IREB - Illinois Real Estate Broker Examination

Question 1: A commercial tenant operating a salon installs custom-built styling stations, wall-mounted hair dryers, and special plumbing fixtures connected to the existing system. At lease end, the tenant wishes to remove these items. Which of the following BEST identifies these items?

Emblements held by the landlord

Permanent realty owned by the landlord

Trade fixtures removable by the tenant

Encumbrances on the landlord's title

Question 2: A buyer touring a Naperville colonial notices a chandelier wired into the dining room ceiling, a freestanding refrigerator, and an installed dishwasher. After closing, the seller removed the chandelier, claiming it was a family heirloom. Which item was MOST likely a fixture?

The chandelier wired into the ceiling

The freestanding refrigerator

Heirlooms separately listed

Anything the seller wants to take

Question 3: A grain farmer leases acreage outside Springfield and plants soybeans each spring. Before the harvest, the landowner sells the property to a third party who claims the unharvested crops. Which of the following BEST describes the tenant farmer's rights to those crops?

Buyer owns crops as natural growth

Crops escheat to the State of Illinois

Landlord retains crops as realty

Tenant owns crops as emblements

Question 4: Which of the following BEST describes the legal concept that real estate ownership includes a collection of distinct rights such as the right to possess, use, exclude, transfer, and encumber, each of which can be separated and sold individually?

Title in fee simple

Bundle of rights

Estate in severalty

Quiet enjoyment doctrine

Question 5: A homeowner removes the kitchen cabinets and installs them in a detached workshop on the same lot a week before closing. Which of the following BEST describes the legal effect of this removal on the sale of the home?

Buyer keeps the workshop instead

The act is irrelevant before closing

The act constitutes severance

Cabinets remain part of realty

Question 6: An attorney drafting a deed for a rural Sangamon County parcel needs to identify the boundary by tracing the perimeter from a recognized starting point using compass bearings and exact distances to each angle of the parcel. Which of the following describes that method?

Metes and bounds description

Public Land Survey System grid

Lot and block from recorded plat

Street address with parcel number

Question 7: A buyer reviewing the title commitment on a Schaumburg condominium sees the legal description references a specific lot number, a block designation, and the page of a plat recorded with the Cook County Recorder. Which legal description method is being used?

Government rectangular survey

Informal address-based description

Metes and bounds tracing

Lot and block from recorded plat

Question 8: A rural parcel in central Illinois is described by reference to its position within a township and range measured from a principal meridian and a base line, with the parcel identified by section number and fractional designation. Which method is being used?

Lot and block subdivision method

Metes and bounds perimeter method

Public Land Survey System

Torrens registration system

Question 9: Which of the following BEST explains why a property's street address, however accurate for mail delivery, is not accepted as the legal description in a deed or mortgage to be recorded with an Illinois county recorder?

Addresses can change over time

Mail carriers do not survey land

It violates the Illinois Plat Act

Recorders only accept handwritten descriptions

Question 10: A central Illinois township measured under the Public Land Survey System covers a regular grid roughly six miles wide and six miles long. Which of the following BEST describes the number of sections that make up one township under this surveying method?

Sixteen sections per township

Twenty-four sections per township

Forty-eight sections per township

Thirty-six sections per township

Question 11: A grandfather conveys his Evanston home to his daughter for the duration of her life, after which the property passes to his grandchildren. The daughter cannot sell more than what she holds, and the grandchildren take when she dies. Which interest does the daughter hold?

A fee simple defeasible estate

A life estate measured by her life

A remainder interest in fee

A tenancy at will arrangement

Question 12: Three Chicago siblings purchase a North Shore investment property together, taking title under language that satisfies Illinois requirements for joint tenancy with right of survivorship. One sibling then conveys her interest to an unrelated investor. Which of the following BEST describes the resulting ownership?

All three remain joint tenants together

The grantee becomes joint tenant

All ownership reverts to the seller

The grantee holds as tenant in common

Question 13: A married couple takes title to their Oak Park residence as tenants by the entirety. A judgment creditor of the husband alone obtains a judgment and seeks to satisfy it through forced sale of the home. Which of the following BEST describes the creditor's position under Illinois law?

Creditor cannot reach the homestead

Creditor takes the wife's interest too

Creditor may force the sale immediately

Creditor takes half by partition action

Question 14: Two business partners take title to a Rockford warehouse as joint tenants with right of survivorship. One partner dies still owning his interest. Which of the following BEST describes what happens to the deceased partner's interest in the property?

It escheats to the State of Illinois

It passes through the deceased's probate

It passes by survivorship to the co-owner

It passes to the deceased's spouse first

Question 15: Three Chicago physicians purchase a Streeterville condominium together as tenants in common, each holding an unequal share. The physicians disagree about whether to sell the property. One co-tenant petitions the circuit court to compel division or forced sale. Which of the following BEST identifies this proceeding?

Adverse possession judgment

Quiet title to remove a cloud

Mortgage foreclosure suit

Partition action by a cotenant

Question 16: An investor places a Lincoln Park residence into an Illinois land trust, with a Chicago title company named as trustee. The investor wishes to direct the trustee to convey title to a buyer at closing. Which of the following BEST describes the document the beneficiary uses to direct conveyance?

Letter of direction to the trustee

Affidavit of beneficial interest

Statutory quitclaim deed in trust

Notarized declaration of trust

Question 17: Under Illinois law governing the Illinois land trust, the beneficiary's interest in the property is classified for legal purposes in a way that differs from the trustee's interest. Which of the following BEST identifies how the beneficial interest is classified under Illinois law?

As real property like other deeds

As a leasehold interest in land

As personal property by statute

As a joint tenancy with the trustee

Question 18: Effective January 1, 2026, Illinois substantially increased the homestead exemption protecting a debtor's principal residence from forced sale by certain judgment creditors. Which of the following BEST identifies the new exemption amounts under the updated statute?

Fifty thousand individual, one hundred thousand joint

Twenty-five thousand individual, fifty thousand joint

Fifteen thousand individual, thirty thousand joint

One hundred thousand individual, two hundred thousand joint

Question 19: A married homeowner in Aurora considers conveying the marital residence to a third party. Because the property is the principal residence subject to homestead, special signature requirements apply. Which of the following BEST identifies what Illinois law requires for the conveyance to clear the homestead estate?

Only the titled spouse must sign the deed

Both spouses must appear at the closing

The county recorder must approve in advance

Both spouses must sign or a waiver

Question 20: Which of the following BEST identifies the role of the trustee in a typical Illinois land trust holding residential real estate for a single beneficiary who occupies the property?

Trustee actively manages property decisions

Trustee holds legal title and follows direction

Trustee collects rent and pays expenses

Trustee owns property free of the beneficiary

IREB Illinois Real Estate Broker Examination - Set 1 - Part 1