The Commission held its regular quarterly meeting on Monday, May 7 at our HQ in Austin. The Executive Director was delayed for about an hour arriving for the meeting due to air travel delays on Sunday that resulted in a cross-country reroute and pushed his final flight to Monday morning.  So our very able Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel Kerri Lewis delivered the Executive Director’s report.    

Definitions:

Broker Assumed Business Name (DBA) is another name for the broker’s business that can be used by all sponsored sales agents and brokers associated with this broker. Another name that indicates a broker’s line of business, e.g.  property management or commercial is also a DBA.

The mission and performance of the Texas Real Estate Commission and Texas Appraiser Licensing & Certification Board are under review by the Legislature as required under the Texas Sunset Act.  The Act provides that the Sunset Commission, composed of legislators and public members, periodically evaluate a state agency to determine if the agency is still needed and to explore ways to ensure that the agency's funds are well spent.  Based on the recommendations of the Sunset Commission, the Texas Legislature ultimately decides whether an agency continues to operate into the future.

TREC has been made aware of a scam requesting information from license holders. The request is sent by email by someone posing as the Texas Real Estate Commission and asks that information be provided to them and provides a link to follow (see example emails).

Please disregard emails asking you to provide information to TREC, especially anything linking to a third party website.  If you have a question about a request for payment from TREC, you can contact us at: information@trec.texas.gov with “SCAM Notice” in the subject line.

The Texas Real Estate Commission is pleased to announce the appointment of members to the Broker Responsibility Working Group (BRWG). The BRWG reviews experience requirements and role responsibilities for brokers and makes recommendations to the Commission based on its findings. Members will meet four or five times in the next 10 months to complete the charge given to them by the Commission.  

Monday, April 2 in Austin from 10 AM to 3 PM.

Join us for our Agency’s 2nd annual Texas Residential Realty Summit. This annual conference focuses on current issues affecting the successful closing of single family residential transactions transaction from an interdisciplinary perspective.

The effective date of the new rules is May 15, 2018, and we want to make sure everyone is thoroughly prepared for the changes.

Background

These rules are the result of years of work by the Commission and key stakeholders focusing on clarity of advertisements for consumers with the least restrictions on license holders. The rules also update, interpret and balance revised statutory requirements supporting free commerce and business competition with those protecting the consumer from misleading advertisements.

Texas Real Estate Commission adopted new advertising rules at its November meeting. These rules are effective as of May 15, 2018, which gives license holders 6 months to comply with the updated requirements.
§535.154 lays out alternate, assumed business and team name registration requirements and §535.155 lays out the revised advertising requirements. You can read both rules on our website.

AUSTIN, TX - Governor Abbott has appointed three new members to the Texas Real Estate Commission; broker members, Jan Fite Miller and DeLora Wilkinson and a public member Micheal Williams with terms set to expire January 31, 2023. These new members will join the Commission for its next regular quarterly meeting in Austin on November 13, 2017.