What Florida Real Estate Commission rule or statute would you like to see changed and why?
“What a great question. How much room do I have to write? My first thought is that it is too easy to enter and remain in our business. There should be an increase in the continuing education requirements, such as proficiency testing to ensure that our licensees can apply the information that they learn in the classroom to real life transactions. Also, since FREC’s charter is to protect the public by the regulation of real estate and appraisal licensees though education and compliance, I would like to see FREC perform more audits of all facets of our business, from real estate licensee processes and procedures to the forms and addendums that are used. With the number of new licensees growing daily, there needs to be better checks and balances to ensure compliance.”
- Phyllis Staines, Re/Max Coastal Real Estate
“I would like to see the continuing education focus on the changes in the real estate law and on ethics. I would like to see people quizzed/tested on what they have learned, and the punishment of the guilty to be much more appropriate. I’d also like to see the Department of Business and Professional Regulation be more strict about licensing, and truly track each individual license to be with a broker at all times. When the DBPR person spoke to Northeast Florida Association of Realtors during a class, we were told that their investigative procedures were ‘reactive,’ not proactive, due to the workload. Why don’t they hire some more people to remedy this? That’s like not having a security guard at the bank, and only calling the police after the robbers have been there! While there has been a considerable amount of business out there these past few years, there has been way too much monkey business. It seems if you can breathe, you can get a real estate license, and it has not had a considerably positive impact on our business.”
- Jenet Cattar, Cattar Realty, Inc.
“I would like FREC to change the rule which outlaws dual agency. They should adopt the law like Georgia and a few other states. They have created a form of dual agency called Designated Agency when two agents with the same company sell a listing. One represents the buyer and one represents the seller. Listing agents represent sellers and buyer agents represent buyers in Georgia. If someone sells their own listing, they represent the seller only and the buyer is a customer only with no representation. We did not use transaction brokerage in Georgia. Buyer brokerage is big nationwide, but large companies in Florida cannot use it because of the large inventory of listings they would not be able to show buyers because dual agency has been outlawed and Designated Agency has not been created.”
-Jane Fairall, Watson Realty Corp.
“I think it is important to be able to advise if a sexual predator lives in a prospective purchaser’s neighborhood. The FREC statute does not allow Realtors to do so. I certainly do not want to introduce an innocent child into an environment where they may be in danger.”
-Andre J. van Rensburg, Steer Realty Group
“I would like to see FREC take more control over what happens within the Multiple Listing Service. Many of us Realtors feel that unless you are a licensed Realtor and have paid to be a member of the MLS you should not have access to the MLS or be allowed to put a listing on the MLS for a small fee.”
-Lana Atkinson, Watson Realty Corp.
“I would like to see licensing for real estate agents to be tougher. One week of education, pay for state exam, sit, pass and boom! ... you’re a licensed agent. You can go out and help first time homebuyers make the most important financial decision of their young lives. After 15 years in this business I still don’t know everything. How can a brand new licensee begin to know? I would like to see real estate agents have a college degree. Most of the agents that have been successful have done it by taking many educational classes. Newer licensees are not as inclined to take these classes. Please note, there are many exceptions to this, but for the most part, as education chairperson, we see far less new licensees in our classes as opposed to the number of agents coming on board.”
-Teresa Mecurio, Re/Max 100 Realty
“If I’m reading the statute correctly, to become a broker, you have to have had a real estate license for 12 months out of the preceding five years, in any state. I believe you should be required to be a full time Realtor in the state you intend to become a broker for 12 months in the preceding five-year period. The way it stands now, you could have a license and never practice real estate, but still be eligible to be a broker. It is my opinion that there should be some requirements on experience in actually handling transactions.”
- Stephanie S. White, Coldwell Banker Walter Williams Realty, Inc.
“In all honesty, I am not sure where this would have to be changed. I think that it should not be legal for the lender/broker and the real estate agent to be the same person. It seems to me that it puts the buyer in jeopardy regarding confidentiality and worse there is no one to protect the buyer from issues that arise from lack of ethics, unfair costs, contractual obligations, and much more. There is no system of checks and balance when this happens.”
- Jeanne Moellendick, Re/Max Specialists