Your Comments on Broker Succession Planning, TREC’s Proposal for a Release of Earnest Money Form, and Smart-Home Tech

July 01, 2018

An article from the May issue of the magazine explained what agents should know in the event their broker passes away. But a key takeaway from the article was actually for brokers: Make sure your brokerage has a succession plan in place. Warren Ivey agreed, and recommends brokers who want to learn more attend the Texas REALTORS® Conference in San Antonio on September 8.

“If you’ve ever thought about the next chapter of your career, you won’t want to miss the session on real-estate-brokerage succession planning,” Ivey said. “Real estate attorney Rick Albers and broker Mike Mengden will discuss legal and business details to consider before selling or transferring your business. Thank you TAR for staying a step ahead.”

A blog post about TREC’s proposed draft for a new release of earnest money form garnered a lot of discussion about whether it’s worthwhile. While the Texas REALTORS® doesn’t oppose a TREC release of earnest money form, it does advocate for continued use of its form, or TREC adopting the TAR form’s language. More than 60 commenters, including Tom Allen and Claude Humbert, agreed with TAR’s position. “If TREC wants to have a form available for use by everybody, they should use the TAR form which has been used obviously successfully for 20 years,” said Humbert. The public comment period for the form closed last month, but you can always contact general.counsel@trec.texas.gov when you have feedback about TREC forms.

In a poll, we asked Texas REALTORS® if smart-home technology attracts buyers. Eighteen percent of respondents say smart-home tech is very important, 37% say it’s somewhat important, and 45% say it’s not important. Susan Patterson said she’d rather buyers decide what type of smart-home technology they want, because she’s seen how built-in smart-home features become obsolete. “A couple of years back, iPhone and iPod docks were being built in the walls,” she said. “Apple changed the connector, making them look outdated as opposed to being cool tech. Prospective buyers become distracted by trying to figure out how to remove or update. Anyone have buyers who laugh at those retro, huge, all-house intercoms with the built-in AM/FM stereo and cassette deck?”

Legal Disclaimer

Texas REALTORS® provides content through various online platforms, including this blog. By interacting with any of our blog posts, you agree to comply with the following terms and conditions:

a. You will not post any defamatory, discriminatory, libelous, threatening, vulgar, sexually explicit, abusive, profane, rude, or obscene content (including comments);
b. You will not use our blog posts or posted content to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory; and
c. You will not post content or take any action on our blog posts that infringes someone else’s rights or otherwise violates the law.
d. You will not post any information intended to sell or advertise a business, product, or service.

Texas REALTORS®, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to remove any content you have uploaded, posted, or submitted onto any of our blog posts if we believe that it violates these terms or conditions.

The material provided here is for informational purposes only and is not intended and should not be considered as legal advice for your particular matter. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Applicability of the legal principles discussed in this material may differ substantially in individual situations.

While Texas REALTORS® has used reasonable efforts in collecting and preparing materials included here, due to the rapidly changing nature of the real estate marketplace and the law, and our reliance on information provided by outside sources, Texas REALTORS® makes no representation, warranty, or guarantee of the accuracy or reliability of any information provided here. Any legal or other information found on this page or at other sites to which we link, should be verified before it is relied upon.