SC Legal Hot Tips 2024-2026 Core

This course fulfills the mandatory core requirements for South Carolina Real Estate licensees’ continuing education. This is for the 2024-2026 license renewal period, and completes the mandatory four hours of core material out of the ten total required hours for license renewal. This core course focuses on helping you navigate and understand license law so that you can easily apply the laws in your daily real estate practice.  This course covers the following: 

Introduction: students are introduced to the history of expansion in South Carolina, how rules are put into practice, and the four key areas of the course; 

• Section One explores Jurisdiction in the state; 
• Section Two discusses Transaction Brokerages and their concerns; 
• Section Three details Funds, Compensation, and Trust Monies; and 
• Section Four is related to Investigations; and 
• Much more! 

The course begins with an introduction to the course, including the history of expansion in South Carolina, how rules are put into place, and the four  areas covered in the course. 

The next section of the course explores jurisdiction on real estate. This section includes current and topical material that will allow you to comprehend and articulate the primary objectives of the state regulatory body, its role in influencing business operations, contracts, and compliance. Students will be able to integrate this into strategies that promote the well-being of real estate ventures in the state. Continuing, we’ll take a deep dive into specific laws, how to differentiate between the Real Estate Commission and voluntary membership of a REALTOR® association. Finally, the section concludes with information on whether a licensee would contact the SCREC or the REALTORS® Association.  

The next section explores Transaction Brokerage, and will take a look at the law as it pertains to a Transaction Brokerage and how to apply the law through case studies. The section discusses the differences between customers and clients and their legal requirements that include customer service mandates, such as honesty and fair dealing, accounting, disclosing facts, and more. Students will be able to understand required language when explaining Transaction Brokerage to a prospective buyer or seller. The section finishes with information reflecting when a compensation agreement is required by law, and the exact moment a licensee may stop treating buyers or sellers as customers and start treating them as clients. 

Section three of the course provides a detailed analysis of funds, compensation, and trust monies. In this area of the course students will study specific terms, including conversion, commingling, responsibility definitions and time frames when dealing with trust money. The section continues with material that determines whether mishandling of funds is commingling, conversion, or both through a case study. The comparison of earnest money to due diligence funds is provided, and students will be able to apply this information to effectively handle funds in accordance with law. The concept of “does compensation create an agency agreement” is discussed, and up next is a discussion of the correlation of services offered through the agency agreement and wire fraud services.  

The last portion of the course examines Investigations in the state. Students will know that South Carolina’s Labor Licensing Regulation (LLR) Office of Investigation and Enforcement (OIE) is responsible for investigating complaints against those individuals or companies that may have a possible violation of professional or occupational practice licensing practice act. How to address complaints, the procedure, and “What can I expect when a complaint is filed against me?”  The process is explained from the outset of the complaint filing through the investigation and the steps that occur throughout the process. The course closes with a review of the material in the course.