Are you following the rules for unlicensed assistants?
Updates to TREC guidelines may require you to revisit your use of unlicensed assistants to make sure you stay in compliance. While TREC understands unlicensed administrative assistants are tremendously useful to busy agents, care must be taken not to use these assistants where licensing is required.
These activities require a license and may not be performed by an unlicensed assistant:
· Any activities in which a person directly helps another buy, sell, or lease real property require a license.
· Negotiating listing agreements
· Negotiating contracts for sale or lease
· Showing property
· Soliciting prospective clients
· Holding an open house
· Review contracts
· Direct or advise agents in helping others buy, sell or lease property
· Property management activities that require licensure. See TREC guidelines for more information.
Note that assistants are no longer allowed to show property or hold open houses. As these activities legally require background checks and fingerprinting, they may only be conducted by licensees.
Unlicensed assistants may help agents and brokers in many ways around the office, including:
· Setting appointments to show listings
· Placing/removing signs at properties
· Confirming advertised listing information to callers so long as they identify themselves as unlicensed.
· Place ads
· Data entry
· Filling in contract forms at the direction of the licensee
· Ordering supplies and scheduling maintenance of an office
· Bookkeeping and office management
· Training personnel
· Assist a broker or salesperson in arranging financing by obtaining information from a buyer and providing forms.
· On-site management of apartment complexes. See TREC guidelines for more information.