Announcing Our Certified Massachusetts Landlord™ Level Two Test

By Kimberly Rau, MassLandlords writer

This spring, the MassLandlords team reached a new milestone in its groundbreaking landlord certification process with the rollout of the cML Level Two™ exam, designed to assess landlords’ knowledge in a wide range of relevant areas.

Background on the Certified Massachusetts Landlord™ process

To become a Certified Massachusetts Landlord™ is to tell your tenants that you are a landlord who not only knows and follows the laws governing rentals in Massachusetts, but also that you pay great attention to your business and embrace best practices to make their experience better than average.

Not to be confused with licensing, this first-of-its-kind voluntary certification was created by MassLandlords and has three levels in total. cML Level One™, a provisional step, requires that participating landlords commit to using MassLandlords “best practices” and advance to cML Level Two™ within 18 months. This requires a passing score on the Level Two exam. To reach the third level, landlords will need to complete continuing education credits each year. This third step is expected to roll out later this year.

MassLandlords is proud to announce the rollout of its Certified MassLandlord Level Two™ test, covering four content areas and allowing the next level of certification for its Level One members.
Image source: Unsplash

The cML Level Two™ Exam

Throughout the early months of 2021, members of the MassLandlords writing, legal and technical teams worked together to create an examination that was thorough, fair and an accurate assessment of a landlord’s knowledge base.

To pass the test, a landlord will need to prove their understanding of various laws relevant to rental housing, as well as best practices outlined in MassLandlords courses and articles.

Throughout the winter and early spring, MassLandlords staff wrote more than 700 questions (and counting!) in more than 80 different concept groups. Subject areas include unlawful evictions, mediation, discrimination, ethics, lead laws and building maintenance, among many others.

A Smart Test

MassLandlords has utilized an adaptive, rather than classical, model for its certification test. In classical testing, there is a set score that is considered passing. Test takers answer all questions on the exam and are scored based on their correct answers. This classical format has fewer overall questions than an adaptive test (more on that later), and also creates the possibility that a tester could pass with large knowledge gaps. (Consider a 100-question test where a passing score is 70. The taker could get 30 questions wrong and still pass; if all 30 questions were in one area, that demonstrates a large knowledge gap.)

In adaptive testing, questions are selected at random from a large test bank. This is why MassLandlords staff members wrote so many questions for this test. In this model, testers will answer random questions from each knowledge area. They will get harder questions as they answer correctly, until our algorithm is satisfied that the examinee is proficient in what we deem “essential knowledge” for certification. If a test taker answers incorrectly, they will receive easier questions to determine their knowledge base. This means that examinees will be asked as many questions as necessary to determine if they pass or fail, with some possible extra questions (but certainly not all of them). In other words, adaptive tests have more questions overall than classical tests, but examinees will likely be asked fewer questions than in a classical test, where they must answer all test questions.

Our staff has written questions that cover knowledge areas categorized into four modules: Maintain Buildings, Follow the Law, Talk to Tenants and Be a Part of the Community. Across these modules, questions cover a wide range of difficulty, from very simple to very complex. Our test is designed to target those at all levels of education attainment, from high school diplomas to advanced degrees.

A Difficult Test

The Level Two test is not an easy exam, for good reason: being a landlord in Massachusetts is difficult. From strict rules governing security deposits to the state sanitary code and deleading, there are  a lot of things you have to get exactly right to avoid ending up in court. And that’s before you even get to properly screening your tenants or handling an eviction.

There’s a lot to learn, but that’s why you have 18 months to get from cML Level One™ to taking and passing the Level Two test. And if you don’t pass the first time, you can try again once you’ve brushed up on your knowledge. The important thing is to understand what makes a great Massachusetts landlord, and that’s no small feat.

A Test to be Proud Of

When you take the MassLandlords certification exam, you are not only showing your commitment to being the best landlord you can be and giving your tenants reason to be confident in your sound property management. You are also participating in a process that is unique – not just to Massachusetts, but as far as we can tell, anywhere in the country. The considerable effort that has gone into crafting this exam shows our pride in MassLandlords and our faith in our members.