HARRISBURG PA – The continuing education (CE) season for Pennsylvania real estate licensees is officially over. The bi-annual license renewal deadline passed at midnight on Memorial Day (Monday, May 31, 2010).
A real estate license audit may, or may not, be in your future.
That’s not to say continuing education itself has stopped. Educated guessers statewide figure there are thousands of real estate salespeople and brokers who have not yet completed (or in some cases, not even started) their CE, and who have not renewed their licenses either. For them, Polley Associates will offer a limited number of live classroom CE courses throughout the summer; check schedules here.
Polley Associates’ online CE classes also are available, 24/7, here. The list includes more than 20 different course titles of varying hour lengths. Learners can mix and match them to build a customized 14 hours of state-mandated CE that best suits their personal tastes or interests.
- A reminder, though: sales persons who obtained their licenses after Dec. 1, 2007, are required by state Real Estate Commission regulations to take two specific CE courses, “Required – General Module,” and either “Required – Residential Module” or “Required – Commercial Module.” For newcomers to the business, no other courses satisfy the state’s CE demands. See them all online, here.
If you’re among the majority of more than 40,000 real estate licensees who have both completed CE and renewed your license for the 2010-2012 cycle, congratulations! Many experts claim a turn-around in the economy, and the real estate markets in particular, is just ahead. If indicators stay positive, it should be a busier summer of real estate sales in many parts of the Commonwealth.
The commission expects to be busy, too, for an entirely different reason.
In its January 2010 newsletter, the commission announced its intent to “verify licensees’ CE” using a continuing education audit. State Real Estate Education Administrator Katie Douglas wrote that license numbers would be “randomly selected,” and that those licensees would be sent notices requesting “proof of CE completion.” Douglas did not specify the time frame in which an audit would occur (“a few months after the renewal cycle ends,” was her answer), nor did she indicate what percentage of licensees would receive notices.
Audits are the commission’s enforcement “stick.” By fall (assuming that September or October represents “a few months”) it intends to find out which licensees told the truth, or didn’t, during the renewal process.
Licensees who completed all 14 hours of their CE, and then renewed either online or via mail, will have no problem passing an audit. On the other hand, licensees who renewed without first finishing their CE, or who wrongly gambled they could skip CE and not be caught by the state, likely will face severe penalties.
If you are a licensee who took CE with Polley Associates and who subsequently receives an audit letter, call our corporate offices in Newtown Square PA toll-free from Eastern Pennsylvania at 800-220-2789 or from Western Pennsylvania at 800-248-3004 to get documents needed to respond to the state.
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Filed under: Continuing Education, Holiday, Law, Polley Associates, Real Estate, Real Estate Commission
