2008 Education Requirements

To take effect July 1, 2008

Increased Educational Requirements and Miscellaneous Changes:

Chapter 183 amended Section 440 of the Real Property Law. The bill has many purposes:

The bill creates a statutory definition of office manager. This will be a licensed associate real estate broker who elects to work as an office manager under the name and supervision of another individual broker or one who is licensed under a partnership, trade name, limited liability company or corporation. It provides that a branch office may be under the supervision of a duly appointed office manager or (as before) the direct supervision of the broker.

The bill increases educational requirements by requiring an applicant for a real estate broker’s license to furnish proof of attending at least 120 hours, formerly 90 hours, of approved real estate courses and that the applicant has actively participated in the general real state brokers business as a licensed real estate salesman under the supervision of a licensed real estate broker for a period of not less than two years, formerly one year, or has had equivalent experience in general real estate business for a period of at least three years, formerly two years.

The bill also gives the Department of State greater latitude to approve new technologies for the delivery of real estate qualifying education courses, principally through computer based distance learning, and provides that such courses may be approved by the Department as satisfying part of the educational requirements. At the same time it increase the sales qualifying course from 45 hours to 75 hours.
The bill will eliminate the current exemption from continuing education requirements for those brokers licensed after the effective date (July of 2008) who do not have fifteen years of consecutive licensure by that time.

Real estate license identification cards shall now need to contain a photograph of the licensee, and the minimum age for a broker has been raised to twenty years.

Text of Revised Statue

(Bill A08053)
AN ACT to amend the real property law, in relation to real estate brokers and real estate salesmen The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and

Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1. Section 440 of the real property law is amended by adding a new subdivision 6 to read as follows:

6. "Office manager" means a licensed associate real estate broker who shall by choice elect to work as an office manager under the name and supervision of another individual broker or another broker who is licensed under a partnership, trade name, limited liability company or corporation. Such individual shall retain his or her license as a real estate broker as provided for in this article; provided, however, that the practice of real estate sales and brokerage by such individual as an associate broker shall be governed exclusively by the provisions of this article as they pertain to real estate salesmen. Nothing contained in this subdivision shall preclude an individual who is licensed as an associate broker who elects to work as an office manager from also retaining a separate real estate broker's license under an individual, partnership, trade name, limited liability company or corporation.

2. The first undesignated paragraph of section 440-a of the real property law, as amended by chapter 324 of the laws of 1998, is amended to read as follows: No person, co-partnership, limited liability company or corporation shall engage in or follow the business or occupation of, or hold himself or itself out or act temporarily or otherwise as a real estate broker or real estate salesman in this state without first procuring a license therefor as provided in this article.

No person shall be entitled to a license as a real estate broker under this article, either as an individual or as a member of a co-partnership, or as a member or manager of a limited liability company or as an officer of a corporation, unless he or she is [nineteen] twenty years of age or over, a citizen of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States.

No person shall be entitled to a license as a real estate salesman under this article unless he or she is over the age of eighteen years. No person shall be entitled to a license as a real estate broker or real estate salesman under this article who has been convicted in this state or elsewhere of a felony, and who has not subsequent to such conviction received executive pardon therefor or a certificate of good conduct from the parole board, to remove the disability under this section because of such conviction. No person shall be entitled to a license as a real estate broker or real estate salesman under this article who does not meet the requirements of section 3-503 of the general obligations law.

3. Paragraphs (b) and (c) of subdivision 1 of section 441 of the real property law, paragraph (b) as amended by chapter 324 of the laws of 1998 and paragraph (c) as amended by chapter 81 of the laws of 1995, are amended to read as follows: (b) Such further information as the department may reasonably require shall be furnished by the applicant including sufficient proof of having taken and passed a written examination and answered such questions as may be prepared by the department to enable it to determine the trustworthiness of the applicant if an individual, or of each member of a co-partnership or each member of a limited liability company or each officer of a corporation for whom a license as a broker is asked, and his or their competency to transact the business of real estate broker in such a manner as to safeguard the interests of the public.

In determining competency, the department shall require proof that the person being tested to qualify to apply for a broker's license has a fair knowledge of the English language, a fair understanding of the general purposes and general legal effect of deeds, mortgages, land contracts of sale, and leases, a general and fair understanding of the obligations between principal and agent, as well as of the provisions of this section.

The applicant must also furnish proof that he has attended for at least [ninety] one hundred twenty hours and has successfully completed a real estate course or courses approved by the secretary of state as to method and content and supervision which approval may be withdrawn if in the opinion of the secretary of state said course or courses are not being conducted properly as to method, content and supervision, and that either the applicant has actively participated in the general real estate brokerage business as a licensed real estate salesman under the supervision of a licensed real estate broker for a period of not less than [one year] two years or has had the equivalent experience in general real estate business for a period of at least 49 [two] three years, the nature of which experience shall be established by affidavit duly sworn to under oath and/or other and further proof required by the department of state.

Computer-based and distance-learning courses may be approved by the department so long as providers demonstrate the ability to monitor and verify participation by the applicant for the specified time period. Notwithstanding the foregoing authority to approve computer-based and distance-learning courses, the department may prescribe that specified subjects or hours must be presented in a classroom setting.

(c) In the event the applicant shall be a licensed salesman under this article and shall have submitted acceptable proof pursuant to the provisions of either paragraph (d) of subdivision one-A of this section or paragraph (a) of subdivision three of this section of having attended and successfully completed [forty-five] seventy-five hours of an approved real estate course or courses within [four] eight years of the date of the application, the department may accept and credit same against the [ninety] one hundred twenty hours required hereunder.

4. Paragraph (d) of subdivision 1-A of section 441 of the real property law, as amended by chapter 81 of the laws of 1995, is amended to read as follows:
(d) Anything to the contrary herein notwithstanding, on and after the effective date of this paragraph, no salesman's license or conditional license shall be issued by the department unless the application therefor has been accompanied by proof that prior to such application the applicant has attended at least [forty-five] seventy-five hours and successfully completed a real estate course or courses approved by the secretary of state as to method and content and supervision, which approval may be withdrawn if in the opinion of the secretary of state said course or courses are not properly conducted as to method, content and supervision.

Computer-based and distance-learning courses may be approved by the department so long as providers demonstrate the ability to monitor and verify participation by the applicant for the specified time period. Notwithstanding the foregoing authority to approve computer-based and distance-learning courses, the department may prescribe that specified subjects or hours must be presented in a classroom setting.

5. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 3 of section 441 of the real property law, as amended by chapter 319 of the laws of 1993, is amended to read as follows: (a) No renewal license shall be issued any licensee under this article for any license period commencing November first, nineteen hundred ninety-five unless such licensee shall have within the two year period immediately preceding such renewal attended at least twenty-two and one-half hours and successfully completed a continuing education real estate course or courses approved by the secretary of state as to method, content and supervision, which approval may be withdrawn if in the opinion of the secretary of state such course or courses are not being conducted properly as to method, content and supervision.

The licensee shall provide an affidavit, in a form acceptable to the department of state, establishing the nature of the continuing education acquired and shall provide such further proof as required by the department of state. The provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to any licensed real estate broker who is engaged full time in the real estate business and who has been licensed under this article prior to July first, two thousand eight for at least fifteen consecutive years immediately preceding such renewal.

6. Subdivisions 3 and 6 of section 441-a of the real property law, subdivision 3 as amended by chapter 961 of the laws of 1981 and subdivsion as amended by chapter 61 of the laws of 1989, are amended to read as follows:

3. Place of business; business sign required. Except as otherwise provided in this article, each licensed real estate broker shall have and maintain a definite place of business within this state, and shall conspicuously post on the outside of the building in which said office is conducted a sign of a sufficient size to be readable from the side walk indicating the name and the business of the applicant as a licensed real estate broker, unless said office shall be located in an office, apartment or hotel building, in which event the name and the words "licensed real estate broker" shall be posted in the space provided for posting of names of occupants of the building, other than the mail box. Where the applicant for a real estate broker's license maintains more than one place of business, the broker shall apply for and the department shall issue a supplemental license for each branch office so maintained upon payment to the department of state for each supplemental license so issued the same fee prescribed in this article for a license to act as a real estate broker.

Each such branch office shall be under the direct supervision of the broker to whom the license is issued, or a representative broker of a corporation or partnership or manager of a limited liability company holding such license, or a duly appointed office manager. Such fee shall accompany such application and shall be non-refundable. For purposes of this subdivision, the principal residence of a real estate broker or salesman shall not be deemed a place of business solely because such broker or salesman shall have included the residence telephone number in his business cards.

6. Pocket card. The department shall prepare, issue and deliver, with the assistance of the department of motor vehicles, to each licensee a pocket card in such form and manner as the department shall prescribe, but which shall contain the photo, name and business address of the licensee, and, in the case of a real estate salesman, the name and business address of the broker with whom he or she is associated and shall certify that the person whose name appears thereon is a licensed real estate broker or salesman, as may be. Such cards must be shown on demand. In the case of loss, destruction or damage, the secretary of state may, upon submission of satisfactory proof, issue a duplicate pocket card upon payment of a fee of ten dollars.

7. This act shall take effect July 1, 2008.