Real estate applicants and licensees: education requirements: fair housing and implicit bias training.

Existing law, the Real Estate Law, establishes the Department of Real Estate, with the Real Estate Commissioner as its chief officer, and sets forth the powers and duties of the commissioner relating to the licensure and regulation of real estate brokers and salespersons. Existing law requires an applicant for an original real estate broker license examination to successfully complete courses of study in specified subjects, including real estate practice, legal aspects of real estate, and real estate appraisal. Existing law specifies each of these courses to be a 3-semester unit course. Existing law also requires an applicant for a real estate salesperson license examination or for both the examination and license to successfully complete courses of study in specified subjects, including real estate principles and real estate practice. Existing law requires a licensee to successfully complete 45 hours of continuing education as a prerequisite to initial license renewal, including, among other things, a 3-hour course in fair housing. For subsequent renewals, the law requires a licensee to complete 45 hours of continuing education, including an 8-hour update survey course. This bill would revise the real estate practice course for an applicant for a real estate broker or salesperson license to include a component on implicit bias, as specified, and would revise the legal aspects of real estate course for that applicant to include a component on state and federal fair housing laws, as specified. The bill would require that fair housing component to include an interactive participatory component, as specified. The bill would revise the fair housing course requirement for initial license renewals to include an interactive participatory component, as specified. The bill would also require a licensee, as part of the licensee's 45 hours of continuing education, to successfully complete a 2-hour course in implicit bias training, as specified. The bill would increase the hours required for the update survey course to 9 hours. The bill would delay the operation of these provisions until January 1, 2023. This bill would revise the description of the courses required for an applicant for a real estate broker or salesperson license to be 3-unit semester courses.