treating 'five days' and 'five business days' as identical and ignoring the irrevocability clock.
Offer forms mix calendar-day clauses, business-day clauses and a separate irrevocable-until time, and candidates build one mental timeline instead of reading each clause's counting rule.
What to do instead
Take the date of acceptance and build a separate line for each date: irrevocability (runs from delivery, in the offer's own terms), each condition's satisfaction and waiver or notice deadline, and completion. Business days exclude weekends and Ontario statutory holidays; when the agreement says time is of the essence, a missed date is a breach, not a technicality.
Assuming the buyer pays all closing costs and the seller pays none, or forgetting that Toronto has a municipal land transfer tax in addition to the Ontario tax.
Textbook summaries often list one grand 'closing costs' number, and first-time buyer refunds get confused with an exemption, so the answer feels obvious when it is only half right.
What to do instead
Build a checklist: Ontario land transfer tax (with the first-time buyer refund), municipal land transfer tax inside Toronto, GST/HST on new or substantially renovated housing with the new housing rebate, adjustments for prepaid property tax and utilities, condominium status certificate and common expense adjustments, title insurance and legal fees. Note that commission is also subject to HST.
Producing a comparative market analysis by dividing each comparable's sale price by its square footage and applying that dollar figure straight to the subject property.
Exam items supply superficially similar sold properties and a price-per-square-foot calculation looks rigorous and quick, so it crowds out the adjustment process.
What to do instead
Select comparables that are genuinely similar in location, style, age, size, lot and condition, adjust each one for the differences, and weight most heavily the comparable needing the fewest adjustments. Report a supported range, not a single number, and keep the analysis distinct from an appraisal, which is a regulated valuation performed by an accredited appraiser.
Writing advertising answers that let a salesperson promote themselves or a property under their own name with no brokerage identification.
Personal branding, team pages and social media make the individual the visible brand, so candidates answer from what advertising looks like rather than what the regulation requires.
What to do instead
Advertising must identify the brokerage by its registered name, and a team name may only be used if it is registered with the regulator and used together with the brokerage name. Check consent before advertising a client's property, and keep copies of advertising for the required record-retention period.
Answering land-use questions with what 'should' be permitted on a property rather than with the instrument that actually controls it.
Official plans, zoning by-laws, minor variances and legal non-conforming uses are all described as 'planning rules', so they collapse into one idea under exam pressure.
What to do instead
Separate them: the official plan sets municipal policy direction; the zoning by-law sets permitted uses and standards such as setbacks and height; a minor variance from the Committee of Adjustment relieves a standard but cannot add a new use; a change of use generally needs a zoning by-law amendment; a use that complied when the by-law changed but no longer does is legal non-conforming and may continue. An assessment notice from the property assessment corporation tells you nothing about permitted use.
Stating that the listing salesperson must tell every buyer what the competing offers contain, or that all offers must be handled identically.
Candidates blend the old secrecy custom with the newer option that lets a seller open up the process, and 'fairness to all buyers' sounds like it must mean disclosure.
What to do instead
The seller decides whether the contents of competing offers may be disclosed, and the decision must be given in writing and applied consistently. Without that written direction, the listing brokerage must not reveal the contents of other offers. Separately, every written offer must be conveyed to the seller promptly, and the seller's lawful instructions on how offers are received and presented must be followed.
Quoting a 'going rate' commission as if it were set, and running the business without written brokerage policies or a records plan.
Local practice makes a number feel industry-standard, and business-practice questions read like common sense, so candidates skip the written-agreement and record-keeping requirements entirely.
What to do instead
Remuneration is negotiable and must be set out in the written agreement (listing agreement or buyer representation agreement), with HST addressed separately and any cooperating compensation explained. The brokerage must also maintain written policies and procedures and retain trade records, including trust records and advertising, for the period set by regulation.