Maryland Real Estate Law

The Commission regulates approximately 48,000 active licensees in Maryland.

LAW & ORDER

The legislative session ended recently, and the MREC is pleased to announce that both bills under consideration passed. Check out the details of our new legislation:

• H.B. 406 regulates the brokerage services you may provide as part of a team or group. A team/group is defined as the following (§17–543):
  • “[T]wo or more licensed associate real estate brokers or licensed real estate salespersons, or any combination of licensed associate real estate brokers and licensed real estate salespersons, who:
    (1) “work together on a regular basis to provide real estate brokerage services;
    (2) “represent themselves to the public as being part of one entity; and
    (3) “designate themselves by a collective name such as team or group.”

If this applies to your business, you must designate a team/group leader who must be either an associate broker or have been licensed for at least three years. That designated team/group leader is responsible for “exercis[ing] reasonable and adequate supervision over the provision of real estate brokerage services by members of the team,” as elaborated in §17–545. (See H.B. 83 below for information on the required supervision CE for team/group leaders.) All team/group members must conduct all business from the office or branch office where their licenses are displayed. In regards to advertising, the name of your team/group must not contain the terms “Real Estate,” “Real Estate Brokerage,” “Realty,” or any other term that may be construed to mean that the team/group offers real estate services independent of the broker. Additionally, all ads must contain “the name of the brokerage displayed in a meaningful and conspicuous way,” i.e. John Doe Group of ABC Real Estate, as well as the name of at least one licensee team/group member and the phone number of the broker or branch office manager. In addition, a broker may designate two members of a team as intracompany agents (representing both the buyer and seller involved in the same transaction) as long as both the buyer and seller have been notified in writing that both licensees are members of the same team/group and may have a financial interest/benefit in the outcome of the transaction.  Read more information here.