September 2025
The 2025 legislative session included the passage of two significant bills relating to real estate occupational licensure in Oregon. House Bill 2373 creates a new timeshare sales agent license category, while House Bill 3137 introduces several new requirements intended to better align statute with modern real estate practices. Both bills were introduced at the request of trade associations and professionals representing their respective industry members.
The Oregon Real Estate Agency is working diligently to ensure everyone has the tools they need to comply with the January 1st, 2026, effective date required in both HB 2373 and HB 3137. To give a clearer understanding of what that process looks like, I am sharing key highlights of our work between now and year-end.
House Bill 2373
Under longstanding current law, individuals intending to sell timeshares are required to first obtain a broker license. However, the industry held – and the legislature concurred – that the requirement did not best align with occupational licensure needs. The pre-licensing coursework and qualifying examination covered very little about the timeshare industry and Oregon’s timeshare related laws found in ORS Chapter 94. The intent of HB 2373 is to offer a pre-licensing course that focuses better on the timeshare industry and removes extraneous coursework.
Effective January 1st, 2026, individuals seeking to sell timeshares may take a 14-hour pre-licensing course and pass an exam administered by PSI, the same vendor used for the broker, principal broker, and property manager examinations.
Note: Existing brokers and principal brokers will not need to take a new exam. Also, all timeshare sales agents and brokers must still be supervised by a principal broker. Under the new law, anyone seeking to sell timeshares may do so under the timeshare sales agent, broker, or principal broker license category.
Under a workgroup led by examination provider PSI, Agency staff are working with subject matter experts (SMEs) from the timeshare industry to create a new licensure course. As this process involves hundreds of hours of combined volunteer time from our SMEs, we are grateful for their willingness to help.
House Bill 3137
HB 3137 introduced a number of changes to real estate practice in Oregon and, when introduced, was characterized as a modernization bill. Provisions of the bill fall into one of several requirements:
- Simply become law January 1st, 2026, with no additional steps required.
- Decision-making and approval permitted by the Real Estate Agency.
- Convening a workgroup of external partners and a public comment period as part of the administrative rulemaking process.
- Subject to Real Estate Board consultation and approval.
The Agency will provide a more comprehensive overview in the December issue of the Oregon Real Estate News-Journal, as rulemaking and our other work are not finalized. Ahead of that, below is a high-level summary to get you familiar with key provisions.
Effective January 1
- House Bill 3137 prohibits real estate teams from using the term “realty” or “real estate” in their team names. They also may not be the same as the registered business name under which their licenses are associated. NOTE: Teams have used “group” or “team” in their advertising for a long time, and that remains unchanged under the new law.
- The longstanding prohibition against commission sharing has been changed. A licensee will be permitted to offer rebates using a portion of their commission, so long as the receiving party is a tax-exempt charitable organization (i.e., a 501(c)(3)).
- The requirements for proper supervision and control are expanded. The new language offers more clarity and direction to managing principal brokers about their obligations to licensees associated with their RBN.
- Succession planning for managing principal brokers will be required. It will need to address what happens in the event the managing principal broker becomes incapacitated or deceased, their license becomes inactive, or they associate with another RBN.
Real estate agency decision-making and approval
- All first-time renewals or reactivations will require passing an assessment of licensee proficiency in a manner approved by the Real Estate Agency. The Agency determined the best place for this proficiency assessment to occur is under the Advanced Practices course already in force, as it too is a first-renewal requirement for licensees which contains a testing component. The Advanced Practices learning objectives will be enhanced in 2026 to better assess proficiency, discussed under the “Rulemaking Underway” section below.
- The Agency must establish a disclosure form to be used by real estate teams to disclose information such as team members and their roles and identify who is responsible for supervision of the team. This form will be completed in time for the January 1, 2026, effective date.
Rulemaking underway — rules to be adopted by January 1st, 2026
- The bill Introduces the term “managing principal broker.” It is not a new licensee type, but rather means it is the individual who is a principal broker who has registered or assumed responsibility for a registered business name (RBN). Oregon Administrative Rules Chapter 863 is being updated to clarify the statutory requirements related to managing principal brokers.
- A new Division will be created in Oregon Administrative Rules Chapter 863, to address the new regulatory requirements related to real estate teams.
- In conjunction with the proficiency assessment component under Advanced Practices for property managers, brokers, and principal brokers, the workgroup made a number of recommendations. They are intended to better assess a licensee’s practical knowledge gained during their initial licensure period. Advanced Practices course providers will need to update their courses and exams with these new requirements beginning July 1st, 2026.
- Records retention rules will be updated and simplified to better align with modern recordkeeping practices.
Rulemaking public comment
- The Agency opened a public comment period for the proposed administrative rules from September 1st to September 21st, including a public hearing held on September 15th. We received significant feedback, and while the feedback centered on statutory language copied from HB 3137, we are still considering the comments to determine what additional steps are viable within the scope of administrative rulemaking.
- You can read more about the rulemaking process and keep up to date here.
Real Estate Board approval required
- The learning objectives for the new two-hour course on state and federal fair housing laws were approved at the August 4th Real Estate Board meeting and have been communicated to Continuing Education Providers.
- As the state and fair housing law course will be separate from the Law and Rule Required Course (LARRC), LARRC will be reduced from three to two hours. The Real Estate Board will continue to approve the LARRC each biennium, with the 2026-2027 to be approved at the October 6th regular board meeting.
You are also encouraged to keep up to date with rulemaking by subscribing to the Agency’s Administrative Rule Update Email Service. Information regarding the Real Estate Board including meeting dates, upcoming agendas, and prior meeting minutes can be found on the Agency's website.
Please be sure to review the December 2025 issue of the Oregon Real Estate News-Journal (OREN-J) for the latest information related to this new legislation and corresponding administrative rules.