In April of 2018, the Executive Director of the Agency reached out to our stakeholders and to the public to acknowledge that the customer service the Agency was providing was unacceptable, and that we were working diligently to find sustainable solutions to resolve these issues. Since that time, the Agency has made great strides to improve the level of service by employing a holistic approach, including a combination of technological improvements, additional staff, and enhanced process efficiencies.

August is here with all of its heat, and it’s the last month of the fiscal year for the Agency.  August also means both the Commission and Board will have their regularly scheduled meetings this month and that the agendas will be busy –as they always are after a legislative session. And for this session especially since we underwent a Sunset Commission review and need to implement all of the changes that resulted from that process.  Many rule amendments are needed to implement these changes and also some significant budget adjustments to accommodate those requirements.

The Inspector Committee met on July 15 for its quarterly meeting.  There was a lot on the agenda, as this has been a busy year in our industry.  The Standards of Practice Subcommittee is still in the review process and asked the full committee for direction on whether to keep the standards more general or to get specific on a multitude of items.  The consensus was to keep them general overall but to update the current standards to meet some newer criteria.  The Education Subcommittee has been working tirelessly on creating the new pre-licensure program.  The program was proposed to the Comm

Recently, the Commission was mentioned in a news story about a former license holder whose license was revoked by the agency. Although this kind of fraudulent behavior is not typical for TREC license holders, this serves as an important reminder that Texans should always investigate any real estate service providers they engage or work with. 

The 2019 Legislative Session concluded on May 27. With over 7,000 bills filed by legislators, this session was a busy one.  While the Agency’s primary focus this session was on our Sunset legislation, we did keep our eye on the progress of several bills that could have impacted the Agency in one way or another.

Below is a list the bills that passed and a brief summary of their impact the regulatory authority of the Agency. In case you missed it, we hosted a Facebook LIVE discussing these bills and more. Check out the video below: 

The future of the Plumbing Board has been on the minds of many inspectors since the end of the legislative session. As a result of action taken by Governor Abbott, the Plumbing Board will continue until 2021; please be sure to see our article on this to get all the information you need.

This month we published two articles that I thought would be helpful to share with you that reflect some of the required changes outlined in the final report from the agency’s sunset review process.

As a result of changes recommended by TREC and implemented by the Agency’s sunset bill, a separate license certificate displaying the address for each branch office maintained by a broker or brokerage will no longer be required as of September 1, 2019,

Scott Kesner was appointed chair of the Texas Real Estate Commission on April 25, 2019. With more than 25 years of experience, this appointment is another highlight in Scott's long career.  Chair Kesner recently traveled to Austin from his home city of El Paso to meet with Agency senior staff and learn more about the Commission. He spent the day speaking to each director, learning about everything from enforcement to communications to technology. We sat down with Scott to ask him some questions about his experiences and learn more about his plans.

To implement provisions in the agency’s Sunset bill, the Commission has proposed rules to eliminate instructor licensing.  The proposed rules are expected to be adopted at the August Commission meeting with an effective date of September 1, 2019. TREC will continue to approve and renew instructor licenses through August 31, 2019.