It’s been a busy start of the year for the Commission. I traveled around the state in March as part of our Agency’s biennial strategic planning listening tour. This allowed me to receive input first hand from license holders across the state about issues that impact them directly. Tony Slagle, the agency’s inspector staff liaison visited a local chapter of an inspector trade association to discuss concerns and answer their questions. This is something staff is committed to doing more often. On April 2, the agency held its 2nd Annual Residential Realty Summit in Austin. This year’s Summit focused on the impact of natural disasters on the real estate transaction, including the inspection process. Fred Willcox from Houston, who previously served on the Inspector Committee for over 20 years, participated as a panelist and provided some great insight from the inspectors’ point of view.

The Committee has also been busy. At its February 26th meeting in Austin the Committee elected new officers and appointed a working group to address issues regarding inspector financial responsibility and consumer recovery. Over the last several months it has become clear that clarification is need with regard to these issues, and the Committee wanted to take advantage of the Agency’s upcoming Sunset review to provide that clarity. In addition to the Inspector Committee members, the Working Group included Paul Roebuck representing TPREIA and Mike Hammel representing TAREI. The Working Group was tasked with developing recommendations for inspector financial responsibility and consumer recovery issues and met on March 26th. The Working Group recommendations will be discussed at the April 9th meeting of the Inspector Committee and brought forward to the Commission at its May 14th meeting for consideration.

The Sunset Review Process begins this month with visits from the Sunset staff. The review process is expected to take 5 months, with the Sunset staff’s recommendations for the agency being reported sometime at the end of the year. As has been stated many times, inspector input is important to the process, so please provide input. Additional information about Sunset can be found on the TREC website.

Finally, the inspector rules will be open for Rule Review in August of this year. This provides inspectors the opportunity to weigh in on whether rules should be continued, amended, or repealed. Any and all recommendations are welcome.

Thank you and I look forward to your valued input and continued support throughout the upcoming year.