The 2006-07 edition of the Real Estate Commission’s text and reference book, the North Carolina Real Estate Manual, will be available for purchase in late June. The Manual, which is updated bi-annually, has for several years served as the text for the sixty-hour Broker Course. However, the course became obsolete April 1 with the change to a “broker only” licensing structure and implementation of a substantially revised education program. Under this new program, newly licensed “provisional brokers” must now complete three thirty-hour postlicensing courses within the first three years after initial licensure (at least one of the thirty-hour courses each year). Also, all salesperson licenses were converted to provisional broker licenses and those persons licensed as salespersons prior to October 1, 2005 required to complete a twenty-four hour Broker Transition Course if they do not have four years full-time (or equivalent part-time) brokerage experience within the previous six years. The new edition of the Manual will serve as the text for all three of the new postlicensing courses and the Broker Transition Course.
In addition to the usual updating required to reflect changes in laws, rules and practices, the 2006-07 edition features substantial revisions to better support its expanded role as the text for the new courses. For example, the material relating to agency concepts and relationships was substantially rearranged and duplication of coverage minimized. Coverage of broker practices and services when working with both sellers and buyers has been expanded to provide a better understanding of an agent’s practical responsibilities and to facilitate teaching the subject matter in “transaction sequence” as called for in the new courses. New chapters on “Property Management” and “License Law Case Studies” have been added, as well as a new appendix addressing the process of “Licensing a Real Estate Firm”. And there have been significant improvements in the coverage of several other topics, including sales contracts, fair housing and commercial real estate brokerage. TheManual continues to include current versions and comments on the Real Estate License Law and Commission rules.
Because of its excellent coverage of a wide range of topics critically important to practicing real estate agents, every broker should have a current edition of the North Carolina Real Estate Manual in his or her personal library. It may be ordered online via the Commission’s website at www.ncrec.state.nc.us or by using the order form included in this Bulletin.
This article came from the June 2006-Vol37-1 edition of the bulletin.