Licensing Law Modernization: Still Time to Make Your Voice Heard

RELRA (the Real Estate Licensing and Registration Act) might be the single most important Pennsylvania law for real estate licensees. The details of this act guide all our professional actions, and for the first time in decades, you have the chance to make your voice heard by providing your feedback to PAR’s Legislative Committee, which will, in turn, present the recommendations to PAR’s Board of Directors to review in January.

The PAR Legislative Committee would like your feedback on proposed major changes to the commonwealth’s real estate licensing law. These proposed changes address several key areas of the licensing law, including real estate teams, advertising and licensing requirements that reflect the changes in industry practices.

The proposed modernization is broken down into nine sections, focusing on a variety of issues, including real estate teams, advertising, licensing, and contracts, among other areas. Some of the highlights of the recommendations include:  

• Creation of a new provisional license category for newly licensed individuals  
• Defining advertising and shifting the requirement to include brokerage and phone number to requiring an individual license number on advertising  
• Defining a real estate team and creating a requirement that all teams have a specific team license number  
• Requiring all real estate teams to have a designated team supervisor with additional oversight responsibilities (in addition to the broker retaining all supervisory responsibility under current law)  
• Requiring all team supervisors to have a broker’s license OR licensees with a salesperson license who have transactional experience equivalent to half the amount required for a broker’s license and who complete the two core brokers courses (real estate office management and real estate law)  

Because of the significant impact these changes will have on the real estate industry in the commonwealth, your feedback is paramount. I would suggest reading through the recommendations prior to providing feedback. The survey period ends on Oct. 31.  

I would add my thanks to the members of the RELRA Task Force and its chair, Kathy McQuilkin, for an amazing job reviewing the licensing law and making recommendations to help the law reflect our industry. Additionally, I’d like to thank the staff in PAR’s Advocacy and Law and Policy departments for their efforts in supporting this task force’s work. Everyone committed a significant time to this overwhelming task. And thank you to our Legislative Committee, chaired by Mark Kibbe, for working through these recommendations. We truly appreciate the time these members have volunteered to our industry. 

For more information and to provide input, please visit PARealtors.org/RELRA.