The Texas Real Estate Commission is now publicizing that it intends to propose a change to recently adopted advertising rules.
The advertising rules effective May 15 include a restriction of the term realty in team names. Team names must also end in the terms group or team to be in compliance with the updated rule. TAR supported these amendments at adoption. (Read more about TREC’s advertising rule changes in the January/February issue of Texas REALTOR® magazine.)
After receiving feedback from license holders following adoption of the rules, TREC will consider proposing a rule at its May 7 meeting to delete the prohibition against using the term realty in a team name.
Until the May meeting when the issue is discussed, TREC says it will accept team name registrations that include realty and will not seek to discipline a license holder solely for advertising with a team name using realty.
TREC did not change the use of realty for brokers, so brokers can continue using the term in their licensed or assumed business names.
I understand the reasoning, but I don’t see the point of adding rules, when there is little enforcement to back them up. Just like you cannot legislate morality, proposing an agency rule to protect the public, most likely will have little, if any actual effect, on the public and or on their perceptions. While we are spending our time on compliance, Zillow, etc. our competitors are going the opposite direction claiming more and more buyers and sellers who have personally told me that they will not use a RealATar again as they were burned by our Zillow organization….
All legislation defines the morality of those who pass it. Enforcement of the legislation is another issue.
I do not think “teams” should be able to use the term realty in their name. This is the same attempt large brokerages are attempting to do to make the team look like a brokerage.
I do not believe agents who form teams or groups should be able to use the word “realty”. It’s confusing to the public & appears that they are a brokerage firm, own the brokerage or are brokers themselves.
Not being a lawyer I can not give the legal nature of the term “realty”, however, being a Realtor for 60 years and operating /owning an office most of those years the connotation of the term is that of an office or business. I do not believe a group or team of agents are the office, rather they work out of the realty office where a disignated broker with a demonstrated higher degree of training and responsibility is responsible for not only his actions but also the actions of all. A group or team of agents is just that –… Read more »