National / General cheat sheet
Property Disclosures and Environmental Issues Texas Real Estate Exam Cheat Sheet
This area tests property-condition hazards, federal environmental laws, and the disclosure duties and liability that can arise when a seller or license holder knows material facts.
Match the hazard to the governing rule, then ask who knew what and when. Do not assume a license holder may stay silent about a known material defect.
What Pearson tests
- Lead-based paint, asbestos, radon, mold, underground tanks, groundwater, flood zones, and wetlands
- EPA, CERCLA, SARA, environmental site assessments, and the Clean Air and Water Acts
- Environmental and property-condition disclosure duties and liability
Three traps to catch
- A Phase I environmental site assessment investigates potential recognized conditions. A Phase II uses sampling or testing when further investigation is warranted.
- Federal lead-based paint disclosure rules generally apply to covered housing built before 1978.
- A property can have a disclosure issue even when a statute does not require one particular form.
Essential vocabulary
Property Disclosures and Environmental Issues terms to know
- Material fact
- A fact significant enough to affect a reasonable party's decision or the property's value.
- Lead-based paint disclosure
- The federal disclosure package required for most covered pre-1978 housing before the buyer or tenant is bound.
- CERCLA
- The federal Superfund law addressing releases and liability for hazardous substances.
- SARA
- The federal act that amended and reauthorized CERCLA.
- Phase I assessment
- A records, site, and interview inquiry into potential environmental conditions, normally without destructive sampling.
- Phase II assessment
- Targeted sampling and testing used to evaluate suspected contamination.
- Radon
- A naturally occurring radioactive gas that can accumulate indoors.
- Brownfield
- Property whose reuse or redevelopment may be complicated by actual or suspected contamination.
Check your recall
Can you answer these without notes?
1Which assessment normally comes first, Phase I or Phase II?
Phase I.
2What construction-date trigger is central to the federal lead disclosure rule?
Most covered housing built before 1978.
3Can a license holder ignore a known material defect because the seller prefers silence?
No. Required disclosure duties cannot be erased by a client's instruction.
Use the sheet, then retrieve
Test the rules while they are still fresh.
Read the full lesson when a definition is fuzzy. Then answer the topic questions without looking back at this sheet.
Primary sources
- Pearson VUE Texas Real Estate Content Outlines
- EPA, Lead-Based Paint Disclosure Rule
- EPA, Superfund: CERCLA Overview
This is exam-prep education, not legal, tax, or transaction advice. Confirm the current law, form, and official exam materials before relying on a rule in practice.