A working group of the California Association of Realtors (CAR) has recommended that the Department of Real Estate no longer issue a conditional sales license. This recommendation was presented to CAR directors at the association's recent business meetings -- held in conjunction with CAR's annual convention and trade show that took place this year in San Diego.

The recommendation regarding the conditional sales license was just one of a number of items contained in the report of CAR's Business Practices Task Force. This task force was established a little more than a year ago. It was charged to "review the current state of the professional and ethical business practices of REALTORS and real estate licensees," and to make recommendations based on its findings.

The findings of the task force confirmed the concerns that had led to its establishment, and its recommendations covered a variety of subjects. These included: procedures within the Realtor community for processing ethics complaints, enforcement of ethics rules, educational practices and requirements with respect to both ethics and professional conduct, and changes to Department of Real Estate regulations regarding licensing and experience requirements.

The recommendations regarding licensing and experience requirements arose out of concerns about the proliferation of new -- by definition untrained and inexperienced -- real estate licensees. "In light of the large number of new licensees, the Task Force believes that many brokers and salespeople are not adequately trained for the day-to-day practice of real estate."

We have commented before on the phenomenal recent growth of the real estate licensee population. Now numbering more than 450,000, it is a population in which more than 20 percent of those holding a real estate license have been in the business for less than two years. Moreover, this phenomenon is taking place in an era in which sales transactions have become increasingly more complex, and legal liabilities have grown exponentially.

Many -- probably most – of those who obtain a new real estate license receive what is called a "conditional license." This allows a person to postpone taking two of the three required "college level" courses that must be completed in order to obtain a salesperson's license. Instead of completing all three courses prior to obtaining a license, it is possible to do so after only completing one. A conditional license is issued, and the licensee then has an eighteen-month period within which to complete two more.

Having a conditional license in no way restricts the real estate sales activities of the license holder. That is, he or she may engage in sales activity just the same as if a full salesperson's license had been obtained. There is no special supervision or apprenticeship required of a person who has a conditional sales license.

The CAR Task Force has recommended that this "serious consumer protection issue" should be eliminated, and that new sales agents be required "to take the additional 90 hours of training … before they receive any license to sell real estate."

Can anyone be against such a proposal? Yes, indeed; and many of them are called politicians. This would probably include the governor as well as people on both sides of the legislative aisles.

Organizations such as CAR have tried before to strengthen the educational and training requirements for real estate practitioners. Such initiatives are typically met with resistance as being "industry protectionism" and an attempt to erect barriers to entry against others who are seeking economic opportunity. Often, the resistance to more stringent requirements is accompanied by an ironically condescending claim that it would be discriminatory to invoke higher standards.

In short, trying to make it harder to get a real estate license is likely to be treated as politically incorrect. So it probably won't happen.

Published: October 3, 2005

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Bob Hunt is a former director of the National Association of Realtors and is author of the recently published book, "Real Estate the Ethical Way." A graduate of Princeton with a master's degree from UCLA in philosophy, Hunt has served as a U.S. Marine, Realtor association president in South Orange County, and director of the California Association of Realtors, and is an award-winning Realtor. Contact Bob at .