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EMPIRE COMMUNITIES
OPINION
BUDA AFFORDABILITY
Capturing REAL moments in real estate since 1995
JULY 2019 • VOLUME 24 • ISSUE 3
Anticipation for new regulations targeting real estate teams falls flat By Riki Markowitz Last October, Inman News published an article titled, “NAR warns government may crack down on real estate teams.” It attracted a lot of attention, for good reason. Several states had recently passed rules regulating real estate team names. It was controversial — some arguing the new regulations will provide clarity to consumers while others claiming that it wasn’t a big enough problem in the first place. But the threat that more crackdowns are coming is ominous.
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Real estate teams by the numbers First, it’s helpful to understand what real estate teams are and how prominent they are. The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) has a membership of 1.3 million REALTORS. Last year, the organization surveyed nearly 3,400 members and published a report called “2018 Teams Survey.” They defined real estate teams as consisting of two members to 16 or more (29 percent of teams had two members; 20 percent had six to 10 members). Finally, most team members hold a real estate license. Why real estate teams in Texas might be concerned with crackdowns According to NAR, real estate teams are
very popular right now and “becom[ing] a fixture of the contemporary real estate environment.” As a result, industry regulators will be watching. A NAR press release reports, “In recent years, 24 states have statutes or formal regulations in place that address real estate teams.” NAR
doesn’t say which states, but we can safely assume that Texas is on that list. New advertising rules were passed just last May regulating team names, specifically how a name can appear on signs and ads. There was no exemption for teams that had already been operating with a now-banned name. They were required
to register a new business name. It was a stressful time for teams here in Texas, and not just for those who had to scramble to register a new name and then also change letterhead, signs, ads, flyers, etc. But in a few short months, Texas’ 86th state legislative session would be in session. If there were going to be a crackdown on teams, or the industry, those bills would become law by June 2019. Since Texas has a very short regular legislative season — 140 days — and lawmakers only meet on odd numbered years, sessions are a busy time for legislators, but it’s also an extraordinarily hectic time for industry watchdogs. It’s their job to keep an eye on every single piece of legislation that could affect REALTORS in the state. It was difficult to predict what 2019 would be like for several reasons, but a big one was that power in the House — and the Senate, to a smaller degree — shifted more than
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