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Compliance5 weeks ago

The table most brokerages cite on unlicensed assistants is dated 2017

NAR's state-by-state PDF is still the document handed to new coordinators. State regulators have published a great deal since it was written.

TC Bulletin Staff4 min readRead as markdown

What this story establishes

  • NAR maintains a state-by-state Unlicensed Assistants Table as a PDF dated 2017.
  • It sits alongside NAR's Field Guide to Personal Assistants.
  • State commissions including the California DRE and Texas TREC have published guidance since.
  • Use the table for orientation and the state regulator for authority.

Ask a brokerage compliance officer where the line sits on unlicensed assistance and there is a good chance the answer arrives as a PDF attachment. It is usually the same PDF: the National Association of REALTORS state-by-state table on unlicensed assistants, which carries a 2017 date.

The table is not wrong so much as old. It was assembled to give a national overview of a question that is decided fifty times over, and it does that job well. But nine years is a long time in licensing guidance, and the state commissions have not stopped publishing. The California DRE maintains both a live page and a detailed PDF guide. TREC has published its own conditional guidance pointing at TRELA and Rules 535.4 and 535.5.

Where it still earns its place

For a coordinator taking on a file in a state they have not worked before, the table answers the first question quickly: is this a state that treats the activity permissively, or one that does not. That is a useful triage step. It is not a defence.

NAR's Field Guide to Personal Assistants is the companion document and is maintained on the association's site. Both are membership-oriented material written with brokerage assistants in mind, which is a different working relationship from an independent coordinator contracting with several agents at once.