October marks six months since I began with the Commission.  I am grateful for the warm welcome and generosity shown to me by our staff team, our policymakers and our license holders.

To implement requirements in the agency’s Sunset bill, the Commission recently adopted rules eliminating TREC licenses for instructors.  However, the standards that set the qualifications for instructors did not change.  Effective September 1, education providers are now responsible to ensure instructors meet the qualifications to teach a course.

In August the Commission met for its regular quarterly meeting, and the agenda was far from typical!  We said a special thanks to Mr. Brad Philips who has served for twelve years on the Inspector Advisory Committee, with two terms as its Chair. The majority of the lengthy meeting was filled with fiscal year-end updates on a variety of matters that are a result of the 2019 legislative session, and much of which needed to be accomplished before September 1st or by January 1st. 

August 31 marked the end of our fiscal year, and a lot has happened in this last year. Since September 2018, the agency has gone through Sunset review, a legislative session, and changes in the leadership team.  The agency has been busy implementing the Sunset recommendations and statutory changes.  The new leadership has been instrumental in revamping the agency’s front line communications, and the rollout of several new online tools has resulted in significantly shorter hold times and an overall better experience for people contacting the agency. 

Thinking about applying for a license but have some past criminal offenses or other background issues?  Request a Fitness Determination.

Based upon a Sunset recommendation, a Moral Character Determination is now called a Fitness Determination. The process itself has not changed; just the name changed.

The Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) is hiring a new Executive Director. Our long-serving Executive Director, Douglas Oldmixon, is retiring at the end of March 2020. The Executive Director serves as the agency leader for both TREC and for the Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board (TALCB), and is responsible for organizational culture and day-to-day operations of the agency.

In April of 2018, the Executive Director of the Agency reached out to our stakeholders and to the public to acknowledge that the customer service the Agency was providing was unacceptable, and that we were working diligently to find sustainable solutions to resolve these issues. Since that time, the Agency has made great strides to improve the level of service by employing a holistic approach, including a combination of technological improvements, additional staff, and enhanced process efficiencies.

August is here with all of its heat, and it’s the last month of the fiscal year for the Agency.  August also means both the Commission and Board will have their regularly scheduled meetings this month and that the agendas will be busy –as they always are after a legislative session. And for this session especially since we underwent a Sunset Commission review and need to implement all of the changes that resulted from that process.  Many rule amendments are needed to implement these changes and also some significant budget adjustments to accommodate those requirements.

The Inspector Committee met on July 15 for its quarterly meeting.  There was a lot on the agenda, as this has been a busy year in our industry.  The Standards of Practice Subcommittee is still in the review process and asked the full committee for direction on whether to keep the standards more general or to get specific on a multitude of items.  The consensus was to keep them general overall but to update the current standards to meet some newer criteria.  The Education Subcommittee has been working tirelessly on creating the new pre-licensure program.  The program was proposed to the Comm

Recently, the Commission was mentioned in a news story about a former license holder whose license was revoked by the agency. Although this kind of fraudulent behavior is not typical for TREC license holders, this serves as an important reminder that Texans should always investigate any real estate service providers they engage or work with.