To assist licensees in helping their clients and customers in sales transactions understand when the parties “have a deal,” i.e., are under contract, one of the primary topics of next year’s Update Course will be a review of offer and acceptance, the effect of oral and written negotiations, the scope of a broker’s authority to bind the principal, the purpose and distinction between the due diligence fee and earnest money deposit, and a broker’s obligations in handling those monies under Commission rules.
Another hot topic, based on inquiries, has been a broker’s duties to his seller/lessor when seeking the owner’s permission to publish property information in the MLS and in selecting other aggregators to whom the information may be released. These duties, as well as a broker’s responsibility for the accuracy of the information once it is disseminated to various outlets, will be reviewed.
New Commission rules, most of which became effective April 1, 2013, will be summarized, as well as important new or revised laws that impact real estate brokerage. Additional topics that will be briefly addressed include: why surveys remain important to buyers and the interaction between surveys and owner’s title insurance coverage; an agent’s duty of confidentiality to a principal and breaches thereof; and possibly a review of selected disciplinary cases and the process.
2013-2014 BICAR Course
Risk management will be one topic in next year’s BICAR course with the primary focus being on advertising pitfalls and fair housing matters. The materials will provide examples using actual broker advertisements and will include fact summaries of current fair housing actions being prosecuted and recent court decisions.
Changes in the Broker-in-Charge rule, both those effective Spring, 2013, as well as anticipated revisions, will be discussed, as well as other selected BIC duties and disciplinary cases involving brokers-in-charge.
This article came from the May 2013-Vol44-1 edition of the bulletin.