Don’t Let Your Real Estate License Go!

In the almost 20 years I have been in real estate education there is one story that never changes. People come to my office looking to get “BACK” into real estate. They let their license go several years ago and then they have an opportunity in real estate but they have to take more classes, retake the license exam etc. If you have a Salesperson's license remember it is an inexpensive license to keep. Just put it into inactive status, pay the small renewal fee as it comes due. Then when you have an opportunity to get back into real estate your old license is waiting for you, like an old friend, at the Real Estate Commission.

So, if you are thinking about leaving real estate don't leave something as valuable as your real estate license as well.

Did You Know TREC Had An Education Advisory Committee?

Well they do. During the last legislature the Sunset Commission recommended that TREC establish advisory committees to help the Commission in their regulatory duties. While these committees are not able to force change they can recommend changes to the Commission. I am proud to say I was selected to serve. The first meeting, on 10/03/2008, went very well and those on the advisory committee were very open with their comments. You can download a copy of the agenda from the TREC site.

So, if you have stories of a high quality experience please let me know. Also if you have a nightmare story I'd like to hear from you as well. (rick@cretc.com) My personal goal on the committee is to improve the quality of the education all licensees must complete. To preserve what is good and find solutions for what is not so good.

You Would Think A School Owner Wouldn't Let This Happen?

It seems that a local real estate school owner (not me) failed to take care of one very important business necessity. RENEWING THEIR REAL ESTATE BROKER’S LICENSE!!! It seems the broker took their MCE, had their fingerprints taken but for some reason didn't file a timely renewal. No big deal. Right. Well in most cases this is not a big deal. File the late renewal form, pay the extra fees and in a few days you are back in business. For some reason when the late renewal was filed something caught the Real Estate Commission’s eye. An enforcement case file was opened and it has been several months and the broker’s license, as of the date of this posting, still has NOT been renewed to active status . It’s in some kind of perpetual “expired” status. Only time will tell why this late renewal was not processed quickly and without problems. Maybe it was just a simple paper-work snafu or something more interesting. However, it cannot be a good sign when a broker can't renew their license. Without a license a person does not have access to services such as the MLS or the privilege to be called a REALTOR. Without a license you are no longer on the "INSIDE" so to speak. Not having an active real estate license does not bar a person from teaching in or owning a real estate school.

You make the call:
This is one of the "Laundry List" violations listed under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA).
Representing goods or services that claim to have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities but do not or a person claiming to have a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation or connection but does not.
Do you think a school has violated this portion if they claim only experienced active agents or brokers teach at their school when they know at least one instructor does not have an active real estate license?

I'm sure this school is having a fit that this is being talked about. They just need to remember when they posted an attack web site with several damaging false claims about other real estate schools in town. It seems "KARMA" is coming back to haunt them for their past actions.

Hurricane IKE

Important Notice For Licensees Affected By Hurricane IKE

The Commission is planning to meet on an emergency basis on Tuesday, September 23, 2008, to consider emergency rules that may alleviate some of the burdens for licensees directly affected by the hurricane. Check the web site for more information.

At this meeting Emergency rules were passed.

Click here for information on the TREC website.

As with any new rule there can be hic ups. I am convienced that the staff at TREC will work to make the process less of a problem for those affected by IKE.

When To Never Refer Potential New Agents To The Local Real Estate School!

If you are a broker, you are always looking for new talented agents. Many times you will teach a few classes to get that valuable exposure. However if the local school’s instructor policy promotes recruiting instead of education never send your high quality prospects to that school. I saw an advertisement for a real estate school looking to recruit new instructors. This was in the ad:

“YOU CAN SELECT THE CREAM OF THE CROP OF UP AND COMING AGENTS BEFORE THEY EVEN BEGIN THEIR CAREER.”

"NO TEACHING EXPERIENCE REQUIRED.”

Why is this bad for you? Simple instead of being a place for a new agent to learn it is a cattle call with the instructors cutting out your top prospects for themselves. Just think that every day in class someone is working to steal away that great prospect.
Get with your local school and make sure class time is dedicated to teaching and not a meat market for real estate agents. Drop in and just audit part of a course.

Now, should you or your company be represented as an instructor in the local school? Absolutely yes. In most cases the serious prospects will be offended if you waste their class time recruiting. After all they paid for a class not a career day. I always told my instructors the best way to recruit is to show the class just how smart and professional you can be. At the end of their courses they are going to remember the outstanding teachers and many will want to work with someone who clearly knows how to be a professional. If the local school is just a recruiting hall for brokers find another source for the required education your new agent needs to be licensed.

Dead Broker Learnin'

Another great story coming straight for the enforcement files (crypts) at the Texas Real Estate Commission. This could be a movie.

“Night of the Living Broker”
“Dawn of the Broker”

It seems that a person that needed a sponsoring broker was not going to let a little thing like the death of the broker get in the way of their real estate business. This salesperson started working on their own broker’s license but needed some time to meet the Broker requirements. In this case most folks would go and find a new broker. But, not this salesperson. Why not keep renewing their DEAD sponsoring broker’s license? This salesperson even went as far as taking MCE classes for the DEAD broker. This puts a whole new spin on those who say they were bored to death during their last MCE class.

How did this agent get caught? Simple! Someone contacted TREC and I’ll paraphrase here. Did you hear about So & So dying?

Well looking at the TREC record it seems that old So & So had been renewing their license from “The Other Side” for about 2 years.

To make a long story short the salesperson had by this time received their broker’s license. However, that was not going to last that long. Broker’s license REVOKED plus an $8,000 fine. There was no reference on any disciplinary action against the Dead Broker for allowing someone else to take their MCE. :)

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It just goes to show you. No matter how clever you think you are, breaking the rules is going to catch up with you. Maybe, even from that great Real Estate office in the sky.

WE HAVE A NEW WINNER!

Each month the Texas Real Estate Commission will post their enforcement actions. Every now and then one just pops up and you have to ask "WHAT IN THE WORLD WERE THEY THINKING?"

This takes the cake for someone with nerves of steel and common sense of mush.

A contract was executed for a sale of a property where the Seller agreed to pay a maximum of $6,500 in closing cost. The actual amount of the closing cost was $5,327.67, a savings to the seller of $1,147.33.

At the closing the listing Broker gets their hands on the contract and inserts into the contract that the Seller would pay the listing Broker a "Bonus" of $1,147.33. Not a bonus of $1,000 or $1,100 but $1,147.33. The listing Broker then informed the Seller they could not close unless the "Bonus" was paid.

The Seller paid because they needed to close. The Seller filed a complaint and to say the least the Texas Real Estate Commission was not pleased. The listing Broker now has a blotch on their record and was required to give the money back to the seller. The Commission will be looking to hold Brokers and Agents accountable if they try similar schemes in the future.

New TREC Contracts Approved

The Texas Real Estate Commission has approved changes to the standard promulgated forms. There are several small changes and a new termination notice has been created. Form 38-2.

We have created a study guide form where many of the changes have been highlighted. Click here for a copy.

For a complete review and a copy of the new forms check the TREC web site at:

http://www.trec.state.tx.us/formslawscontracts/forms/forms-contracts.asp

The new forms can be used now and become mandatory 9/1/2008.

April 28, 2008 The Texas Real Estate Commission Addressed Some Interesting Issues.

The Commission voted to change the contract forms. Most of the changes are not drastic with the exception of putting all the termination notices on one form. There was a small change in the option paragraph. In yet another attempt to educate agents that the OPTION MONEY goes to the seller. PLEASE STOP SENDING THE OPTION MONEY TO THE TITLE COMPANY. PLUS TITLE COMPANIES PLEASE STOP ACCEPTING THE OPTION MONEY FROM AGENTS. The forms are now in the public review step of the approval process. Check out the changes and make your comments to the Commission. The proposed forms should be posted on the TREC site. Click here to see if the proposed forms have been posted.

The Commission also voted to withdraw a rule that would have opened correspondence courses to private schools. A member of the legislature expressed their concern and suggested that the problem should be addressed in the legislature not by the rule making process of the Commission. The problem they want to address is the lack of control over correspondence course and the rise of "RENT A COLLEGES". This is where instead of supervising the educational program as they did in the past some of the colleges or universities have simply sold off their naming rights. When this rule was put into place many years ago with the colleges and universities offering the correspondence courses it was with the understanding that the colleges or universities would supervise the course programs to maintain educational integrity. This "RENT A COLLEGE" problem has resulted in some certificate mills setting up shop offering correspondence courses. In one case they were advertising that a student could complete all 210 hours required to get a license in just 24 hours. Before you say "What's wrong with getting 210 hours in only 24 hours" remember that real estate transaction where the other agent didn't have a clue of what to do. Think about it! Better education helps everyone. I hope with this new legislation these certificate mills will either clean up their act or go out of business. The overall goal is to improve the quality of this type of real estate education. If you have ideas about how to improve real estate education please drop me an e-mail:

rick@cretc.com

A new Commissioner was also welcomed at the meeting. Avis Wukasch of Georgetown. In my opinion a great selection.

One disturbing statistic came from the Monthly Report for Feburary. It concerns the number of new license applications.

Broker License Original Applications Received were up 5.01%
Sales License Original Applications Received were down 24.13%
Total Original Applications were down 20.34%

It seems the negative National news has had an affect on people getting into real estate. Reports still indicate that Texas is doing better than other areas of the country.

Real Estate School May Be In Big Trouble.

On April 18, 2008 in Federal District Court Western District in Austin a copyright infringement suit was filed against a Texas Real Estate School. The school in trouble is not Capital Real Estate Training. The suit was filed by one of if not the largest real estate publishers in the nation.

This school claims to be the largest real estate school in Texas and even has made claims that one of their products is "So Unique It's Patented". The patent claim has since been proven false.

If you want to track this suit follow these instructions.

1. 
   Go to http://www.pacer.uscourts.gov/ and create an account. (There is a fee if you download documents but it is only 8 cents a page.)


2. 
   After you have created an account log in and select "CIVIL"


3. 
   Then select the Region:
   Texas-Western District


4. 
   On the search form enter in the case number:
   1:2008cv00287
   Or after you have a PACER account click on the case number above.

You will now be able to follow this case as it progresses.

Texas Real Estate Educators Meet In Dallas

I attended the annual meeting of the Texas Real Estate Teachers Association (TRETA) on April 17-19. This is the oldest real estate educators association in America. As usual I came away with lots of good new information.

The one item that stood out was a true story of an Oklahoma broker investigated by the FBI. The broker was indicted because they witnessed mortgage fraud and did nothing. This story was told in reference to the new Texas statue that requires anyone who suspects mortgage fraud must report it to the Texas Mortgage Fraud Task Force.

The new TREC administrator, Tim Irvine, made his first appearance at TRETA. He and Gwen Jackson brought us up to date on what is going on at the Commission.

• 
  One thing they talked about was that TREC could now require licensees to pay refunds. This is new!
• 
  He also talked about a new process that TREC can suspend a license very quickly if there is an ongoing and current threat to the consumer.
• 
  TREC has developed a plan to speed up certain enforcement actions. As an example in the future those who do not pay their fees or complete their Continuing Education will have their enforcement files streamlined. In short hand if you don't renew your license as required then you will not have an active real estate license. In the past this had to go through a long enforcement process. Under the new rule you have certain requirements and certain time constraints to renew your license. Failing to do what is required in the time allowed then "BOOM" you are no longer holding an active real estate license. With these bureaucratic type of enforcement complaints fast tracked the resources of the Commission can focus on the more serious issues. Such as lying, cheating and stealing real estate agents.
• 
  They are talking about creating a broker responsibility rule. This is still in the creation process but I believe it will be unlike the minimum services rule. As things progress I'll make note of the changes here on my Blog.

If you have not looked into joining the Texas Real Estate Teachers Association check them out at http://www.treta.org/.

If you can't trust your real estate school, who can you trust?

An Austin Real Estate School in what I believe is one of the most foolish advertising schemes in real estate education history. It might rate right up there with "NEW COKE".

The site is http://www.austinrealestateschool.info/. It is, in our opinion, an attack web site where they posted negative and false claims about other real estate schools in Austin. They also posted the other school's phone numbers so their false statements could be exposed. Finally around the first week of June, 2008 they have taken down this attack website. However, on 6/6/2008 the attack site was back up and it has changed but still has incorrect information.

• Why would they post claims that knew or should have known were false?


• Why would they not make changes when they were informed there was a problem?


• Why would they post the contact information so their false claims could be exposed?


• Why would anyone believe their other claims like market share or they can make you rich, after seeing this site?


• Why would a real estate company pay for advertising on a site like this?


• Why didn't someone at the company say; "Excuse me but isn't this a really stupid idea????"


• Why would they think that companies who are the subject of the false claims will just sit back and let this continue?

If you have an answer to these questions or other comments about this site or this school let us know.

E-mail us at:

youcantfixstupid@cretc.com

When our attorney contacted them they elected to ignored our letter. So, TREC has been notified and the TREC complaint file number is: #081192. We tried to resolve the problem without filing a formal complaint with the Real Estate Commission. But they left us no choice.

They claim we do not have 100% online courses.

That is false.

They claim that we do not have unproctored correspondence exams.

That is false.

They claim our web sites are not secure.

That is false.

The list goes on and on. Not just about us but other schools as well.

Know what is a good idea. Take their other claims with a grain of salt and take your classes from a school you can trust.