BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2837

By: Riddle

Licensing & Administrative Procedures

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Currently, rules established by the Texas Real Estate Commission require that correspondence courses must be offered by an accredited college or university. Licensed real estate schools often provide correspondence courses, but are required to pay a college or university a fee to have the college sponsor the course. There is concern that some colleges lend their name to a program simply to procure a fee, without offering any oversight to the daily operations of the course. Additionally, many licensed real estate schools are capable of offering thorough, high-quality correspondence courses without the oversight of an accredited college, making the fee an unnecessary financial burden.

C.S.H.B. 2837 allows certain real estate programs and real estate inspection education programs to offer correspondence courses relating to the licensing of a real estate broker, salesperson, or inspector without having to pay an accredited college or university a fee to sponsor the course.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Real Estate Commission in SECTION 1 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2837 amends the Occupations Code to authorize an accredited proprietary real estate or real estate inspection education program to offer a course required to obtain a real estate broker or salesperson license or any inspector license by correspondence if the program is a domestic entity; the program's principal office is located in Texas; the course is also offered with in-person instruction by the program at a physical institution in Texas; the course has learning objectives for each area of instruction, is measured in clock hours of instruction, includes pre-assessments in each area of instruction to determine the student's level of competence before taking the course, and includes post-assessments to determine the student's overall comprehension of the subject matter; the program requires students who are completing a correspondence course to pass an examination administered by a proctor who meets requirements adopted by Texas Real Estate Commission rule; the program provides for an instructor approved by the commission to be available by telephone or e-mail to answer students' questions; and each of the program's instructors is approved by the commission.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2009.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 2837 differs from the original by specifying that the authorization to offer a course required to obtain a real estate broker or salesperson license or any inspector license by correspondence is granted to an accredited proprietary real estate or real estate inspection education program, whereas the original grants the authorization to an accredited real estate or real estate inspection education program. The substitute removes provisions included in the original authorizing such programs to offer required courses online.