A new state system rollout caused licensing delays for Texas real estate agents, leaving some having to wait months to work and earn income.<\/p>\n
AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 When you see a \u201cFor Sale\u201d sign pop up in your neighborhood, you might first think about curb appeal or listing price. But for aspiring real estate agent Isabel Burrato, those signs represented something else: When can I finally start working?<\/p>\n
Burrato recently passed her real estate exam and expected to receive her license within about 10 business days \u2014 the timeframe noted on the paperwork provided after passing the test.<\/p>\n
Instead, she waited more than two and a half months.<\/p>\n
During that time, Burrato said she was unable to legally work as a real estate agent \u2014 meaning no income and no open houses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have clients already lined up and just having to have them kind of sit on the back burner and wait for me to get this done,\u201d Burrato said. “It was fully out of my hands, [it] was really frustrating and exhausting and I kind of started to wonder if it was ever gonna happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burrato’s experience is part of a broader issue recently discussed at the February meeting of the Texas Real Estate Commission.<\/p>\n
\nNew system launch caused backlog <\/p>\n
According to Licensing Director Denise Sample, the agency\u2019s transition to a new licensing system named Real Estate and Appraiser License Management Portal, or REALM Portal, created processing challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe licensing team worked hard to process and review as many applications as possible prior to the transition,\u201d Sample said during the meeting.<\/p>\n
The commission launched the new system on Dec. 2 and notified license holders that technical issues were possible. Still, Sample acknowledged that the rollout impacted the agency\u2019s ability to process applications as quickly as usual.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did encounter some issues that impacted our ability to process applications in the way we were accustomed to, and to the way license holders are accustomed to,\u201d Sample said.<\/p>\n
The delays affected both renewals and new license applications.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cA test of patience\u201d <\/p>\n
For Burrato, the uncertainty was one of the hardest parts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember emailing them probably Dec. 14 and 15 and getting a response back in a few days,\u201d Burrato said. \u201cThe response was basically just, \u2018We don\u2019t know when anything\u2019s gonna get resolved, just stay tuned.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Her license has since been issued, and she is now hosting open houses in North Austin. But she said the experience tested her patience and financial stability.<\/p>\n
\nA warning for future agents <\/p>\n
Despite the rocky start, Burrato said she does not regret her career choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say do it. I’m very grateful that I picked this career. I wouldn’t change it for a thing even though we’ve had all these hardships,\u201d Burrato said. \u201cBut go into it expecting that it’s gonna be a rocky road for a little while.\u201d<\/p>\n
As homes continue to hit the market across the Austin area, new agents eager to sell them may need to prepare for potential delays before they can officially get to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new state system rollout caused licensing delays for Texas real estate agents, leaving some having to wait…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-173853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}