I am the president of a new home builder with a sales staff in Maryland. How do I go about complying with the new law?
By October 1, 2007, you must ensure that all sales agents engaged in selling the homes your company is building are properly licensed and affiliated with a real estate brokerage. The brokerage may be a new one that is established just for the purpose of selling homes built by your company, or an existing brokerage. For example, you could enter into an agreement with an existing brokerage to have all sales operations handled by that broker and the brokers affiliated associate brokers and salespersons. Your current sales staff, once licensed, could become affiliated with that broker. You would then pay an agreed-upon commission on sales to the broker. The broker would in turn compensate the associate brokers and salespersons. If you decide to establish a new brokerage, you would need to meet all the legal requirements set forth in the answer to Question 4, including a licensed broker to supervise the real estate brokerage services provided by affiliated associate brokers and salespersons
