North Carolina real estate educator George Bell is predicting real estate rules will soon have to change to make listings the property of sales associates, not their brokers, and those listings will be fully portable when that associate leaves one firm and goes to another.

Bell made the prediction Sunday (Oct. 24) at the annual conference of the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO), meeting in Savannah, Ga.

Bell told the more than 300 commissioners and regulators that because of technology broker supervision is becoming a thing of the past, and that so-called "single licensure" will become the law of the land.

"I know an agent who only goes to his broker's office once a month for sales meetings," Bell said. "All his other communication is by fax, e-mail and telephone or, if he happens to be on that side of town and needs to drop something off, he may see the broker then."

He said he believes many sales associates across the nation are operating the same way -- doing the bulk of their work from at-home offices -- reducing broker supervision to near nothing.

Because of that, he predicted, it will be increasingly difficult for the courts, commissions and legislatures to hold brokers responsible for deals they never actually see, and that for professional liability and responsibility to remain factors in the transaction, they will have to fall on the shoulders of the agents.

But with the "stick" of personal responsibility, Bell argues, will have to come the "carrot" of listings ownership.

"The rules are going to have to be modified and the listing is going to have to belong to the sales associate," he said.

Bell suggested an interesting survey would be whether consumers decide to work with a particular company because of the firm, or because of the sales associate. "I'll tell you how sales associates would answer that question," he said. "They'll tell you it's them."

As a practical matter, the state of Colorado already has single licensure and North Carolina, beginning next year, will take a half-step toward it by making it easier for sales associates to obtain their broker's licenses.

In both states, however, brokers retain ownership of the actual listings.

Published: October 26, 1999

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