 Care to guess who was behind the effort to require fingerprints from all Texas real estate agents? It wasn’t a consumer protection group. You can’t trace it back to a legislator with a bad experience in a real estate transaction, either. No, the people who sought to protect the public with this added safety measure are probably the last folks you would expect: Texas REALTORS® themselves.
The new rule, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2008, requires anyone who applies for or renews a real estate salesperson’s or broker’s license to provide fingerprints and undergo a criminal background check. Criminal background checks are nothing new for real estate licensees. But fingerprints give law enforcement agencies the ability to look for criminal history in states other than Texas.
To be sure, some agents and brokers aren’t happy about this new requirement. It’s a hassle, costs about $44, and there’s a “Big Brother” feel to giving your fingerprints … even for those with nothing to hide. So why would Texas REALTORS® push to mandate fingerprinting and more-thorough criminal background checks? REALTORS® felt that the benefit – protecting homesellers – far outweighed the negative aspects.
The fingerprinting idea surfaced in Houston. It came to light that a licensed real estate agent there was a registered sex offender in another state. His sex-offender status was not discovered during the licensing background check, though, since checks prior to this year only turned up criminal records in Texas.
|
The agent became a member of the Houston Association of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service. That gave him access to lockboxes, the small secure devices at many sellers’ homes in which a door key is kept. While there are many safeguards in place with today’s sophisticated electronic lockboxes (tracking who showed the home and when, deactivating stolen “keys”), this situation pointed out a risk that could be minimized.
Houston REALTORS® started talking about this situation to figure out how to address it. The issue worked its way up to the Texas Association of REALTORS® Regulatory Affairs Task Force. After several meetings and much input and discussion, the task force recommended the mandatory fingerprinting process and nationwide criminal-history check. Texas REALTORS® helped push the idea through the state legislature. Now real estate agents and brokers have joined a growing list of Texas professionals who must provide fingerprints, including teachers, nurses, and mortgage brokers.
I’m not aware of any unfortunate incidents that occurred in Houston with this particular real estate agent. I’m glad it didn’t take a crime to reveal this weakness in the system. And I’m sure homesellers feel more secure, knowing that a person can’t get a real estate license in Texas simply because his criminal past remains hidden from Texas authorities in the database of some other state.
|
