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Opinion | Christopher Fox: Recently passed bill benefits real estate brokers

New real estate licensees should maintain a high level of knowledge and competency

(March 31, 2015) — As the spring real estate season is upon us, more and more Kentuckians will be looking to live the American dream by becoming homeowners. For most, purchasing a home might be the single largest financial decision made in their lifetime. Home buyers and sellers often times enlist the services of a realtor to help them with this transaction.

Christopher Fox
Christopher Fox

In a rapidly changing industry, the Kentucky Association of Realtors, along side the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors, felt it was time to raise the bar on professionalism in Kentucky real estate through post license education. These groups, along with several others, including the Kentucky Real Estate Commission and local realtor associations across the state, worked with Rep. Tommy Thompson who sponsored the bill, Sen. Albert Robinson, Rep. Dennis Keane and 24 other co-sponsors to draft HB 149 that would do just that.

They felt it was important that new real estate licensees into the industry maintain a high level of knowledge and competency to begin and carry through their career. Real estate is becoming, through increased regulations, tighter lending scrutiny, etc., a more complex trade to navigate and, with proper education, agents will be better prepared to serve clients and work cooperatively with others involved in the transaction.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2016, new real estate licensees will be required to complete an additional 48 hours of post license education within two years of receiving or activating his or her initial sales associate license. In doing this, Kentucky will join the ranks of 24 other states with higher education requirements for new licensees, putting us in line with the direction real estate licensing is headed throughout the country.

The post license education is instructionally designed to be a level of education similar to how a college curriculum compares to a high school curriculum. These additional 48 hours of education would consist of course topics designed to provide real world scenarios faced in the industry and engage agents in more complex learning objectives than the pre-license curriculum.

Bringing more professionalism to the industry is the goal and the passing of HB 149 is one big step forward in the right direction.

Christopher Fox is the Government Affairs Chairman at the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors. Write to him at [email protected].