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Reminder: NAR® Ethics Requirement is Not an NCREC Requirement

The Commission is aware that National Association of REALTORS® (NAR®) members are required to complete at least 2 hours and 30 minutes of ethics training every three years. The current cycle ends on December 31, 2024.

As the deadline approaches, please keep the following in mind:

Reminder: Are you licensed in multiple jurisdictions?

Are you licensed in multiple jurisdictions or have questions about your licensing requirements outside of North Carolina? While it’s commendable that many licensees hold licenses in different areas, the North Carolina Real Estate Commission cannot offer guidance on the following:

  1. maintaining active licensure in another jurisdiction,
  2. completing another jurisdiction’s continuing education requirements, and/or
  3. reporting disciplinary actions from other jurisdictions.

For questions regarding your real estate license in another jurisdiction, please contact the regulatory agency in that jurisdiction for accurate information.

Reminder: You know you should go ahead and take your CE!

Don’t wait until the last minute to complete your 8-hour continuing education requirement!

Here’s why it’s important to take your CE courses early:

  1. Avoid Last-Minute Delays/Stress: Completing your education ahead of time helps you avoid the pressure and potential scheduling conflicts as the deadline approaches.
  2. Ensure Active Licensure: Timely completion of your CE prior to June 10th and renewing your license by June 30th of each license year is critical to maintaining an active license. Brokers should understand that a failure to complete CE by June 10th will make their license inactive. Further, if they fail to renew their license(s) by June 30th, their license will be expired. Brokers who have an inactive or expired license are prohibited from providing brokerage services on July 1st.
  3. Stay Current: The sooner you complete your courses, the sooner you’ll be up to date on the License Law and Commission rule changes.

If you have not registered for any of your continuing education classes, please do so today.

Do You Wish to Serve as an Officer for Your POA?

Good news! Serving as an officer of a residential property owners’ association (POA) where you are a property owner may have less restrictions than you think! Per Commission Rule 58A .0118(b), a broker who receives trust money belonging to a property owners’ association in their capacity as an officer in the association in a residential development in which the broker is a property owner and receives no compensation is exempt from Rules 58A .0116 and 58A .0117 regarding handling the funds of others.

While serving your own POA as an officer, you are not required to have a trust account as required under Subsection (a) of this rule; however, you are not permitted to receive any compensation for your service as an officer. If you are compensated, then the rules apply. Of course, a broker is always prohibited from converting trust monies belonging to the POA to their personal use or for purposes other than intended. Moreover, a broker cannot assist others in the conversion of the trust monies. And, all brokers handling HOA funds are advised to keep detailed records.

Reminder: If the broker professionally manages the funds of a property owner association for compensation, they will be subject to the requirements of Rules 58A .0116, .0117, and .0118.

Let’s Talk: Prelicensing Rosters

Every day our specialists in Broker Licensing receive emails and phone calls from broker license applicants who are receiving the following error message on their application, “Course completion confirmation from school not found.” There are essentially two reasons why this error appears on an application. The first reason is that a Course Completion Report (i.e. roster) has not yet been submitted by the education provider, and the second one is that the information submitted on the roster does not match what is on the application.

Every provider and instructor of prelicensing education knows to stress to their students the importance of not waiting to take the broker license examination after passing the prelicensing course. Commission Rule 58H .0207 requires education providers to submit a roster within seven days of the course completion date. Since most providers submit their rosters well within the seven-day requirement, the most common reason the above error appears is because the information on the application does not match what was submitted by the education provider.

A prelicensing roster must contain a student’s full legal first name, full legal last name (no nicknames, suffixes, middle names, middle initials, or punctuation), the last four digits of their Social Security Number (SSN), student contact information, the course completion date, the instructor number, and the number of the education provider. The most common conflict between the roster and the application is the name. The roster should only have the first and last name of the applicant even though the license application requires the full legal name and any suffixes.

If a student calls the education provider complaining of this error, the provider’s first step should be to verify the accuracy of the information they submitted on the roster. There is often a spelling error on the roster or the first and last names were accidentally switched, but the most common error is the student only gave the provider their preferred name and not their true legal name. If there is any error on the roster, the provider should be able to delete the student from it and submit a new one for just this student with their corrected information. If the student cannot be deleted from the roster, then the provider will need to contact the Education Department at educ@ncrec.gov.

If everything on the roster is correct and the student is still receiving this error, then there is a mistake somewhere on their application. They will need to proofread their application and make sure there are no typos and that they did not transpose any numbers. Sometimes there are leading or trailing spaces around the name in the name fields, and the application interprets that as an extra character. The best advice to give applicants is to clear out each name field, hit “backspace” and “delete” several times to eliminate any potential extra spaces, and then manually retype their name (do not let the browser auto-complete any fields). If the error still appears after following all of the above steps, the student should then be directed to call the Commission at 919-875-3700 and ask for “Broker Licensing.”

Finally, as it is required reading for the application and required to be reviewed per the prelicensing syllabus, educators should ensure they spend adequate time reviewing the application booklet, RELINC. Having a better understanding of the application process will also help clear confusion for prelicensing students so they know what to expect when it comes to finally submitting their application and getting ready to test.

Fair Housing

Link: https://youtu.be/Yn6_tQ29ZYA

Tech Corner: Spam Text Messages

Watch this video to learn about how to identify spam text messages. Video link: https://youtu.be/gRoVFN-AT0k

Commission Presentations

Brian Heath, Consumer Protection Officer, spoke at Property Management Committee of Durham Regional Association REALTORS® on October 1.

Bruce Rinne, Information Officer, spoke at the Brunswick County Association of REALTORS® on October 10.

Brian Heath, Consumer Protection Officer, spoke at exp Realty LLC on October 17.

Miriam Baer, Executive Director, and Janet Thoren, Director of Regulatory Affairs, spoke at NC REALTORS® Annual Meeting, on October 20th.

Anthony Lindsey, Commission Chair, Bill Aceto, Commission Vice-Chair, Miriam Baer, Executive Director, and Janet Thoren, Director of Regulatory Affairs, spoke at NC REALTORS® Annual Meeting, on October 21st.

Miriam Baer, Executive Director, spoke at Gaston Association of REALTORS® on October 24th.

November 2024 Presentations

*These presentations are subject to change due to the availability of Commission members and/or staff.*

Sarah Dixon, Associate Legal Counsel II, will speak at OWN Real Estate on November 7th.

Bruce Rinne, Information Officer, will speak at Allen Tate REALTORS® on November 8th.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Article

With the holiday season quickly approaching, and as we begin to celebrate a time of togetherness and tradition, we encourage you to consider the diversity of the world we live and work in. It is important to remember that everyone may not celebrate the same traditions, there is a wide range of ways people celebrate the holiday season if they celebrate them at all. Fostering an environment of inclusivity and belonging for all helps avoid giving the impression that one or some holidays take precedence over others.  Creating awareness and encouraging others to learn more about underrepresented traditions and other cultural celebrations is an excellent way to acknowledge and honor cultures or traditions many may not be familiar with. 

Below you will find a list of upcoming observances and a resource to help keep track of the various holidays and observances with links to learn more about how each is celebrated and the significance or importance of the celebration.

Disciplinary Actions

A AND F VENTURES INC (ASHEVILLE) – By Consent, the Commission suspended the firm license of A AND F Ventures for a period of 6-months, effective September 30, 2024. The Commission then stayed the suspension in its entirety upon certain conditions. The Commission found that the Firm represented the seller in the transaction and negligently misrepresented that the property was serviced by city water and sewer, when in fact it had a septic system.

AFFINITY RENTALS LLC (JACKSONVILLE) – The Commission accepted the voluntary surrender of the real estate firm license of Affinity Rentals LLC, effective September 18, 2024. The Commission dismissed without prejudice allegations that the firm violated provisions of the Real Estate License Law and Commission Rules. The firm neither admitted nor denied misconduct.

ANCHOR REALTY LLC (FAIRFIELD) – The Commission accepted the voluntary surrender of the real estate firm license of Anchor Realty LLC, effective September 30, 2024. The Commission dismissed without prejudice allegations that the Firm violated provisions of the Real Estate License Law and Commission Rules. The Firm neither admitted nor denied misconduct.

SUSAN H AYERS (ASHEVILLE) – By Consent, the Commission suspended the broker license of Ayers for a period of 6-months, effective September 30, 2024. The Commission then stayed the suspension in its entirety upon certain conditions. The Commission found that Ayers represented the seller in a transaction and negligently misrepresented that the property was serviced by city water and sewer, when in fact it had a septic system.

ROY H HARVEL (PINEHURST) – By Consent, the Commission suspended the broker license of Harvel for a period of 9-months, effective September 16, 2024. The Commission then stayed the suspension in its entirety upon certain conditions. The Commission found that in 2022, a broker affiliated with Harvel acted as listing agent for an investor-client selling a residential property they had renovated. The seller disclosed to the listing agent that a chimney fire had caused some damage, and that he had documents evidencing that an engineer had recommended a repair method, and that the damage had been repaired. The listing agent did not receive the seller’s documents and failed to disclose the fire to potential buyers. A buyer purchased the property and discovered after closing that there had been a fire. The Commission noted that Harvel has entered a settlement with the buyer to enable a contractor to complete additional clean up and electrical repairs to the buyer’s satisfaction.

STELLA A MAYO (FAIRFIELD) – The Commission accepted the voluntary surrender of the real estate license of Mayo, effective September 30, 2024. The Commission dismissed without prejudice allegations that Mayo violated provisions of the Real Estate License Law and Commission Rules. Mayo neither admitted nor denied misconduct.

MARGARET S MCCANN (GRAHAM) – By Consent, the Commission suspended the broker license of McCann for a period of 6-months, effective September 30, 2024. The Commission then stayed the suspension in its entirety upon certain conditions. The Commission found that in 2021-22, McCann listed a property for sale and received an inspection report from a prospective buyer that revealed facts which were material to the transaction. After that buyer terminated the contract, McCann did not disclose the material facts she had learned to the eventual buyer of the property. 

KATY A MOSS (GASTONIA) – By Consent, the Commission suspended the broker license of Moss for a period of 1-month, effective September 16, 2024. The Commission found that in January 2024, Moss, acting as a buyer agent in a transaction, was instructed to take keys from the listing agent’s lockbox prior to the closing for delivery to the buyer at closing. Moss was made aware by the closing attorney that the seller’s documents had not yet been received but gave the keys to the buyer following the buyer’s signing of closing documents, and a week prior to recordation of the deed. The buyer started demolition work on the property prior to the deed being recorded. The Commission noted that the deed was subsequently recorded.

PREMIER SANDHILLS VENTURES LLC (PINEHURST) – By Consent, the Commission reprimanded the firm effective September 16, 2024. The Commission found that in  2022, a broker affiliated with the Firm acted as listing agent for an investor-client selling a residential property they had renovated. The seller disclosed to the listing agent that a chimney fire had caused some damage, and that he had documents evidencing that an engineer had recommended a repair method, and that the damage had been repaired. The listing agent did not receive the seller’s documents and failed to disclose the fire to potential buyers. A buyer purchased the property and discovered after closing that there had been a fire. The Commission noted that the firm has entered a settlement with the buyer to enable a contractor to complete additional clean up and electrical repairs to the buyer’s satisfaction.

SARA J STANGER (JACKSONVILLE) – The Commission accepted the voluntary surrender of the real estate license of Stanger, effective September 18, 2024. The Commission dismissed without prejudice allegations that Stanger violated provisions of the Real Estate License Law and Commission Rules. Stanger neither admitted nor denied misconduct.