Commission adopts recommendations of Specialty Licensing Advisory Committee

Should the Commission continue to issue "all purpose" real estate licenses? Or should it instead separately license persons who engage in certain "specialty areas" of real estate practice (property management, commercial real estate brokerage, etc.)? These were the questions posed to the committee.

By Phillip T. Fisher, Executive Director

The Real Estate Commission recently assembled industry professionals from across the state to study the issue of whether separate real estate licenses should be issued to perform specialized brokerage activities. The Commission's Specialty Licensing Advisory Committee was composed of representatives from property management, commercial real estate brokerage, vacation rental management and owner association management, as well as general real estate brokerage.

Commission member Allan Dameron served on the committee ex officio, and Executive Director Fisher facilitated the discussion. Larry A. Outlaw, the Commission's Director of Education and Licensing, and Special Deputy Attorney General Thomas R. Miller, the Commission's Director of Legal Services, also assisted the committee.

During the course of its meetings, the committee determined that the most immediate need was the creation of additional educational opportunities for persons engaged or interested in certain specialized areas of real estate practice - especially property management and commercial real estate brokerage. The committee noted that real estate education providers are reluctant to invest time and money to develop and offer courses in these specialty areas for the relatively small number of persons who may enroll in them. Consequently, the committee concluded that further involvement and encouragement by the Real Estate Commission was necessary to ensure the availability of courses.

At the conclusion of its meetings, the committee recommended to the Real Estate Commission that it:

1. Continue to permit specialized versions of the mandatory real estate Update continuing education course for specialty practitioners and explore ways to improve the availability of such modified courses, including assisting potential sponsors in identifying licensees who would likely have the greatest interest in such courses.
2. Develop a "specialty area education certificate program" consisting of quality continuing education elective courses (or a series of courses) on property management and commercial real estate brokerage subjects, and make these courses readily available to specialty practitioners. To ensure reasonable availability of these courses, the Commission would either directly sponsor them or subsidize their offering by an entity selected by the Commission.
3. Maintain a dialogue with representatives of the community association management industry.
4. Consider expanding educational opportunities for persons engaged in vacation rental management.

The Real Estate Commission adopted the committee's recommendations. Later this year, the Commission's Education and Licensing Division will begin formulating plans for implementing them.

The Commission expresses its appreciation to the Specialty Licensing Advisory Committee members: Jerry D. Berry (Fayetteville), John D. Bridgeman (Gastonia), Beverly H. Godfrey (Winston-Salem), J. Alan Holden (Supply), Michael A. Kubica (Hendersonville), John Lawton (Raleigh), Fred B. O'Neal (Raleigh), Arnold R. Spell (Durham), and Mary F. Taylor (Greensboro).