Principal Broker licensing rules for 2011

Beginning January 1, 2011 the rules relating to obtaining a principal broker’ license are changing. To qualify for a principal real estate broker license, you must:
• Be 18 years old.
• Have a high school diploma, GED or international equivalent
• Have three years of active real estate license experience.
• Complete the 40-hour Brokerage Administration and Sales Supervision course from an OREA approved provider.
• Take and pass the new state principal broker license examination of approximately 48 questions.
Once you pass your state license examination, you can apply for a principal broker license. The license application is not available online and is issued by the Agency directly to you. You then submit the completed application with the required fee and proof of completion of the required courses to the Agency.

To obtain a license, you must submit:
• Original completed License Application obtained from the Agency.
• $230 license fee.
• Original Brokerage Administration and Sales Supervision course Completion Certificate.
When all of the items are received by the Agency, a Principal Broker license may be issued.

Generally, licenses are issued for a two year period. However, your first license period may be shorter. The full license fee is still required.

If you have been a principal broker previously, have verification of licensed experience from another state or any extenuating circumstances, contact the Licensing Section before beginning the process at (503) 378-4170, select 2 from the menu.

Have you arrived?

Someone said to me once, “I’ve learned everything I’m going to and will not be changing so you need to like me as I am.”

When we stop self-development, future success will be stymied. This is true for an individual in his or her personal life and it also applies to one’s professional life. Every person you meet if you are a real estate agent or an insurance agent or whatever other profession you are engaged in, you will learn from them if you are open.

Learning must be a life-long passion if you want to be successful in a career. Corporations realize the importance of regularly training their employees and cross training them. The Continuing Education requirements for individuals involved in regulated industries have also realized the need for training and learning.

True, much of the learning is to keep abreast of the rules and regulations that change in the blink of an eye and with great frequency. But there is another reason for Continuing Education training. Sometimes we read the same information over and over and just do not get it or do not comprehend all the pieces of the puzzle.

Then the next time a light bulb goes off and we see something new and fresh and go out in the street to put it into action with clients. Learning is one thing but putting it into practice is the next level.

When you read the next set of continuing education hours, read and study it with application in mind. You want to be the real estate agent or the insurance agent who takes the relationship with a client to the next level of effectiveness. You can do that by being a perpetual seeker of knowledge, ideas and information and then pursue the most effective ways to apply it to every situation in your professional career.

Don’t forget to learn today!

Law and Rules Required Course (LARRC)

Of the couple of dozen continuing education providers that could have applied for the new, Agency required Advanced Practices that includes the 3 credit hour LARRC course, only four chose to do so.

The Law and Rule Required Course (LARRC) is required of anyone renewing their license after December 31st. 2010. Superior Schools at http://pro-studies.com and Careers Real Estate School at careersrealestateschool.com are the two Agency approved schools with the lowest prices (Only $28). In fact, if you would like to take the course FREE of charge, attend my class at the RMLS Trade Fair in North Bend on October 14th. If you can't make it then, check out my live instruction class list at Careers Real Estate School. For courses that have more than 3 hours, and still contain the LARRC material, both Superior Schools and Careers Real Estate School are offering over 150 hours of related courses.

What is your License Number?

The agency has made the largest changes in real Estate education since 1995. Among those are that Certificates of Completion for CE courses are now called Certificates of Attendance. As certified continuing education providers/Instructors begin to comply with the new Agency rules, brokers wanting to receive Certificates of Attendance for CE courses must know and report their license number to the course provider/Instructor. The license number must appear on the Certificate of Attendance as well as in the providers records. The new regulations require the provider/instructor to maintain a list of all attendies by name and license number. If the provider/instructor does not have the number they may refuse to give the Certificate until the number is provided.

New Brokers

Public confidence in the recovering market, and a desire of many for a new profession, has created an increase in persons seeking a career in real estate sales. The number of individuals passing the state exam in 2010 has met or exceeded 2009 in April, May, June and August. Year to date exam totals for August 2010 shows a 13% increase in the number of exams administered for the same period in 2009. The number of new brokers entering the field in 2010 has met or exceeded the totals for 2009 in all months except for January, February and July.

As the volume of sales decreased in 2008, more and more brokers went out on their own creating a large spike in new Sole Practitioner licenses being issued in January of 2009. With the recent changes in the licensing of Sole Practitioners (See previous blogs) the number of those acquiring the Sole Practitioner license again jumped from 14 to 67 in the last part of 2009.

While the current average of 66 new brokers currently entering the field per month doesn't match the 369 in June of 2005 it does show that the industry is turning around. The interesting sidelight of this is that the new entries are in many cases outproducing the "old timers." The new hires don't know what the "good old days" were like. While in the heyday of the market, selling was easy and those entering the field today are learning the basics and are capturing most of the sales volume.

For those with the ambition to have their own business that can be started with a minimal amount of money and be up to speed in 3 to 6 months, real estate sales is the profession to explore.

Oregon Principal Brokers to be Required to have a High School Diploma

On Broker, Principal Broker, and Property Manager License applications received by the OREA on or after January 1, 2010, applicants must certify that they have a high school diploma or a General Education Development (GED) Certificate. This applies not only to new licensees but also to current broker licensees who want to become licensed as Principal Brokers. In turn, any broker wanting to become a Principal broker after December 31 st., 2010 will have to take and pass a new, additional, state exam to obtain their new license. For those wishing to become Principal Brokers, now is the time to obtain the Principal Brokers license before the new laws go into effect.

New CE Rules for Washington and Oregon Brokers

The new Continuing Education rules will limit the sharing of CE credits for a broker licensed in Oregon and Washington. If the Oregon Broker takes any Washington CE courses after January 1, 2011 the Washington course provider must also be an OREA CE certified provider. The course must also be pre-approved by the Agency and meet core credit requirements. CE taken before next year and approved by a principal broker will still be accepted for credit.

New Continuing Education Rules

There has been some confusion about the new regulations relating to Real Estate Continuing Education. To simplify, all CE approved by your Principal Broker prior to December 31, 2010, can count towards your license renewal even if you renew in 2012. For example, any CE taken before the end of 2010 could count towards your renewal even if you were renewing in June of 2012. Any courses taken after December 31, 2010 must meet the new OREA standards. The new regulations state that only Core CE registered with the OREA and delivered by an OREA Certified Continuing Education Provider will count towards license renewal. A licensee will no longer have to receive the approval of their Principal Broker before taking a class. As of January 1, 2011, licensees must keep track of their own CE hours and report them to the OREA.

New OREA Licensing and CE Rules

The OREA has produced a PowerPoint presentation relating to the new Licensing and Continuing Education rules. This relates to who is going to be qualified to offer CE, Advanced Practices, Principal Broker and the new Law and Rules Update courses. There is also a major change on who is responsible for keeping track of licensee's hours. See it all here

http://www.rea.state.or.us/REA/docs/CE_presentation.pdf

Real Estate Live Instruction Classes

If you are interested in attending pre-license or continuing education real estate classes contact Hallmark Real Estate School in Klamath Falls, Superior Schools/Pro-studies in Bend, or Careers Real Estate School in Eugene.

Great resource for marketing direction

The NAR has recently published their profile of home buyers and sellers. In it are a number of items of interest to agents interested in defining where they would like to take their business. Here are three excerpts showing preferences according to age, gender and location along with medial household income.

Help us help you

We are constantly updating our course material and questions to cover the latest state required topics. If you have recently taken a state exam and found your course didn't cover certain questions please let us know. We want to be sure we have the most complete course for our students. Our student first time pass rate in many cases is the highest of most of the other course providers and we wish to keep it that way.

Live Real Estate Continuing Education

For those Real Estate Agents attending the RMLS fall trade fair in Coos Bay I will there be teaching two 3 hour Continuing Education courses. The first will be on ethics, the second will be covering the new course required by the OREA relating to rules and updates. Hope to see you there.

Interested in a new career?

The purpose of this blog is to acquaint any interested person with what is required to get their license, plus study and exam taking tips.

For those beginning their career, or already in the field, we will be offering some of our FasTrak(R) business building tips.

If you have any questions about becoming an agent let us know, we have been in the business since 1978 and are all currently licensed in our fields.