BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1963
Page 1
Date of Hearing: March 21, 2006
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS
Gloria Negrete McLeod, Chair
AB 1963 (Leslie) - As Amended: March 16, 2006
SUBJECT : Real estate brokers: license.
SUMMARY : Repeals a provision of law that allows a person to
qualify for a real estate broker's license by using a four year
college degree and two years of general real estate experience
as a substitute for two years of experience as a real estate
sales person. Specifically, this bill :
1)Repeals a provision of law that allows a person to qualify for
a real estate broker's license by using a four year college
degree and two years of general real estate experience as a
substitute for two years of experience as a real estate sales
person.
2)Exempts an applicant for a real estate broker's license who is
also a member of the State Bar of California from the
requirement to have two years of experience as real estate
salesperson.
EXISTING LAW requires an applicant for a real estate broker's
license to have attained two years of experience as a real
estate salesperson, successfully completed eight specified real
estate classes, and achieved a passing score on the real estate
broker's license examination. Existing law allows an applicant
with a four year college degree to substitute the two years as a
salesperson requirement with two years of general real estate
experience. Existing law exempts a member of the State Bar of
California from the eight specified real classes required for a
real estate broker's license.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill is keyed non-fiscal.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "The bill is prompted by
reports by practicing real estate licensees that the enormous
number of new licensees attracted by the sustained hot real
estate market is resulting in inadequate supervision and
unprofessional conduct of transactions. Because a so-called
"degree broker" can get a license without any experience and
hire any number of sales licensees to work under his or her
AB 1963
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licenses, there may be brokers that have never sold a house
supervising salespeople who have taken only a single real estate
course and who themselves have never completed a transaction."
In lieu of allowing applicants with a college degree but who
lack actual experience as a real estate salesperson to
automatically qualify for the broker's examination based on
"general" real estate experience, this bill will allow an
applicant to petition the Department of Real Estate (DRE) to
substitute relevant real estate experience for the requirement
to have two years of actual experience as a real estate
salesperson.
Further, current administrative practice by DRE has been to
allow members of the State Bar of California to use their
educational background as a substitute for the experience
requirement. This bill will reflect this current administrative
practice in statute by exempting members of the State Bar of
California from the experience requirement.
Related legislation includes AB 2429 (Matthews) of 2006 which,
among other things, repeals 'conditional' licensing for real
estate salespersons by requiring completion of all three
specified courses prior to issuance of a salesperson's license.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Association of Realtors
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Ross Warren / B. & P. / (916) 319-3301