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Effective January 1, 2018, California Real Estate<\/a> Brokers who are affiliated with a company other than themselves or their own, must notify the Bureau of Real Estate (BRE) of that affiliation. Such persons are commonly called “Broker Associates”. In a recent Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) post on the bureau’s website, the BRE defines the term this way: “A broker-associate is an individual licensed as a real estate broker, but who works in the capacity of a salesperson for another responsible broker or corporation.”
As the FAQ makes clear, an associate broker may also work as an independent broker. “[U]nder the Real Estate Law, a broker-associate can work in the capacity of a salesperson for another employing broker(s) and also work as an independent broker. However, an affiliation\/employment agreement signed by the responsible broker and the broker-associate may prohibit such activity.”
Those potential relationships have not been changed by the newly-effective law (Business and Professions Code 10161.8).
The most significant purpose and effect of the new law is that it creates a means for consumers and others to learn any and all of the affiliations of an associate broker. Prior to this, a broker may have been legally functioning as a sales associate of a company other than his own, yet that information would not appear on the publicly-accessible BRE records. Neither would the record of the company show that he was employed there. The new law changes that.
The Bureau has created a new form (RE 215) which can be used both for informing the Bureau of a new broker-associate affiliation or for the termination of an existing broker-associate affiliation. These forms are supposed to be submitted by January 1, but I suspect there will be some leeway granted on that.
Among the questions that may arise:
\n<\/p>\n Completing these new forms in a timely and effective manner is not rocket science. Nonetheless, I would advise anyone involved to check out the Frequently Asked Questions on the BRE website.
Bob Hunt is a director of the California Association of Realtors<\/a>\u00ae<\/sup>. He is the author of Real Estate the Ethical Way<\/i>. His email address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.<\/span>.\n\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Realtytimes <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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