In August, the Texas Real Estate Commission proposed changes to several TREC forms based on recommendations by the Texas Real Estate Broker-Lawyer Committee (BLC). TREC received 123 public comments about the changes, which BLC will review and consider during its upcoming meeting on Friday, October 14.

Yes. A bill passed during the 87th Texas Legislative Session does not generally exempt landlords of temporary residential leases from providing a disclosure notice about whether the landlord is aware that the dwelling is located in a 100‐year floodplain or that the dwelling has flooded within the last five years.

The Texas Real Estate Commission at its August meeting proposed form revisions recommended by the Texas Real Estate Broker-Lawyer Committee. The Texas Real Estate Broker-Lawyer Committee an advisory body consisting of six attorneys appointed by the president of the State Bar of Texas, six brokers appointed by TREC, and one public member appointed by the governor. 

The Texas Real Estate Commission met August 8, 2022. The Commission adopted the new Landlord’s Floodplain and Flood Notice (TREC 54-0) form and revisions to the Seller’s Temporary Residential Lease (TREC 15-6) and the Buyer’s Temporary Residential Lease (TREC 16-6) forms, as well as non-substantive rule changes from the agency’s quadrennial rule review. Read on for more takeaways.

The Broker Responsibility Working Group (BRWG) met July 13 and acted on two proposals related to broker oversight and sales agents’ response times.

Proposed Rule

BRWG proposed a new rule, 535.157, that requires a broker or sales agent to respond to their principal, a broker or sales agent representing another party to a real estate transaction, or an unrepresented party to a real estate transaction within two calendar days.

It is now easier to find whether a license holder has a disciplinary history with the Texas Real Estate Commission. The newly launched Disciplinary Actions button at the top of each license holder’s page will take you to their specific Disciplinary Actions page if a disciplinary history exists.

Previously only indirect methods—such as searching the Disciplinary Actions section of trec.texas.gov—were available. These remain available along with the new button.

In recent months, I’ve had the privilege of presenting alongside Texas Real Estate Commission Executive Director Chelsea Buchholtz to license holders around Texas, many who are REALTORS®.

As some of you may know, I served as chairman of the Texas Association of REALTORS® in 2015 and have chaired more than a dozen other committees and task forces of the organization on local, state, and national levels.

"How do we raise the bar of professionalism?"

"We need more broker responsibility."

"I work with people on the other side of a contract who don’t know what they are doing. They don’t even know the name of their broker!"