October is here. It is finally cooling off outside and the hints of fall in the air give me a spirit of optimism for our future.  I hope that is true for you too.

The Commission adopted rules at the August meeting that implement significant changes to the education, experience, and exam requirements for real estate and professional inspectors.  These changes are a reflection of the Agency’s commitment to making pre-licensing requirements more impactful while minimizing undue burdens on new applicants entering the industry. 

After almost two years of effort on the part of the Inspector Committee to restructure and streamline the education and substitute experience requirements for inspector licensure, the Commission adopted rules at its August meeting to implement the proposals recommended by the Committee. This long-overdue revamp of these requirements remove redundancies in the current rules and simplify the process to become an inspector in Texas.

We have made it another month in the virtual environment, and I don’t know about you, but I am ready to see folks in person again.  The agency continues to work primarily remotely with a high level of productivity, maintaining a call hold time of under 2 minutes, and processing 5 months of renewals after the COVID extensions expired.  

The Commission has proposed several rule changes based on recommendations made by the Broker Lawyer Committee. The revisions to the TREC standard contract forms address issues that have arisen in response to public comments received from the previously posted version of these rules in the June 12 issue of the Texas Register.   

The Texas Real Estate Commission has temporarily closed lobby access to members of the public. Our highest priority is the health and well-being of the consumers of Texas and our staff.  The agency will remain open to provide assistance via phone and email.

The contact center hours of operation are 7:00 am to 6:00 pm, Monday-Friday.  Please call 512-936-3000 to speak to a representative.

Intermediary relationships have been part of The Texas Real Estate License Act (TRELA) for well over a decade. Even though these relationships have been well established, there is still confusion about how it works.

An intermediary is a broker who negotiates a real estate transaction between two parties when a broker, or a sales agent sponsored by the broker, has obtained written consent from the parties to represent both the buyer and the seller. A broker acting as an intermediary can make appointments in some circumstances.

TREC and TALCB have launched a survey to help gather feedback about the agency's websites. Completing this short survey will help TREC and TALCB better serve Texans in all matters related to real estate and appraisal services.

We value your opinion and appreciate your time. Thank you for participating.

The Texas Real Estate Inspector Committee met via teleconference on July 20^th.  The agenda was reasonably short this time around.  The education rules which change the pre-licensure process were proposed at the previous Commission meeting, and they have gone through the public comment period.  After considering the comments received, the Inspector Committee voted to forward the rules as proposed, along with some non-substantive changes made as a result of questions raised by the Governor’s office, to the Commissioners for approval at their meeting in August.  Prior to the rules g

Last month, the company TREC and TALCB contracts with to collect and shred documents mistakenly collected mail delivered to the agency.  This mail was then delivered to the company’s secure shredding facility.  The staff recovered the majority of the mail, however, approximately 70 pieces of mail were likely destroyed.  Because COVID related issues have impacted regular mail delivery schedules, it took time to process the mail and understand the consequences.