Sunday, October 12, 2008
The General Assembly is not in session.
Tracking Virginia’s General Assembly
since 2007.
SB418: Real Estate Board; waiver of broker education requirements.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 54.1-2105 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§ 54.1-2105. General powers of Real Estate Board; regulations; educational and experience requirements for licensure.
A. The Board may do all things necessary and convenient for carrying into effect the provisions of this chapter and may promulgate necessary regulations.
B. The Board shall adopt regulations establishing minimum educational requirements as conditions for licensure. Board regulations relating to initial licensure shall include the following requirements:
1. Every applicant for an initial license as a real estate salesperson shall have:
a. At a minimum, a high school diploma or its equivalent; and
b. Completed a course in the principles of real estate that carried an academic credit of at least four semester hours, but not less than 60 hours of classroom, correspondence, or other distance learning instruction, offered by an accredited university, college, community college, high school offering adult distributive education courses, or other school or educational institution offering an equivalent course.
2. Every applicant for an initial license as a real estate broker shall have:
a. At a minimum, a high school diploma or its equivalent; and
b. Completed not less than 12 semester hours of classroom or correspondence or other distance learning instruction in real estate courses offered by an accredited university, college, community college, or other school or educational institution offering equivalent courses.
C. The Board may waive any requirement under the regulations
relating to education or experience when the broker or salesperson is found to
have education or experience equivalent to that required. The Board shall
waive the broker education requirement for any applicant for a broker’s license
who has [ been licensed as a real estate salesperson and
owned a real estate agency for a minimum of five years. , for
more than 15 years, owned a real estate brokerage firm and during that time,
maintained an active license as a real estate salesperson. ]
No regulation imposing educational requirements for initial licensure beyond those specified by law shall apply to any person who was licensed prior to July 1, 1975, and who has been continuously licensed since that time, except that licensure as a salesperson prior to such time shall not exempt a salesperson who seeks to be licensed as a broker from the educational requirements established for brokers.
D. The Board shall establish criteria to ensure that prelicensure and broker licensure courses meet the standards of quality deemed by the Board to be necessary to protect the public interests. For correspondence and other distance learning instruction offered by an approved provider, such criteria may include appropriate testing procedures. The Board may establish procedures to ensure the quality of the courses.
Noncollegiate institutions shall not be authorized to grant collegiate semester hours for academic credit.
The specific content of the real estate courses shall be in real estate brokerage, real estate finance, real estate appraisal, real estate law, and such related subjects as are approved by the Board.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 54.1-2105 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§ 54.1-2105. General powers of Real Estate Board; regulations; educational and experience requirements for licensure.
A. The Board may do all things necessary and convenient for carrying into effect the provisions of this chapter and may promulgate necessary regulations.
B. The Board shall adopt regulations establishing minimum educational requirements as conditions for licensure. Board regulations relating to initial licensure shall include the following requirements:
1. Every applicant for an initial license as a real estate salesperson shall have:
a. At a minimum, a high school diploma or its equivalent; and
b. Completed a course in the principles of real estate that carried an academic credit of at least four semester hours, but not less than 60 hours of classroom, correspondence, or other distance learning instruction, offered by an accredited university, college, community college, high school offering adult distributive education courses, or other school or educational institution offering an equivalent course.
2. Every applicant for an initial license as a real estate broker shall have:
a. At a minimum, a high school diploma or its equivalent; and
b. Completed not less than 12 semester hours of classroom or correspondence or other distance learning instruction in real estate courses offered by an accredited university, college, community college, or other school or educational institution offering equivalent courses.
C. The Board may waive any requirement under the regulations relating to education or experience when the broker or salesperson is found to have education or experience equivalent to that required. The Board shall waive the broker education requirement for any applicant for a broker’s license who has been licensed as a real estate salesperson and owned a real estate agency for a minimum of five years.
No regulation imposing educational requirements for initial licensure beyond those specified by law shall apply to any person who was licensed prior to July 1, 1975, and who has been continuously licensed since that time, except that licensure as a salesperson prior to such time shall not exempt a salesperson who seeks to be licensed as a broker from the educational requirements established for brokers.
D. The Board shall establish criteria to ensure that prelicensure and broker licensure courses meet the standards of quality deemed by the Board to be necessary to protect the public interests. For correspondence and other distance learning instruction offered by an approved provider, such criteria may include appropriate testing procedures. The Board may establish procedures to ensure the quality of the courses.
Noncollegiate institutions shall not be authorized to grant collegiate semester hours for academic credit.
The specific content of the real estate courses shall be in real estate brokerage, real estate finance, real estate appraisal, real estate law, and such related subjects as are approved by the Board.
Additional Data
Explanation
This is the actual text of the bill — the legislation itself. Generally this is amending existing law, proposing the addition or removal of words from laws that are already on the books.
Words that are highlighted in yellow are
proposed additions, and words that are crossed out in
red are proposed removals.
The numbers with the § symbol before them are references to existing laws, and if you click on them they’ll take you to that part of the law on the state's website.