The Texas Real Estate Commission adopts amendments to §535.212, concerning Education and Experience Requirements for a License, with changes to the proposed text as published in the February 28, 2014, issue of the Texas Register (39 TexReg 1335). The section is adopted with one non-substantive change to correct a typographical error in subsection (f)(1)(B)(iii) that transposed the numbers proposed by the Commission.

The amendments clarify implementation of the field work requirement permitted by House Bill 2911. The amendments create two options for obtaining substitute experience going forward that emphasize the importance of hands-on training and keep a third option from the rules in effect prior to House Bill 2911 until February 28, 2015 to allow providers time to develop courses that comply with the first two options. The adopted rule also reduces the number of hours required for classroom or alternative delivery interactive training modules in the first two options to help control costs and promote hands-on training.

The reasoned justification for the amendments is to permit several alternative ways to provide more hands-on training for the substitute experience requirement, while allowing time to phase out one of the existing options that does not involve any hands-on training. These changes will result in better training of inspectors and therefore improved protection for consumers of real estate services.

The Commission received two comments on the proposed amendments. One commenter opined that there was no basis or precedent for the proposed amendments to give less credit for courses taken through an alternative delivery method or requiring more hours for correspondence courses than for in-person courses. That commenter also asked that the proposed changes be delayed to coincide and align with changes being considered by the Education Standards and Advisory Committee (ESAC) as part of the Commission's quadrennial rule review of education rules. One commenter stated generally that increased regulatory requirements would ultimately lead to increased costs to consumers and decrease consumer options.

These comments were considered by the Real Estate Inspector Advisory Committee and the Real Estate Inspector Education Subcommittee in their meetings on April 14, 2014. The Education Subcommittee believes that the proposed amendments will enhance inspector education and increase consumer protection by providing more hands-on training to inspectors. The tiered structure in the proposal will encourage inspectors to obtain more training through in-person field experience, allow an alternative where in-person training is not readily available, and allow a reasonable phase out period for experience training currently being offered through course work only. The Education Subcommittee does not believe that the phasing out of the coursework only experience option should be delayed to coincide with any proposed amendments ESAC chooses to make to core education courses since this amendment deals with an experience component. Any delay in adopting the proposed amendments would decrease much needed hands-on field experience training. The Education Subcommittee does not believe the proposed amendments will increase the cost of inspector training overall, since there are still several options available and the number of total hours have been scaled back to accommodate any increased cost of the in-person training. The Education Subcommittee and the Real Estate Inspector Advisory Committee recommended that the amendments be adopted without delay. The Commission agreed with that recommendation.

The amendments are adopted under Texas Occupations Code, §1101.151, which authorizes the Texas Real Estate Commission to adopt and enforce rules necessary to administer Chapters 1101 and 1102; and to establish standards of conduct and ethics for its licensees to fulfill the purposes of Chapters 1101 and 1102 and ensure compliance with those chapters.

The statute affected by these amendments is Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 1102. No other statute, code, or article is affected by the amendments.