Changing the Way Brokers View Continuing Education

“Don’t Learn Too Little Too Late”

By Len Elder, JD, DREI, Director of Education & Licensing

Every year, the North Carolina Real Estate Commission creates for brokers two mandatory UPDATE courses. The General Update course is written for brokers and the Broker-in-Charge Update course is written for those who are Brokers-in-Charge or BIC-Eligible. By design, these courses always contain trending brokerage issues and the most pressing disciplinary concerns of Commission members. Further, Commission members choose the topics for the Update courses based on their current handling of recent disciplinary cases, industry changes, and other current issues of concern.

In the 2023-2024 CE season (i.e., July 1, 2023, to June 10, 2024) all of the following important topics were covered in the mandatory Update courses:

• the discovery and disclosure of material facts;
• engaging in unlicensed activity;
• misrepresentations of material facts; and
• broker-in-charge obligations and supervision.

During that same period of time, the Commission published 146 cases in the monthly eBulletin that contained a reference to the subject matter and nature of the violation. Ninety of those cases (61%) involved information that was being taught in the current, mandatory Update courses.

Commission members often ask during probable cause determinations and settlement presentations, “Isn’t this issue covered in the mandatory Update courses?” Education staff assures the Commission members that it is not only mentioned, it is presented in detail. Commonly, it is presented with scenarios and fact patterns, references to statutes and rules, and with best practice tips to avoid a disciplinary action. NCREC’s IT division is able to track when a broker completes their mandatory continuing education, including the Update courses. The data showing exactly when brokers took the mandatory update looks like this:

Although the Update courses first became available on July 1, 2023, as of April 1, 2024, 60,292 brokers still had not completed the mandatory Update course. This number represented 74% of our brokers; many of those who waited ten months to take the mandatory Update course were Brokers-in-Charge.

This means that instead of getting the new education in July, August or September, brokers voluntarily chose to delay being more informed and knowledgeable. Instead, they committed the very violations that the Commission had tried to warn them about in July, and did not get the education they needed until May and June of the following Spring.

It appears that many brokers mistakenly treat continuing education, including the Update course, as another step in the renewal process and something they can delay until spring. This was not the purpose or intent of North Carolina’s creation of a continuing education requirement for brokers.

The purpose of continuing education, especially the Update course, is to make brokers more knowledgeable, more informed and more aware of obligations and duties to protect the public.

The Update courses for 2024-2025 are available for brokers to take NOW. The courses contain education brokers need to avoid a potential disciplinary action over the next 12 months. If only brokers would become more informed, more educated early in the year, we might see a reduction in the number of disciplinary cases. Brokers: Don’t learn too little, too late! You should sign up for the Update course right now and give your clients and consumers the benefit of your increased training all year long.