2011 Commission Legislation
All three bills introduced by the at the request of the Commission have been passed by the legislature and will become law three months after the end of the legislative session (currently estimated to be on or about September 8, 2011, depending upon the exact ending date of the session).
LB 23 - Administrative Changes, Two Year Renewal, Pocket Cards
LB23 will place renewals on a two year cycle, to coincide with the continuing education submission, and it will eliminate the need for pocket cards.
The two year renewal change is pretty self explanatory, licensees will have to fill out and the Commission will have to process renewals once every two years instead of once a year, because this will reduce renewal volume each year by 50% the Commission will be able to process the renewals and answer licensee questions faster, for 2012 renewals (due November 30, 2011) everyone will renew, but the licensees that have continuing education due will renew for two years, while the license that don’t will renew for one, for 2013 (fall 2012 renewals) the two year cycle renewal cycle will be fully implemented and only the licensee’s who have their CE due that year will renew.
A number of years ago the requirement to carry pocket cards was eliminated, this bill does away with the requirement completely as it adds paperwork for both licensees and the Commission when people go on inactive status or transfer from one broker to another.
The bill requires an additional 6 hours of broker approved training every two years, the training courses will have a broader subject matter criteria for approval than traditional CE courses and it will allow broker’s to choose areas of emphasis in training and education. The bill itself simply adds 6 hours of training to the existing 12 hours of CE required every two years. If a broker fails to approve training traditional continuing education classes may be substituted. The details of the proposal will be established through the rule and regulation process after the legislation has passed.
LB25 - Asset Management Companies
There has been an ongoing problem with asset management companies that handle the sale of properties for large institutional property and mortgage holders including banks, FANNIE MAE, HUD, etc. These companies will generally list such properties with a licensee (to get the property on the MLS), but they do not use a listing and transaction model (particularly when it comes to presenting offers) that conforms with our laws. The proposed legislation the Commission has endorsed would craft a narrow exception for licensees when dealing these companies so that licensees can continue to work with them without violating the license law. The exceptions relate to the requirements of the listing agreement (statutory duties do not have to be stated) and to presenting offers. These exceptions would only apply to asset management companies as defined in the bill.