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.

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  One thing they talked about was that TREC could now require licensees to pay refunds. This is new!
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  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.
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  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.
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  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/.