…and I admire her now.

Yesterday (8-27-09), though sleep-deprived and a desk that still looks like Mt. Kilimanjaro, I drove down to the ADRE’s Education meeting.  The invites had gone out to real estate schools and instructors throughout the state.  As a school, and an advocate of education, I felt I could not miss this opportunity to hear more about the ADRE’s future plans.

For those of you who have not realized that there is a new and different “sheriff in town”, you need to pay attention.  Here are some changes that will take place, “in time” and with the help of industry partners:

  • return to a 2 year license renewal structure
  • prelicensure and then a provisional license (both salesperson and brokers)
  • test questions will be changed and unique to salespersons and brokers
  • assessments for schools, courses, and instructors (moderate-reasonable)
  • easy “education” audits (easier with transaction management platforms)
  • and more…

Understand these will need to be packaged into an Omnibus bill from the ADRE and submitted to the Legislature and passed into law.  The interesting point of all of this is the different direction of this Real Estate Commissioner versus the previous Commissioner, Sam Wercinski.  Different focus.  Different energy and resources.  Different priorities.

You need to pay attention.  The new sheriff believes in doing things accurately, specifically, and is not afraid to punish.  The way to stay out of trouble with this new regime is to educate yourself on all the minute ways to get into trouble, and then avoid the pot holes.

Education will be the keynote in anything this Commissioner says.  She lives and breathes professionalism through education.  And if that doesn’t work, she has a gun.

Kathy Howe

Blue Separation Bar 450x10

Today, 4 years later, the words resound.

Not what she wanted to do on that day in 2009, she has changed her direction.
The most recent issue is an ADRE alert that went out saying it was MANDATORY that all Designated and Associate Brokers with authority to do Designated Broker duties MUST respond to a survey that mostly covered whether or not you were doing property management, did you have a trust account, did you have E&O insurance, a surety bond, branch offices…
There are rumors that the Commissioner wants to know what Associate Brokers are doing Broker delegated duties to be sure they have taken the 9 hour Broker Management Clinic training.  It’s all required of these parties now, but this Commissioner does not seem to trust that Brokers are following the rules.
She wants to know how many Brokers do Property Management and who has a Trust Account.  All of those things are in statute and rules, but again, the Commissioner does not seem to believe Brokers are following the rules.
She wants to know who has E&O insurance and what Property Managers are bonded.  Rumor has that question tied to the Commissioner wanting all Property Management Brokers to have a mandatory bond and she wants to add it to her wish list for next year’s Rules package.
Instead of getting rid of archaic statutes and rules… like 14 day notice for educators to give to the Department of Real Estate in order to schedule a class.  This was deemed necessary years ago, during paper and pencil days, in order to allow the ADRE to send out a monitor to the class.  It includes prelicense classes, which they do not monitor.  Scheduling with a 14 day notice inhibits classes that could be given when a situation presents itself.  How does the 14 day notice protect the public?  The purpose of the Department is to protect the public.
Why not a survey to the  ADRE from the licensees and educators asking for things like the 14 day rule being eliminated?  What happened to working together for the good of the public?  Gone.
We learned that it took the Governor to tell the Commissioner the survey would not be mandatory… yet the Commissioner said she wanted all brokers to fill out the information and if brokers did not send in the survey, they would be sent additional requests for the information… I just got my 2nd survey, and I deleted it.
Many brokers are afraid of retaliation by the Commissioner.  The Commissioner says she won’t do any retaliatory audits.  We’ll see.
This Commissioner seems to want to use her gun instead of her “softer side” to get what she wants.  Sad.
We are not the socialist republic of Arizona… WE ARE ARIZONA.
Kathy Howe aka SedonaKathy