With all Commissioners present, the Alabama Real Estate Commission (AREC) held its monthly meeting on Thursday, July 21. Except for a brief discussion on a new proposal detailed below, the meeting followed normal lines with a director’s report, hearings, and approval of the September meeting. Here are the highlights from the meeting.

Commissioners briefly discussed a proposal to change the salesperson licensure requirements. The proposal is the work of a task force made up of licensees. You can see the proposal and the core competencies checklists by area here.

In general, the change would do the following:

• Increase the 30-hour post-license course to 45 hours.
• Allow an applicant to apply for a temporary salesperson license only after the 45-hour post-license course is completed.
• Require an applicant to complete specialized training in specific area(s) of real estate within three months of completing the 45-hour course, after which the applicant must complete a core competencies checklist that is initialed or signed by the qualifying broker and submitted to AREC. After the checklist is submitted in a satisfactory manner, the applicant can apply for an original salesperson license.

Currently, applicants first take a 60-hour pre-license course, pass a test, and then are able to apply and receive a temporary salesperson’s license. With the temporary salesperson’s license in hand, the new licensee can begin to practice real estate. The licensee must then complete the 30-hour post-license course, after which the licensee can apply for an original salesperson license. The proposal will delay an applicant’s ability to practice real estate until after the post-license course work is complete.

Also, a rule approved to be filed last month is not yet available for review. As reported in the article on June’s AREC meeting, Commissioners voted at that time to approve the filing of a rule dealing with qualifications for pre-license and post-license instructors. That rule is not yet available for public review on Alabama’s administrative rule website but will be provided once available.  

The real estate profession continues to see fast-paced growth. According to AREC staff, June saw 551 licenses issued and over 11 new license applications per day. Of the nearly 40,000 licenses issued by AREC, roughly 34,350 are individuals and well over 4,000 are companies. There are over 9,300 inactive licenses currently held.

This year is a license renewal year, which occurs every two years. You can renew online on AREC’s website here. Licenses expire at midnight on September 30, at which time non-renewed licenses will be placed on inactive status. September 30 is also the deadline for the 15-hour CE requirement. Both inactive and active licenses must be renewed. One interesting fact from the meeting is that, in a typical renewal year, 10% of licenses are not renewed.

The next two meetings of the Commission will occur on August 18 and September 22 at 9 am in Montgomery. Commissioners also voted to accept an invitation to hold the October meeting in Mobile at the University of South Alabama. That meeting will take place on October 13. You can also watch Commission meetings live via Microsoft Teams, with a link available on AREC’s website here.

With a relatively light hearing docket, the Commissioners reviewed one complaint, two applications for a temporary salesperson’s license, three applications for a determination of licensing eligibility, and one request for an extension of the deadline to apply for an original salesperson’s license.