Seventy-five hours of education will be required later this year prior to becoming an appraisal trainee under new regulations proposed by the State Board of Certified Real Estate Appraisers, according to Daniel Bradley, board chair.

Bradley said the changes will require applicants to complete 75 hours of coursework in specific topics, including the 15-hour Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) course, 30-hour Basic Appraisal Principles course and 30-hour Basic Appraisal Procedures course before applying to the board to become a licensed trainee.

Those currently working as appraisal assistants will have a window of time to submit their application to receive a trainee license. After the board sets the final date, anyone working to assist in the preparation of an appraisal must be a licensed trainee.

“At this time, anyone can be an appraisal assistant; there are no qualifications,” Bradley explained. “The new regulations will define an ‘appraisal trainee’ and the requirements to qualify for the new trainee license. The trainee will then be required to obtain a minimum of two years experience working with a certified appraiser before he can qualify to become a certified appraiser.”

The educational requirements follow the Appraiser Qualifications Board (AQB) recommendations to create consistency within the industry in Pennsylvania.

By requiring the application process up front, the board sees this as beneficial to applicants who may not meet the requirements to become certified appraisers. “An applicant may have a criminal record or some other barrier which would preclude him from being certified,” Bradley said. “We would prefer that he knows this before going through two years of training and then discovers that he doesn’t qualify.”

The appraisal board is considering limiting the number of times a person can renew a trainee license but it is making some allowance for a person who may be experiencing circumstances beyond his control, such as overseas military service or health issues.

The proposed regulation changes have had a first round of public comment during which PA Association of REALTORS® submitted comments in favor of the changes. The Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) has reviewed the regulation package and is going through final rulemaking. The proposed regulations will be sent back for public comment, as well as comments from the  House and Senate Professional Licensure committees, the Governor’s Policy Office and the IRRC.

Bradley said the appraisal board tentatively expects to finalize the regulations by April 1 and hopes to implement them by July 1.

Real estate professionals have just five months to complete 14 hours of approved continuing education before renewing their licenses. Real estate licenses need to be renewed with the PA Department of State by May 31, 2010.

Agents who received their licenses between Dec. 1, 2007 and Nov. 30, 2009 are required to take 14 hours of continuing education in specific, mandatory commission-developed courses.  Those who received their licenses after Nov. 30, 2009 will be waived from continuing education for the 2010 renewal but will be required to take the specific, mandatory commission-developed courses for the 2012 renewal.

Online license renewal is available beginning in early March but in order to complete the renewal process, a REALTOR’S^® broker must first have renewed his license.  The State Real Estate Commission will send renewal notices to brokers prior to agent renewal notices.

The commission will again utilize a post-renewal random continuing education audit, so licensees should not send CE information with their renewals unless they receive specific instructions from the commission to do so.

The State Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs (BPOA) and the PA Real Estate Commission altered the renewal system in 2008 to ensure an easier process. REALTORS^® have a registration code printed on their wallet cards that should be used to renew a license as early as 90 days prior to its expiration date even if a REALTOR^® hasn’t received his license renewal notice from the state.

REALTORS^® are encouraged to renew their license online, which is quicker and more efficient. Paper applications are being accepted but are not the preferred method.

The PA Association of REALTORS^® (PAR) does not participate in the license renewal process and does not keep records of members’ continuing education credits. REALTORS^® who have taken courses through the PA REALTORS^® Institute (PRI), PAR’s school, can call 800-745-5527 to obtain more information regarding their 2008-2010 continuing education credits.

For a brief FAQ of the requirements, read the Department of State’s January 2010 newsletter (PDF).

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New Standard of Practice 15-3 focuses on electronic communications. It obligates REALTORS® to “publish a clarification about or to remove statements made by others on electronic media the REALTOR® controls” when those statements include false or misleading information about competitors, competitors’ businesses and competitors’ business practices. This means when a REALTOR® learns false or misleading information is posted to his blog, Facebook wall or other social media site, he has the obligation to remove it or post a retraction/clarification of the statement.

The other new Standard of Practice (3-9) is designed to address the misuse of lock boxes, unauthorized access to a listed property and violation of other rules determined by the seller and listing broker. REALTORS® must remember that rules for property access must be followed and can often be found in the remarks section of the MLS.

New Case Interpretation 12-21 suggests that REALTORS® who change brokers need to be careful in how they advertise sold properties while affiliated with their prior broker. The case interpretation uses REALTOR® Q as an example. She advertises sold properties on her web site but when she switches brokers and continues to advertise the same sold properties on her site, she is found in violation of Article 12.

An updated copy of the new Code – with additions underlined – is available on the PAR web site, along with a summary of all changes and more detailed explanations.

All REALTORS® pledge to abide by the Code of Ethics. The code establishes a standard of conduct to protect consumers, the public and fellow REALTORS®.

Article co-authored by Hank Lerner, Esq., Director of Member & Legal Services at the Pennsylvania Association of REALTORS®.

Virtual staging is where you take an empty room and then digitally enhance it with furniture to make the space more inviting. For example, a stager may digitally add some artwork, chairs, tables and other items to liven up a vacant space, allowing buyers to see the potential of the home. The enhanced photos may then be used on the sales practitioner’s flyers, Web site, MLS and in advertisements for the listing.

In short, rather than bringing a home stager into the home to dress it up with furniture and other items that don’t belong in the home, the listing broker does the same thing electronically for much less expense.

NAR suggests (in that post and in other articles) that practitioners need to be sensitive to claims that virtual staging may be a violation of Article 12 of the Code of Ethics which requires that REALTORS® present a “true picture” in their advertising.  If listing brokers put up virtually staged pictures of a property that never actually existed in that state – using furniture or fixtures that aren’t present in the home and have never been there – is it really a “true picture” of the property?

Personally, adding non-existent digital furniture to a photo of a living room doesn’t cause me a lot of angst, although I can see how it might be misused.  After all, is that really so different from pictures of “live” staging where you move in real furniture that won’t be staying with the house?

But as you think about virtual staging keep in mind that there are a lot of ways to manipulate pictures and some may be far worse than others.

For example, I would get heartburn if a listing broker eliminated negative features from a photograph or materially changed the photograph in a way that misrepresented the existing features of a home.  What would you think of a photograph that digitally turned a gravel driveway into an asphalt driveway or one that magically erased the electrical pole in the backyard and the wires that run over the house?

Obeo has a product called StyleDesigner that is targeted to let buyers change various aspects of property photographs to envision what a home might look like with different paint colors, flooring or counters.  No problem with that use for buyers who want to envision what they might change about a house but I certainly don’t think sellers could get away with Photoshop upgrades in their own listing pictures by dropping in granite counters instead of the existing laminate or hardwood instead of linoleum.

What do you think?  Have you used virtual staging and seen results?  Would you have a problem if you showed up with your buyer to a vacant home that had virtually staged pictures in the MLS?

Everyone knows that if you’re not a REALTOR^® member you can’t use the term, but did you know that there are significant limitations on member use of the terms as well? NAR’s Membership Marks Manual has all the rules and regulations about the proper (and improper) use of the term REALTOR^® and what it says may surprise you.

A few of the top things to remember:

#1: The word “Realtor” can be used in the name of a firm ONLY if it is set off from the name of the firm by some sort of punctuation.

Unacceptable: Smith Company REALTORS^®
Acceptable: Smith Company, REALTORS^®

#2: ”Realtor” may be used in a domain name or e-mail address of a member ONLY if it is used with the member’s name or an acceptable variation thereof.  Members are NOT permitted to use the term with any sort of a geographic term or other descriptor.

Unacceptable: HarrisburgRealtor.com; NumberOneRealtor.com; YourRealtor@abc.com
Acceptable: JohnSmithRealtor.com; RealtorJohnson@xyz.com”

#3: Never use “Realtor” with a descriptive term

Unacceptable: ”The Concerned REALTOR^®; “The REALTOR^® with Integrity”; “Harrisburg’s Best REALTOR^®.”

#4: All the other marks owned or administered by NAR (including all the NAR designations) have their own sets of rules to follow.

You may be wondering to yourself, “who writes these rules?”  The answer is NAR owns the various trademarks and service marks so it is up to them to write usage rules that protect the integrity of the marks. Given that the term REALTOR^® has been challenged in court throughout the years, these rules are NAR’s attempt at maintaining the marks against challenges that they have become generic.

NAR’s model bylaws for local associations contain mandatory rules that require members to follow the rules for useage. Because membership starts at the local level, local associations are encouraged to educate members about proper use and to enforce the rules as much as they can.  The Membership Marks Manual even contains sample letters to help with enforcement. If those misusing the marks don’t comply, locals can then elevate the issue to NAR, which will address it through their legal department. And nobody wants that, do we?

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Screenshot from movieline.com

…that’s the sound you heard when I read about this little tidbit:

In June, Guadalupe Zambrano of Katy, Texas was ordered by the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to transfer the domain name “thejaylenoshow.com” to Jay Leno after five years of using the site to redirect traffic to…you guessed it…his REAL ESTATE WEB SITE. Read the full decision.

Unfortunately for Mr. Zambrano it was found that “…[his] registration of the disputed domain name with knowledge of the Complainant’s rights in the JAY LENO mark is evidence of bad faith” and that he “used the disputed domain name in bad faith to attract Internet users to [his] website for commercial gain….”  All this despite the description (presumably taken from his arguments in the case) that “his expertise is in real estate, and he is successful because of his ability in marketing.” 

Oh, come ON!

In 2007 NAR approved Standard of Practice 12-12, which specifies that members cannot use or register domain names that would present less than a “true picture.”  At the time I expressed the opinion that it was silly to create such an explicit rule for something that should easily be understood to be prohibited.  What did I know?

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————————— 

$447000 / 5br – (Anytown)

Motivated seller – Five bedroom, three bath colonial in Anytown.  New roof and siding.

Johnny Cash, ABC Realty
123-456-7890

Courtesy of Wilson Realty Professionals

• Location: Anytown
• it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 987654321

Give up?

This listing was posted by an agent affiliated with ABC Realty, but it isn’t their listing – the listing belongs to another broker. 

If you run an IDX site you have blanket permission from any broker that hasn’t opted out of IDX to advertise their listings on your own IDX Web site. But that permission doesn’t extend to putting information about these listings in other places…like Craigslist. Would you ever think that you have permission to run a newspaper ad that advertises another broker’s listing just because you put “courtesy of Listing Broker” in the corner?

Pennsylvania law and regs (see section 301 of the Regulations), as well as the Code of Ethics (see Standard of Practice 12-4) prohibit a broker/agent from advertising property listed by another broker without the permission of the seller or the other broker. In fact, you’re likely in violation of your local MLS Rules (probably section 13) if you’re using information from the MLS to advertise listed properties like this.

Now you might argue that “any agent would want his/her listing advertised in as many places as possible,” so your decision to post their listing on Craigslist is really helping the other agent. Nice try, but no dice. Rules are rules, so unless you have permission, you can’t put up that ad.

This is one of many recent examples of calls/e-mails from members who have said “I’ve always thought that XYZ was prohibited, but I guess it must be legal since the Broker down the street is doing it now.”  Maybe. But then again, maybe the broker down the street is wrong. After all, if all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?

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Section 23(j) of the Code of Ethics and Arbitration Manual (CEAM) clearly states that results can only be given to the parties (duh), Board of Directors (which will see it when they meet to review/ratify the decision), members of the original hearing panel, and the President of any other Board in which the offending member has membership. A violation of the public trust can also be forwarded to the State Real Estate Commission. 

A little known provision is Section 23(n), which provides the option for local boards to make limited publication the names of those members who have been found in violation of the Code of Ethics twice in a three-year span. This section has to be specifically adopted by a Board in order to be applicable, and is very narrow.

Finally, a party to an ethics complaint may disclose information about the case where it “might vindicate a member’s professional reputation.” (Section 2(e)(1)). All told, though, these things are still pretty confidential.

At the NAR Midyear Meetings an approved change to Section 23(j) might shoot a Very Big Hole in the current confidentiality provisions. As approved, this section now reads (with additions underlined and my notes in [brackets]):

Upon final action by the Directors, the President shall disseminate to the complainant, the respondent, the Board of Directors, the Chairperson and members of the Hearing Panel, Board legal counsel, the President of any other Board in which the respondent holds membership, and any governmental agency as directed by the Board of Directors such notice of the action as the President deems appropriate under the circumstances provided, however, that the nature, form, content, and extent of the notice shall be specifically approved by Board legal counsel prior to dissemination. Board Members [NOTE: 'Board Members' here means 'members of the local association,' not just members of the Board of Directors], other than those specified, shall be notified only in respect to suspension or expulsion of membership of the Board Member unless the optional procedures established at the end of this Section have been adopted locally or unless notification is required to ensure compliance with the Board’s bylaws (e.g. where a petition for removal of an officer or director must state the reason(s) an officer or director is deemed disqualified from further service.).

This revision was brought to the NAR Professional Standards Committee by an association with bylaws that allow for removal of a Director deemed “incapable of fulfilling the duties for which he was elected” by a petition signed “by not less than one-third of the voting membership or majority of the board of directors….[which] must set forth the reasons the individual is deemed disqualified from further service.”  So with this new rule, the bylaws provision seems to mean that a member who believes an ethics violation constitutes a possible disqualification for service would be able to send a petition to every member of the local association describing the violation and asking them to sign the petition.  And it was made clear at the meeting that the rule applies to bylaws in general, not just bylaws relating to Board service.

So…could a local association adopt a bylaws change that mandates disclosure of the details of every violation of a member? Don’t know, but it seems to me like they could. Should they? Hmmm…

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At the meeting, the existing Standard of Practice 15-2 was updated to make it clear that this duty applies not only to statements made by a REALTOR®, but also to statements that might be passed on by that REALTOR® in some way. Specifically, it now explicitly prohibits publishing, repeating, retransmitting or republishing false or misleading statements made by others. In full, the new SoP (which takes effect in January 2010 unless there are additional changes) now reads:

“The obligation to refrain from making false or misleading statements about competitors, competitors’ businesses and competitors’ business practices includes the duty to not knowingly or recklessly publish, repeat, retransmit, or republish false or misleading statements made by others. This duty applies whether false or misleading statements are repeated in person, in writing, by technological means (e.g., the Internet), or by any other means. ”

A new Standard of Practice (presumably to be numbered 15-3) was also added:

“The obligation to refrain from making false or misleading statements about competitors, competitors’ businesses and competitors’ business practices includes the duty to publish a clarification about or to remove statements made by others on electronic media the REALTOR® controls once the REALTOR® knows the statement is false or misleading.”

The primary intent here seems to be to create an affirmative responsibility for REALTORS® to react to any complaints about statements that may be made by others in an electronic forum (such as a blog) controlled by that REALTOR®. For example, assume that REALTOR® A publishes a blog, and a consumer puts up a statement saying “REALTOR® X stole my deposit money.” Under the new SoP, even though REALTOR® A didn’t make the comment himself, he has a responsibility to clarify or remove the comment at such time as he “knows” that it is false or misleading.

There is already concern in the blogosphere as to the effect of these changes. One argument is that by making REALTORS® more responsible for editing the content of comments on their blogs and Web sites, they may take on additional legal liability as “publishers” rather than simply “providers” of electronic data. There also are questions as to when it can be said a REALTOR® “knows” that a bit of information is false and/or misleading. For example, does REALTOR® A have to be told about the comment before knowledge is imputed, or could someone suggest to a hearing panel that the comment was so outrageous that REALTOR® A should have “known” it was false the moment he read it? And what if there is a comment of questionable truth? Does REALTOR® A have to remove the statement when he’s not sure if it is or isn’t actually true?

In short, there are a lot of unanswered questions. But there always are when there’s a change to the Code that affects current business practice – especially when those practices themselves are continuing to emerge. Remember that these changes don’t take effect until January 2010, so there may be additional changes in November if there is reason to make them.

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I recently heard about a book called The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz. The core concept of the book is that there are basic “agreements” each of us makes with others — and with ourselves — that can either limit us or empower us.  By making four major agreements with yourself (below), you can overcome hurdles in your personal and professional lives.

• Be Impeccable With Your Word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

• Don’t Take Anything Personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

• Don’t Make Assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

• Always Do Your Best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

I’m not a big believer in self-help books. In fact, I’ll be very up front and tell you that I haven’t actually read this one (nor am I necessarily recommending it). But in looking at analysis and reviews of the book, it made me think quite a bit about what REALTORS® refer to as “professionalism.” 

There are lots of Rules out there that govern real estate.  You’ve got state and federal statutes and regulations, and of course there’s the Code of Ethics. Don’t forget your broker’s policy manual. And for many, there’s the Golden Rule (with some interesting and very valid twists as well).

Aside from the rules themselves, lots of Associations at all levels (National, State and Local) have been working on developing additional educational and/or awards programming to teach members how to be more “professional” in their actions. But you have to wonder: how much of this thing we call “professionalism” can be taught and tested? How much is adherence to rules, policies and codes, and how much of it is internal? If REALTORS® — AND other real estate professionals, AND real estate clients/customers — went through a transaction being mindful to keep their word, not be insulted by the acts of others, ask questions when things aren’t clear and to work hard as hard as they can, maybe things would pretty much take care of themselves.

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