No. TREC Rule 535.4(c) states that a person must be licensed as a broker or sales agent to show a property. “Show” includes causing or permitting a property to be viewed by a prospective buyer or tenant, unlocking or providing access onto or into a property for a prospective buyer or tenant, and hosting an open house at the property. As such, an unlicensed assistant must refrain from any activity that allows the buyer to be able to view the home, which includes unlocking doors.
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It is good that we educate agents about the current rules; but it is also good that we have this forum to discuss needed changes to the rules.
First of all, perhaps we need to take a look at the “status” of the person unlocking the door. This person is not a “civilian” practicing Real Estate without a license; this person is an employee of a licensed Agent/Broker, who has been trained, and is supervised. The person unlocking the door is not going to write a contract for the buyer.
Secondly, all we are talking about in this scenario is gaining access to walk through a house which may be vacant. ~How would it be any different if the owner of the house opened the door for a buyer or tenant to walk through it, and then they went back and contacted the licensed agent/broker to write the contract?
Or, what if the buyer/tenant was given the combination to the key box by the owner, and they let themselves walk through the house? ~We currently have brokers who are giving out the access code for buyers to view a vacant house. They have made it so easy that a buyer can view several houses without having an agent present, and then they presumably go and ask the licensed agent to write their offer.
I’m not sure I understand what the TREC committee was thinking the harm is when they changed the rule about unlicensed employees not being able to open a door for someone who simply wants to walk through the house without discussing terms, etc.
~Any thoughts from other brokers?
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I agree. An assistant should be able to unlock the door as long as they do not discuss anything about the sale of the house.
Don Winkles
Broker/Owner
Bluebonnet Country Realty, LLC
Brenham, TX
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Eventually that prospective buyer or (commissioner from TREC) will ask questions concerning the property or neighborhood. The unlicensed assistant will probably answer in some way, prompting the licensed agent and their broker to be liable if a complaint results from the “showing” or “opening the door”. Who can dispute it may happen? Who will know what was said. Also agents giving out combo’s to homes for prospective buyer’s should be reprimanded by TREC. This is NOT acceptable professional practices. Wonder if the homeowner knows. Isn’t that why we pay for special electronic boxes, to make the property feel safe?
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I believe what they are thinking is you need a license to provide real estate services and that you cannot delegate those responsibilities to someone who is not licensed. It is not meant to be convenient, but rather to protect the public. Not everyone takes their responsibilities seriously and this was a way to weed out the bad from the good and stop certain practices. Remember, often times the good get punished to stop the guilty. I don’t subscribe to this philosophy, but then TREC does not give me a vote.
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I completely agree with you on all points (except for the part about brokers giving out combo codes for buyers to access a home. That part is unacceptable.) Assistants trained and supervised under licensed Agents know the difference. This was a crazy change from TREC that makes NO sense.
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I agree. There are times when i need to be in three places at once and need an assistant. But, the use of an assistant is so limited that there is no point in paying one. I work at least 60 hours a week to make a meager living in a rural area where the average home sale is $150,000. TREC needs to rethink rules that make it hard for brokers/agents to make a living and have a more stress free life. As long as the assistant in instructed properly, I don’t see the problem.
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we all would like to close a deal ever minute and be everywhere at all times. Brokers can actually do that through licensed agents. not unlicensed helpers. Become a broker so you too can have a team of licensed agents.
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…And let’s compare our situation to other professions…
You may need an attorney to represent you in court, but the attorney’s unlicensed employee is the one who sits down with you and goes over the paperwork.
You may want to have your taxes filed by a CPA, but an unlicensed assistant is the one who prepares the return and deals directly with you to collect all the documents.
You may want to get some medicine from a doctor, but the assistant is the one who takes all your vital signs, and writes up the report of your symptoms.
You may need a licensed plumber to install your water heater, but he sends the assistant over to get the permit, and turn the wrench.
~It would seem to be more of a question of “supervision” than of who has the license….
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Well said. Great point.
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I’d like to add my voice in support of Rick’s DeVoss’s comments. Being a property manager and broker-associate of well over 100 rental properties it would be helpful if our very trustworthy, salaried assistant could help by opening doors to vacant properties. This restriction makes it very difficult for small independent brokerages. I would MUCH prefer this to showing methods that allow the general public unsupervised access (which we will not ever allow, btw) via new technological methods.
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This rule needs to be changed and the reasons are so obvious that they needn’t be stated.
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I agree that this rule needs to be changed.
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I agree Rick, there are 0 reasons your assistant cant open doors. As long as you have already stated the rules to them and what should and should not be discussed during the tour, it should be ok. I would send along a note or a cheat sheet for questions that they may ask and use simple rebuttals like, that is something we can address with the Realtor. It cuts into a Realtors time when you have someone window shopping but another client who is serious, these are ways to delegate some things without being pressed out!
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I agree/
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I think the rule is fine as it is. Offload some of the other work to an unlicensed assistant, but showing houses is what we do. Giving access codes or Supra devices to unlicensed people is a slippery slope and should remain strictly against the rules. It very quickly can devolve away from “if I’m running late” to “this client isn’t going to buy anyway” or other flimsy excuses that could result in real trouble or even lawsuits. In my opinion, agents or brokers who give out access codes to unlicensed personnel should have their licenses revoked.
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Agree!
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Tom, I agree that we should maintain the responsibility of opening and showing properties. In Texas we are not only licensed but finger-printed as well for multiple reasons. Occupied or vacant homes are still someone else’s property, and that owner was told that no one would have access without a licensed agent present. Assistants are not being paid for the potential liabilities that could happen in these instances.
Let’s keep our profession responsible for this important activity.
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I agreed! I strongly believe we are license agent and should be responsible for our action. I has clients bluntly tell me to give them access code to view a vacant property when they stand in front of the house. When I told them “No. I can’t do that” they actually told me “Other agent does. Don’t know what is a big deal is”. That is really scary!
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Our license would be meaningless if we allow agents and brokers to do what licensed agents or brokers should be doing! Why dont we just hire assistants in every city of Texas! And be done with it.
This is crazy. Only licensed people should behave like licensed people.
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*if we allow assistants to do…
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I doubt TREC can regulate the rights of a property owner (unlike a listing agreement). A homeowner can give permission for anyone, including a felon, to enter their home with or without supervision. That owner can also provide permission, to that person entering, to allow others to enter. It happens all the time when the owner gives permission to someone in the home to let others in (inspector lets buyer in (prospective buyer); pest inspector lets the engineer in; neighbor lets buyer’s father in who subsequently gives real estate advice to his child). In my first blush opinion, I doubt TREC can regulate this unless real estate sale or leasing compensation is exchanged. Listings are typically contingent compensation agreements and over-regulation could be frowned upon by the Federal Trade Commission as an anti-trust concern. If the new breed of Internet-based real estate sales companies took this to court I think it would be difficult for TREC to regulate property owner rights or contingent sales. I think it might come down to a conclusive agreement for compensation (not contingency). On the surface, the Rule appears to be protectionism. This is a good topic for the Sunset Commission, the FTC or the Attorney General.
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I think you’re seriously overthinking this. It’s really a simple question. The people you mention (inspectors, engineers, et al.) are NOT unlicensed assistants to a licensed agent. QED
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That sounds simple. An assistant would probably be defined by TREC as someone who receives compensation from an agent, their broker or support services provider. Anyone that is not compensated can open the door for a prospective buyer with sellers permission.
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I would prefer that the rule be modified to allow us to designate one assistant to be able to unlock doors for us.
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Agreed.
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What about the commercial real estate, opening a vacant office space???
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So I can’t have my son hold an open house because he’s unlicensed? He is terrific at it and has been doing this for me for years. The seller approves, of course. They don’t mind. I open the door for him and he locks up.
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The homeowner should be able to identify in the listing agreement (check box yes or no) if they would allow unlicensed assistants to open doors in behalf of the listing agent for prospective buyers, not TREC, that’s overstepping their boundaries. Too much oversight is not a good thing.
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If you’re not licensed in the real estate profession you should not be allowed to conduct any real estate actions, whether it be opening a property or entering listings into the MLS or making phone calls. All assistants should be licensed. That’s why we work hard to keep our licenses. I don’t practice medicine and when I go to see a doctor I want to see the doctor not their nurse practitioner.
What’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong. Doing whatever anyone wants to do is ridiculous–why bother having rules and regulations.
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Stephanie nobody is suggesting “doing whatever anyone wants to”, opening a door is not practicing real estate, unlicensed new home sales reps. do it all the time, because it’s “their” house, so, shouldn’t a homeowner have the same right to decide as the builder does? We identify features, energy efficiency items, neighborhood characteristics & amenities, schools, negotiate offers, schedule appraisers, inspectors, repair crews, closings; opening a door is not considered a specialty skill. I’ve been licensed since 1982 and I don’t remember a single class or question on a test questioning my door opening skills. It’s what you do afterwards that matters.
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Dave, unlicensed new home sales guys are employees of the builders, there for they can open those homes of the builder.
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I believe TREC are well within reason to make the rules governing Real Estate practices because of behaviour taking place
and hurting the industry.
Once as a buyer, I was met at the showing with an unlicensed assistant, she did not know much about the business yet asked me to submit an offer, she showed me around the property as if she was licensed.
I thought what an unprofessional experience i was put into.
Another instance was a lady holding an open house, she was a Title escrow officer trying to get me to use her services, she told me that she could represent me as a buyers agent equivalent. Also she said she could sell my house even though she was not licensed, she was an escrow officer not a Realtor.
Unbelievable.
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Stephanie — Your example is faulty. ~I have been to many “Doctor’s appointments” where I only saw the nurse practitioner. (I don’t even know what the “doctor” looks like.)
~Any idiot can unlock a door to a house, and some Brokers are giving out the combination to vacant houses to any member of the public. You don’t have to have a license or a degree to unlock a front door!
~If you and all the other Brokers are so worried about what is happening in the Real Estate business without requiring a license, then please tell me why we give away ALL of our data base to web sites like Zillow & Trulia & Realtor.com…??
~The answer is: It is based solely on MONEY.
The NAR figured out a way to make money off the internet and sold the farm out from under us. If Real Estate Agents were the only people to have access to the MLS data base, then your license might still have some meaning to the general public. They don’t feel they need us anymore, and they’re all up at 2:00 a.m. surfing some web site thinking that they can “find a house” on their own without contacting a Realtor.
~You can call me “old fashioned” if you like, but we have allowed our niche in this business to be eroded, and we have lost the respect for a license that used to be there. If I can hire a person who represents ME, and I am representing the Seller, then why can’t my employee open the lock on the door just like the builder’s employee does…?
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Call me “Old Fashioned too”. We have come a long way since I was licensed in 1975. Lot of the changes have been good. But, why do we pay dues and fees, put information in MLS to promote our Sellers, listings and share with other Brokers to better serve our Clients, then GIVE that information away so a third party can use it to compete with Realtor.com.
Not only are we giving it away…the same people are selling agents on buying ads on their sights. Just amazing to me that we are destroying our own profession.
I was taught from day one this is a Service Business. I believed and still do that my JOB is to protect my Client (as a Realtor…the general public). Sad to say I don’t see that mind set in the majority of agents now.
I think an assistant opening a door is one of the least issues that needs to be regulated in Real Estate right now. I think too much attention on little rules and missing the big problems happening in our industry. (the things that actual do protect the public)
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Great point on Zillow and Trulia!
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I think our trusted assistants should be allowed to open doors but only to vacant homes, however, I think the owners should be made aware that our assistants have the right to do that under the listing agreement or management contract. The owners should be informed that it’s a possibility. I think when the home is occupied you are opening your self to all kinds of trouble, letting unlicensed people in. To say….. our licenses would be meaningless if we allowed our assistants to do so is crazy, in this sense they are kind of meaningless already. A manager or leasing consultant of an apartment community is not required to have a license to show vacant apartments, yet the are allowed to enter into contracts with prospective residents. Same can be said for individual owners of real estate, they don’t have to have a license to sell, manage or show their own properties, nor do they have to have a license to enter into a contract for sale or rent. An apartment locator has to have a license to refer people to apartments and or rental properties and be compensated, yet they aren’t entering into or writing contracts. I think for TREC it comes down to more of compensation than who’s entering into what.
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A unlicensed assistant yelled at me when i wanted to spend more time looking at the house i was interested in, she said ten minutes was long enough, proceded to tell me to leave or allow her to write up an offer already, she wanted my signature on the forms while blank. I thought this is unbelievable.
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“Open Door” allows everyone to open the door to their listings. I really don’t feel comfortable about that.
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They own the house. They can let anyone in.
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I do not feel that allowing unlicensed assistants is prudent on mant levels. Too risky, and opening homes is our responsibility, part of our livelyhood.
Licensed assitants are fine, not unlicensed ones. If buyer produces preapproval
Letter or POF, I am so there.
I will not speak on builders, or compare other peofessions. We are unique field.
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If a licensed assistant can enter listings into the MLS why is there a problem with them opening a door for a prospect. I agree with Rick DeVoss and many others on this comment thread. This needs to be changed. I would however make sure it is someone who has gone through the classes to become an official assistant who has access to the MLS.
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Too much liability, I would think.
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…Not near as much “liability” as Brokers used to have when we were operating as a “subagent” of the Listing Broker…
~If I am a Broker, and I want to hire & train an unlicensed assistant, I should be able to take on that responsibility if I choose to. It is called “a known business risk”, and our E&O insurance ought to cover it. (Who cares if the rates go up?)
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There are so many brokers who unfortunately cant even properly train licensed agents or supervise them, imagine unlicensed folks opening
our listings and talking to clients.
There are some very conscientious brokers,
but not all.
I have received offers that were so full of errors that I asked them to please let
their contracts to their broker to assist them. They were licensed, and even then had not been properly trained.
Even if ruling were to change, I would not be comfortable with unlicensed
Assistants if I am liable for what they say or do.
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One must keep in mind that the consumer will direct questions to the person opening the door. Prospects do not / are unware of legalities. The unlicensed assistance in goodwill to be polite could ill inform the viewer opening the door to dire consequences.
As it is, there are too many agents giving codes to buyers in spite of knowing that sellers rely on us to protect their property.
Real estate is what it is. The R E Commission, as I understand has their rules and/or regulations passed through legal opions prior to being adopted as a regulation. If real estate professionals disagree with the Commision’s proposals the can oppose the changes. One must keep in mind that TREC’s existence is to protect the public and help RE professionals stay within the boundaries of the law as dictated by our courts.
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Well said. It more about protecting the sellers. Anybody can get employed as “assistant.”
If I were a seller, I would not accept that.
Once unlicensed assistants are allowed to open homes, next thing will be writing up offers. It sets the precedence for the next thing, why cant they write up offers. Why can’t public use unlicensed people to list their homes for a lessor fee?
We have all worked too hard to get licensed, invested heavily in our careers. We need to be protective for ourselves too. Not worth the time saved by delegating opening homes to someone who isn’t licensed.
I respect everyones thoughts and I have stated my opinion. I will not continue
to try to persuade anyone to think like me.
All I am saying, is if TREC were to allow that change, there are far reaching consequences attached to that. We need to consider all aspects.
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In Texas, anyone can get employed by a builder to show houses, and the public doesn’t seem to have a problem with that.
~Why are you worried about the “seller” if the house is Vacant…?
~Why can’t the Broker be responsible for training an unlicensed person how to conduct an open house, and keep their mouth shut…?
~Brokers are already much more responsible for Licensed persons who don’t know what they are doing or saying to the public!
~If you want to protect what we all worked for to get our license & education, then why are we giving away all the MLS database to the public on Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com…??
~Does anyone know of a law suit that resulted from an unlicensed person showing a vacant house to a prospective tenant? …or from an Open House…?
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I see all this stuff back and forth, with the underlying reason being that an unlicensed assistant might say something to the prospective buyer that they shouldn’t. That is absolutely the most ludicrous reason I can imagine, that they MIGHT say something. A receptionist answering the phone MIGHT say something they shouldn’t. TREC needs to get a grip. The broker is ultimately responsible in any case.
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I am involved in a few lawsuits, maybe you need a lawsuit to teach you a lesson too.
I promise, don’t conduct your business with integrity, you’ll be invited to a lawsuit soon, you will be the main guest.
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I was originally against this until I started thinking about the implications it would have on the move by the online portals easing into real estate. This is a defensive move that prevents these online portals from setting up a corporate license and then hiring a bunch of unlicensed people to merely open doors for $8 an hour. It also can be a step in the direction of preventing unlicensed people from giving the “robot tours” with the Ipad attached to a robot. Once someone has to get a license to perform an activity they are going to demand way more money and won’t be so easy for these portals and online brokers to jump into our industry. In my view this is a good thing and should be welcomed by all agents.
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Wow someone is actually comparing a real estate agent to an attorney or doctor! These comments are just laughable. This is a comparison of apples to oranges. These professionals have to get a degree and then more schooling on top of that and pass an extremely difficult exam. Then they have to have actual working experience hours on top of that. I literally went and got my real estate license in two months and the exam was not difficult at all. It is my opinion that a lot of agents are grossly overpaid for the amount of work that they put into a transaction so opening a door for a showing should be an important part of that. A lot of agents need to wake up because online services are threatening their income stream and they don’t even see it coming.
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I hold Realtors to the same high standards as lawyers, accountants, doctors. I will pay them their worth if they maintain a high level of service & professionlism.
Most agents i met were from non sales jobs such as law, banking, marketing.
I don’t think a Realtor who was a nurse is any less qualified to help me purchase a property if they are really good at what they do. Most Realtors i met other than Redfin are amazing at what they do, save me time, money & give me piece of mind.
Again, Redfin are not going to ever get my business
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Here are just some thoughts. I agree that only agents should be opening a door when we are selling a clients listing period! Why are we giving away the farm when we start letting other unlicensed people do any part of our job. I agree with Chris Lesak. The more we let unlicensed people do real estate tasks in time our value and need as a PROFESSIONALLY LICENSED PERSON to the public goes down. It has somewhat with Zillow, Trulia, etc. I am dumbfounded why NAR has done this to us!! It just irks me. I have had people say they don’t really need a realtor because they can find their own listings. Technology inevitably has changed so many industries. Think what Uber and Lift has done to the taxi industry. Amazon to shopping, etc. Why is NAR propelling this with giving away OUR listings that we went out and got and are working and now making them available for free to companies who are banking off of them and in turn have hurt us somewhat? I get it is free advertising, but, it’s hurting us as Realtors for people to see our value from the very start. Years back there was something to say about having to get with an agent to find all the houses available on MLS. You had to be connected to a Realtor to have access to everything listed on the MLS. The MLS has lost its exclusivity now that anyone can basically see everything listed, but with limited information which still gives us what little power we have left. I think we all need to guard our industry better or else there will be coming a day where something will show up where we are not needed or seen as valuable as before. Keep our profesion exclusive in what we do. I understand we are all trying to make our jobs easier, but let’s do it in other ways. The public needs to come to us for help and we need to try to keep it that way where they need us or eventually we will all be out a job. One thing leads into another. Finally, if assisstants can’t open doors, who in their right mind would think it’s a good idea to just let any Joe Smoe off the street walk through a house that is someone’s investment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars? On top of that who tge agent has probably never ever met or vetted? Are they not afraid of squatters in a vacant property, vandalism, whatever. They now have access into the home anytime once the code is given out. This should be prohibited by TREC with such companies that do this type of thing such as Open Door or anyone else. I love technology but at the same time let’s protect our profession and the need for it in the public eye. It seems it would be in all of our best interests in guarding our industry and not just giving our greatest tools and assests away so it compels people to come to us for our services…just somne thoughts. Happy weekend everyone!😊
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Right on Laurie!
We need to protect our career. Allowing ANYBODY UNLICENSED start doing a core
job description is another nail on our careers coffin. Another step towards end.
Using buyers agent or even referring out is better than letting unlicensed folks do our jobs because it would be “so convenient.”
You elaborated the reasons so well, thank you for that.
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Can you imagine if your lawyer, accountant, doctor allowed his/her receptionist perform the duties on you or your business.
An assistant calling & negotiating business on your behalf, Redfin does this, they will never again get my business, we ended up with 3 lawsuites for damages against them.
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I realize I am late to the party, but in reading through all of the comments there are several very good points of view. In regards to Laurie’s comment about squatters, I agree. If giving the code is common practice how do we know who went in? Once someone has the code to a vacant property who knows if they go back and steal appliances, copper wiring, etc. Or worse yet, they actually move in! Is the seller aware that a squatter now has rights and is considered a “tenant at sufferance” and the home owner has to go to court to evict them which takes 60+ days IF all goes according to plan? If the seller was aware would he allow this? Talk about slowing a sale down. I had someone have a locksmith change the locks on one of my vacant properties that was waiting for foundation work to be completed. To my horror I found out they had more rights than I did. It took me serveral hunderd dollars representing myself and 72 days to get them out. They were so mad, they spray painted every wall in the house upon departure.
I don’t believe unlicensed agents should open properties, though I have often wished I had someone to do so. It is such a missed opportunity to sell the property if I am not there. Selling the property is what the seller hired me to do.
I agree with other comments that we have given the farm away by allowing our listings to be given away to third parties. This does not help us.
Another comment said we are not doctors or lawyers but yet we deal with more of our clients money than any other profession other than stockbrokers and money managers. A home, for most people, is the largest financial investment/ transaction they will make in their lifetimes and we have people with 2 months education advising the public on the complexities, pitfalls, advantages, and cost of home ownership??? The longer you are in this profession the more complicated it becomes and the more you realize the things that could go wrong. To me, that is our value to the public is keeping them informed. To not only find homes, but after having found the home, helping them to make good decisions and sound investments, not only financially but emotionally. Because of the size of the financial investment and the numerous things that can go wrong, I think real estate licenses should have a minimum two year degree. (Please, no hate mail or nasty comments, it is my opinion.) With the buyers able to find homes on the internet, view properties both virtually and in some cases by getting the code for themselves, they don’t feel they need us. And they don’t, unless we provide them with our knowledge of all that can go wrong. You learn what can go wrong with experience or by being taught. To teach all the examples of what could go wrong cant be done in short classes, but would take several years. Hence my two year recommendation.
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What about new model homes? Does this apply to builders as well?
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Regarding model homes and builders. They do not need to use agents. Builders are sellers of their own homes. Our listings are also sellers, if it were their decision, some might agree to allow unlicensed assistants to open their home,IF their agent does not fully explain the liabilities/risks that come from that. IF TAR were to make changes, the listing agreement would have to outline those risks to the seller to be fair, in case the agent makes it seem like it is no big deal to have their assistants open their home. It sounds innocent enough, but it could get very complicated.
TAR is and should be working for Realtors interests. If they permit unlicensed assistants to open homes because the “seller makes the decision” and is okay with that…..They will be okay with unlicensed folks to list and sell their homes, that will be the next step to save money. The writing is on the wall, we should zealously be protecting our livelihood and even sellers and buyers. We all know how vulnerable and how often FSBO’s have ended up losing, all the while believing they “saved” paying a realtor their commission.
Our profession does not have the respect it should. We are problem solvers. We have been instrumental in holding nightmare transactions together. We are instrumental from everything from family feuds, title issues, inspections and repairs, on and on.
One careless or innocent spoken word from anyone, even agents themselves could hurt a transaction or trust.
We have been diligently trained to know what we can or cannot say, to carefully disclose any information from the source. Even if TAR would to allow unlicensed folks to open homes, I will choose to only have licensed agents open my listings.
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The TREC Inspector Meeting on 1-25-18 it was asked if the inspector was considered to be an assistant to the agent. The answer was no. The inspector can let themselves in with owner/listing agent permission. The inspector can let others in but all inspectors at the meeting expressed discomfort with that. Many inspectors now require the seller/listing agent give text permission to let others in (buyer, carpet man, engineer etc) with an expressed hold harmless for the inspector. The inspector cannot inspect and supervise other people.
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