Indiana Real Estate licensing will change to a singular license state July 2014. After passing the Indiana Senate 48-2 on January 31st, Senate Bill 275 went to the Indiana House where it passed 94-0 on February 21st and was signed into law by Governor Daniels on March 19th.
I was able to interview Kathy Harbaugh, VP of Professional Development for Indiana Association of Realtors. She has been very helpful trying to unwind the details of this change.
There will no longer be Sales Person licenses in Indiana after July 2014, all active agents will be Brokers. The idea is that the consumer doesn't distinguish the difference between a Sales Person and a Broker. The other goal was to enhance the education requirements for licensing and for Continued Education to improve the level of expertise and professionalism in our industry.
How will affect you? If you are a Sales Person you will have from June 2012 to July 2014 to take a Broker's Transition course and pass the test to become a Broker. This course is currently not available, however, the Commission is not looking to make it so difficult that a Sales Person wouldn't pass it. The test will be given in a class when completed by the schools. It is a 24 hour course and will count toward your CE from 7/1/12 to 6/30/14. Kathy told me that there are plans to have these available online, on demand as well. You will be getting your Broker's license with this, so it will still need to process of applying for a Broker's license and paying the 64.25 fee. If you do not complete the transition course and test your license will be considered expired.
Until July of 2014 you will still have the normal 16 hours of Continuing Education requirements you are accustomed to. Those with Sales Person licenses must complete them by June 30th, 2012, current Brokers will need to complete them by June 30th, 2013. However, current Brokers will have to add 8 more hours of CE between July 2013 and July of 2014. All licenses change from the current two year licensing cycle to a three year cycle starting July 2014 with 12 hours of Continued Education per year.
There will only be two different designations of licenses, Brokers and Managing Brokers who will have to complete 4 of their 12 hours of their Continued Education in a Managing Broker course. All Principal Brokers will automatically become Managing Brokers July 2014. There seems to still be some questions in the interpretation of the law on current Broker Managers if they automatically grandfather or not. Kathy Harbaugh believes that they will be required to take the Managing Broker class.
Until July of 2014 all the rules stay the same. Sales Person classes will continue with the standard 54 hour course and the IAR will offer a bundle with the 24 hour transition courses to get the new agent up to the 2014 requirements. After July of 2014 to earn a license there will be a 90 hour pre-licensing class and then after licensed they will be required to take 30 hours of post licensing education during the first two years.
For those whose license is in referral, they will stay in referral and will automatically become brokers. However, they will not be allowed to become active until they have completed the 24 hour transition course.
For your information, there are currently around 9,800 active salesperson licensee's today in Indiana, with another 8,500 in referral.
